Blessed be He who has equipped man with wisdom, who has so refined both our bodies and our Divine souls that they can work together at achieving דבקות ה', a truly close relationship with G–d so that man may live forever. Man was created for this in this world. Unfortunately man has destroyed this ideal state, and his body has become an inferior material. The only way this state of affairs can be remedied is through the death of the body, i.e. the destruction of the vessel, and its eventual resurrection at the time of Mashiach, for then mankind will return to the pristine state of innocence that existed immediately after the creation of Adam, and G–d will rejoice in man's deeds.

We find hints of such a future in the statement of Rabbi Yochanan in Tractate Pesachim 88a: "The day when the exiled will be gathered in is as great as the day on which heaven and earth were created, as described in Hosea 2,2: 'The people of Yehudah and the people of Israel will assemble together and appoint a single head [leader] for themselves; they shall rise from the ground, for marvelous shall be the day of Jezreel.'" It is also written: "It was evening it was morning, one day" (Genesis 1,5) [the day of Jezreel is a reference to the first day in Genesis]. When the true ingathering of the exiles takes place, at the time our righteous Messiah appears, Creation itself will renew itself; a new "light" will emerge. At that time body and soul will be able to fuse. Also the earth itself, though purely matter, will be full of knowledge; thus together with the perfection existing "down here," the full extent of G–d's blessings from "above" will be experienced, so that body and soul may live forever. At the time of creation man was described as אדם ביקר בל ילין, "unable to last the night despite his precious qualities." (Psalms 49,13). Man had corrupted his potential so that mortality was decreed upon him. G–d however, has given us the Torah by means of which we can acquire the merit we need to assure us of an everlasting future. He has given us commandments which teach us that this is indeed the case, for they provide the clue to the eventual immortality of the body, in addition to that of the soul. At the present time, the "eternity" of man's body is restricted to man as a species. דור הול ודור בא, "one generation goes and another comes in its place" (Kohelet 1,4). Man's soul, however, enjoys eternal life even in these times, for every individual soul survives the death of its body. Whereas nowadays the body's "life" is considered as incidental, its death is permanent; the soul's life is however, eternal, its "death" being merely incidental [apparent, seeing it can no longer function within the body. Ed.].

The Talmud Berachot 31a relates that when Rabbi Hamenuna the Younger was asked to sing for the assembled guests at a wedding party of the son of Ravina, he said to them: "woe to us that we have to die, woe to us that we have to die!" They responded by asking what kind of a refrain they were supposed to sing to that. He answered: "there are Torah and the commandments which protect us." The Rabbi meant that the whole justification for lightheartedness at a wedding is to inspire fulfillment of the commandment to be fruitful and to multiply. Were it not for this, the fact that we are headed for death does not really encourage any merriness at all. This statement in the Talmud is followed by Rabbi Yochanan's comment that one must not fill one's mouth with laughter in this world. This indicates that we have correctly understood Rabbi Hamenunah's meaning. Whereas Rabbi Hamenunah justified merriment by the fact that man, at least as a species, is eternal, his colleagues added that seeing that each individual soul lives on by the merit of having performed the Torah's commandments, there is additional justification for such merriment. The true "wedding" of body and soul will take place in the future, as we say daily when putting on our phylacteries: וארשתיך לי לעולם, "I shall espouse you forever" (Hoseah 2,21). The prophet continues that this will be a faithful union, "באמונה." At that time, body and soul will have achieved a partnership of infinite duration. The Torah next legislates the procedures for inheritance, something described as משפט, social legislation. It tells us that, notwithstanding the original sin of man induced by the serpent, which brought mortality into the world, the property which mortal man leaves behind on this earth is transferred to his nearest surviving relative. Death notwithstanding, the bonds of blood relationship are not severed by a person's death. This proves that there is a "relationship" between the נפש of the deceased and the נפשות of his survivors. The various souls involved may be viewed as branches of the same tree. The closer the branch is to the root the more nourishing sap it receives from it. The Torah introduces the laws of inheritance with the words: "When a man dies and does not leave behind a son" (27,8), to teach us the order of priorities in which other surviving family members are viewed relative to the soul of the deceased. Since the rules mentioned apply to instances where there is no surviving issue of the deceased they are described by the Torah as חוקת משפט, legislation that contains elements that are not arrived at through logic.

Following these laws the Torah commands the details of the daily communal offerings known as תמידים. These offerings correspond to the close attachment of the soul to its Maker. The expression עולת תמיד for this sacrifice indicates that it symbolizes the soul that always "ascends" (עולה) to the Celestial Regions. The "address" of this sacrifice is the attribute of G–d represented by the Ineffable four-lettered Name. When the sacrifice "rises," it unites the soul of those who have offered it with G–d Himself. This idea is first mentioned when the Torah says in Leviticus 1,3: "When an Adam, (the Torah's word for the most superior type of human being) wishes to achieve closeness with the four-lettered attribute of G–d (through presentation of a sacrifice)" [Editor's translation]. In our portion the word אשי in the verse “את קרבני לחמי לאשי,” hints that the Torah speaks of these select people, viz, אנשי (28,2). The Torah describes certain people as achieving this closeness, קרבות through the daily תמידים. All this is part of the mystical dimension of גלגול, the soul's travels during its incarnations within different bodies. The offering of these sacrifices helps these incarnations achieve their purpose. They are refined and cleansed through these קרבנות.

The present-day wording of our עמידה prayer in which we ask: "and restore the sacrificial service to the Devir of Your House as well as the Ishey Yisrael," is justified by the Midrash which says that even nowadays when we have no Temple to offer sacrifices in, the archangel Michael offers the souls of the righteous as sacrifices on the Celestial Altar (compare Tur Orach Chayim Siman 120).

These "souls" are the ones who have become elevated through the sacrifices offered in our world, (at the time the Temple stood) as students of the Kabbalah will be quick to appreciate. These Kabbalists are aware that the spiritual part of man, commonly known as "soul," exists on five different levels. These levels known in ascending order as נפש, רוח, נשמה, חיה and יחידה. The נפש level we experience on ראש חודש and חול המועד, the רוח level on festivals; the נשמה level on the Day of Atonement, the level חיה every Sabbath. The highest level, that of יחידה we will only experience in the World to Come. The additional sacrifices, called מוספים, which are offered on all the days we have just mentioned, represent the completion of judgment, whereas the daily קרבן תמיד represents the commencement of the judgment process. The קרבן מוסף on שבת consists of two sheep because there are two aspects to the Sabbath the negative as well as the positive commandments. Our sages have called this זכור ושמור בדבור אחד, i.e. that the legislation of the Sabbath in its dual form was expressed in the same words at the time the Ten Commandments were given to the Jewish people. We may also view this phenomenon of the dual nature of the Sabbath as referring respectively to the Sabbath in our world and the Sabbath in the World to Come. In this latter "world" the Sabbath is ever-present, or “שכולו שבת,” in the words of our sages. The Torah next discusses the commandment of blowing the Shofar on New Year's Day, something which is designed to confuse Satan, our accuser. At the appropriate time in the future G–d will slaughter Satan, the Angel of Death. The prophet Isaiah (27,13) describes that time as: "On that day a great ram's horn shall be sounded."

Every addition of holiness to our status has a mystical connection with the Additional Sacrifices and furthermore contains allusions to a future time. The Torah says in connection with ראש חודש: "This month shall be to you the first (head) of the months" (Exodus 12,2). It means that the Jewish people's calendar is patterned after the lunar cycle. Shemot Rabbah 15,26, comments on this that the great achievements of the Jewish people from the time of Abraham to that of King Solomon spanned 15 generations during which they rose to ever greater stature. At that point, when the light of the moon is at its most potent, "Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord" (Chronicles 1,29,23). Just as the light of the moon diminishes progressively from the fifteenth of the month onwards until it is totally extinct at the end of the month, so the generations of the Jewish people after Solomon progressively declined in greatness until, after another fifteen generations, the last Jewish King, Zedekiah was totally blinded, as stated in Kings II 25,7: "He blinded the eyes of Zedekiah." In the future, however, a new light will shine upon Zion, "and the brightness of the moon will match the brightness of the sun" (Isaiah 30, 26). The "light of the sun" referred to in that verse is the mystical dimension added by the offering of the מוסף-sacrifices on the days we celebrate the appearance of the New Moon. The mystical dimension provided by the Sabbath is the concept of a world which is constantly wrapped in the holiness represented by the concept of the Sabbath. The mystical dimension provided by the Passover sacrifice is that it is the anniversary of our original redemption from the bondage in Egypt, which is also the date of the month on which the redemption of the future will occur. (Rosh Hashanah 11) The scriptural source for this opinion is found in Michah 7,15: "I will show miracles as in the days when you departed from the land of Egypt." Israel will then become endowed with an additional level of רוח הקודש, Holy Spirit, and the earth will be filled with the knowledge of G–d. The festival of Tabernacles, devoted to our reposing in "shade" i.e. the shade offered by the covering of the huts being the spiritual equivalent of sitting under G–d's direct protection- will provide an even greater amount of the Holy Spirit. New Year's Day, of which it says in our מוסף prayer: "This day is the day that recalls the beginning of Your handiwork, a reminder of the first day of Creation," will become the date on which the work of Creation will be renewed once it will resume the direction envisioned by G–d originally. At that time G–d will truly enjoy His works (Psalms 104,31). יום כפור, of course, represents the day in the future when all sins will have been atoned for, and the time of which the prophet Jeremiah 50,20, says: "The sins of Israel shall be sought and there shall be none; the sins of Yehudah, and none shall be found; for I shall forgive those I allow to survive." In the future then these are "My holidays." As long as Israel was steeped in sin, however, we are told in Isaiah 1,16: "Your new moons and holidays fill Me with loathing; they have become a burden to Me." In contrast with this, they will be called: "Holy Convocations," proclaimed by a holy congregation, at a time when we shall have merited eternal life. At that time body and soul will have achieved the mystical union hinted at by the words אך אשר יאכל לכל נפש, in Exodus 12,16. "Eating" is a dimension of the body's needs. The word נפש in that verse describes a dimension of the soul. The "food" (nourishment) of that element of man then is "knowledge of the Lord," as we know from Isaiah 11,9. The verse in Exodus hints at a time when even the body, i.e. "secular" matter, will be filled with such knowledge of the Lord. At that time we will experience fulfilment of the promise or commandment "שאו את ראש," in Numbers 26,2, which is a moral imperative to the Jewish people to elevate themselves to the highest moral/ ethical level they are capable of. The people who were counted at that time were rightly described by our sages as דור דעה, a generation which possessed knowledge (of G–d). This count took place "after the plague," after all those involved in the sin of בעל פעור had died. The term "אחר המגפה" can be understood more broadly as also referring to that time in the future of which it is said in Isaiah 25,8: "He will destroy death forever." During the first count of the people in the desert, the attribute of Justice predominated over the Jewish people, seeing they were all going to die during their trek through the desert, and would not be found worthy to enter the Holy Land. [That count had taken place after the episode of the golden calf, Ed.] Of this latter count, however, it states: "To these (the people to be counted now) the land will be distributed as an inheritance" (26,53). The prophet Isaiah (60,21), has already said of this future ועמך כולם צדיקים, לעולם יירשו ארץ "And your people, all of them righteous, shall possess the land for all time." The story of Pinchas is an allusion to this point in the future.

This is what our sages had in mind when they said: "Pinchas is none other than the prophet Elijah" (Baba Metzia 114), for G–d has said: "Lo, I will send Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome fearful day of the Lord" (Malachi 3,23). Targum Yonathan renders Exodus 4,13, where Moses declines the mission of leading the Jewish people with the words שלח נא ביד אשר תשלח, "Please make someone else Your agent," as: "Send Pinchas to be that leader," (seeing that he is ready and willing to accept this mission of the future, being identical with Elijah). We need to understand what prompted Yonathan ben Uzziel to derive this conclusion based on the verse in Exodus quoted.

I believe that he found such an allusion in the word נא used by Moses when he declined to accept the mission himself. That word seems superfluous at first glance. The Zohar alludes to it in his commentary on our portion when he quotes Job 4,7: זכר נא מי הוא נקי אבד ואיפה ישרים נכחדות, "Consider, what innocent man ever perished? Where have the upright been destroyed?" The following is the text of that commentary: "When Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai studied this portion of the Torah, his son came to him and asked: 'What would have happened with the reincarnation of the souls of Nadav and Avihu if there had been a Pinchas in the world at the time they died (they were two sons of Aaron who died prematurely)? Had Pinchas been born after these sons of Aaron died, their souls could have been re-incarnated in Pinchas's body. Pinchas then could have rehabilitated these sons for whatever shortcomings they had displayed during their first life on earth. Assuming however, as we must, that Pinchas had been born prior to the death of Nadav and Avihu, and that he therefore already had been equipped with a soul, how could the souls of Nadav and Avihu have been re-incarnated within Pinchas?'" Rabbi Shimon answered his son that we are dealing here with a supremely guarded secret of the way G–d works, and that the truth is that at the time the two sons of Aaron died, their souls did not enjoy the protection of the "Holy Rock," i.e. the emanation called מלכות (lowest of the 10 emanations). We know this because the Torah makes a point of mentioning that they had no children at the time they died (Numbers 3,4). They had diminished G–d's image by not having married and sired children as was incumbent upon them. As a result, they were unfit to serve as High Priests. At the time, Pinchas proved his jealous concern for G–d's honor to the myriads of the Jewish people when he displayed the bodies of the adulterers he had speared with his lance, his soul fled from him when he saw the tribe of Shimon approach him in a threatening posture vowing to take revenge for their prince Zimri whom Pinchas had slain. The two unattached souls of Nadav and Avihu, which had not yet found a resting place, entered Pinchas and restored him to life. This enabled Pinchas's own soul to unite with the souls of Nadav and Avihu. In this way Nadav and Avihu attained the position of High Priest which they had been intended for if their lifestyle had justified it. Pinchas, as it were, benefitted from the souls of Nadav and Avihu, and this helped him become High Priest (after the death of his father Eleazar). This is what is alluded to in Job 4,7. "The innocent (Pinchas) had not perished, nor had the upright (Nadav and Avihu been destroyed)." This is also why the Torah in Numbers 25,11 and on some other occasions describes Pinchas as both the son of Eleazar (his father) and as the son of Aaron, i.e. the father of Nadav and Avihu.

Pinchas was innocent (of murder), his soul did not perish. He was restored to physical life through the transfer of the souls of Nadav and Avihu. The word נא alludes to this since it is made up of the first letters in the name נדב and אביהו respectively. This stratagem of G–d is what is referrred to in Job when both the "innocent," נקי, and "the upright," ישרים are described as surviving. This is also why Pinchas is usually described in the Torah and the Book of Joshua as not only the son of Elazar, but as בן אהרון, to indicate that his soul was connected to the soul of the High Priest whose priesthood was confirmed by שמן המשחה, "the holy oil of anointing" (Exodus 29,7). The Torah also mentions Nadav and Avihu as having been the sons of Aaron on repeated occasions (Numbers 3,4; 26,61) after they had been reported as having died. Mentioning their names does not seem to contribute anything in the context of what the Torah then discusses. The reason must be that their souls were absorbed by Pinchas, that their deaths were not absolute. At first glance these comments of the Zohar appear contradictory to the commonly held opinion that the priesthood was conferred on Pinchas (25,13) only as a reward for his fearless loyalty to G–d in risking his life by executing Zimri the prince of the tribe of Shimon. Actually, Pinchas's elevation to the priesthood was not merely a reward for his conduct, but by his absorbing the souls of Nadav and Avihu whose priesthood had been something conferred upon them by the holy oil of anointing, Pinchas became a priest בעצם, i.e. in essence. The priesthood was not just an attribute of his, such as when it is conferred upon a person through heredity. In order to convey this to us the Torah, when describing Pinchas's elevation to the priesthood, says: "והיתה לו," not as we would have expected: "ותהי לו." The meaning of the former is: "he remained," whereas the meaning of the latter is: "he became."

Now we also understand the word "לאמר" in 25,10. At first glance that word seems totally superfluous, since the Torah goes on to say in verse 12: "לכן אמר." I believe that the first time the Torah writes "לאמר," it is the instruction to inform Israel that Pinchas was of noble descent for he was the son of Eleazar who in turn was the son of Aaron. The second time was to tell Moses to inform the Jewish people that Pinchas was a priest of the Lord.

Since I am already on the subject of explaining the need for the word "לאמר," I might as well include a comment about another time that the word "לאמר" appears superfluous. We read in 27,15 in our portion: "וידבר משה אל ה' לאמר, יפקד ה' אלוקי הרוחות לכל בשר, איש על העדה." "Moses said to G–d to say: "May the Lord, the G–d of the spirit of all flesh, appoint a man over the community." The word "לאמר" seems inappropriate, since it is not clear to whom G–d should convey Moses' request. Although Rashi addresses this problem and concludes that Moses wanted to know if G–d Himself would make the announcement of who would become Moses' successor, I feel I would like to show that both times the words "לאמר" I have mentioned can be explained in a parallel manner.

The following Midrash will illustrate what I have in mind: "Moses said to G–d that the man who would be appointed his successor should "possess" the mind of all six hundred thousand Jews, since each one of them must be ready to accept him as his personal leader, seeing that no two Jews are of the same mind. G–d said to Moses: "Since you have spoken thus, I will show you all the future leaders of the Jewish people, all the Judges and Prophets I shall appoint for them from this time until the time of the Resurrection. Rabbi Simon said that this is the meaning of Deut.34,1: ויראהו ה' את כל הארץ, "G–d showed him the whole earth." He showed him Joshua who stood beneath him, Othniel who took over leadership of the Jewish people from Joshua, etc. G–d told Moses that all those people were of one mind and one spirit. Concerning what Moses had demanded at the very beginning however, namely, a man whose mind would evoke a 100% positive response from every Jew, such a man would not arise until the arrival of the Messiah of whom Isaiah (11,1) has written: "But a shoot shall grow out of Yishai, a twig shall sprout from his stock. The spirit of the Lord shall alight upon him, a spirit of wisdom and insight." This is also what is referred to in Job 28,25: לעשות לרוח משקל, "who can determine the weight of the spirit" (evaluate correctly the mind of every person). The Midrash describes Moses as saying to G–d that only He knows the minds of all His creatures. Since G–d is aware that each Jew has a mind of his own, seeing that he, Moses, is about to depart from the scene, he asks G–d to appoint someone who is able to put up with all these opinions represented by the Jewish nation. It is puzzling why such a well-meant request should be answered by G–d in the manner described by the Midrash. Why did G–d post-pone fulfilling Moses' request until the coming of the Messiah?

Our sages in Baba Batra 75a comment on Numbers 27,20: ונתתה מהודך עליו, "you will invest him with some of your glory" (when Moses is told to appoint Joshua), that Moses was to invest Joshua only with part of his glory, not all of it. The elders of that generation are reported there as having compared Moses' face to that of the sun, whereas they compared Joshua's face to that of the moon. The change in the quality of leadership of the Jewish people was felt by these elders to be a shame and an affront. Why did G–d withhold some of His goodness from the people at that time? In the Midrash Shocher Tov 21, the author elaborates on the verse in Numbers 27,20 that Joshua experienced that part of Moses' glory granted to him on the occasion of the miraculous crossing of the river Jordan. We read in Joshua 4,14: "On that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all of Israel, so that they revered him all his days as they had revered Moses." The Midrash continues that the glory of the Messiah will equal that of teacher and disciple (Moses and Joshua), since it is said of him in Psalms 21,6: הוד והדר תשוה עליו, You have endowed him with splendor and glory." This statement obviously needs clarification. Besides, since "one hundred" is part of "two hundred," how does the addition of Joshua's glory increase the glory of the Messiah?

We need to understand why G–d troubled Himself to show Moses all the Jewish leaders of the future and why this was of benefit to him. After all, did not all the generations experience a continual spiritual decline so that Moses became a witness to the decline of his nation, something that would have caused him pain rather than satisfaction?! We can answer this by saying that this is no more than a natural development, seeing that the further one is removed from the source of one's inspiration, the less the influence of that source which one experiences. Eventually that source might cease to have any influence altogether, G–d forbid. G–d demonstrated to Moses that all these future leaders acknowledged him as the source of their inspiration; Moses was thereby bound to be reassured. G–d showing him all those leaders in action set Moses' mind at rest. It showed him that all the branches continued to be firmly attached to the source, i.e. the trunk.

The two words "לאמר" that we mentioned earlier as apparently superfluous, have something in common. The repeated "דבור" suggests that there was an exoteric (נגלה) as well as an esoteric (נסתר) element in what the Torah tells us here. In 25,10 the exoteric meaning is to inform the people of the noble lineage Pinchas was descended from, whereas in 25,12 they are to be informed of an additional dimension of Pinchas' greatness, i.e. that he is equated with the prophet Elijah. This is alluded to in the words "because he displayed jealous fervor on behalf of his G–d" (25,13). The letters in the expression “לאל-היו,” are identical with the word “לאליהו,” “to Elijah.” The latter also excelled by displaying jealousy on behalf of G–d, something that he himself is quoted as saying to G–d in Kings I 19,10. He referred to his having slain four hundred Jewish priests who had forsaken the Torah to serve the idol Baal instead. Elijah's performance on Mount Carmel was similar to that of Pinchas at Shittim. The name אליהו (which in the Bible is frequently spelled without the letter Vav at the end) contains two names of G–d, i.e. El and Ya-h. In his encounter with Zimri Pinchas restored the honor of the name El, since the Israelites at the time had been guilty of insulting that name of G–d by serving the El of the Moabites and Midianites, "וישתחוו לאלהיהן" (Numbers 24,2). The second of the Ten Commandments specifically prohibits a Jew prostrating himself before an alien deity (Exodus 20,4). Pinchas' deed restored the relations between G–d and Israel which the people's behaviour had upset. His deed, when analysed, consisted of discrediting a man and a woman who respectively were leaders of their tribes, or, in the case of Cozbi, whose father was an ancestral tribal head. The Torah emphasizes the word איש and אשה, when referring to these two both in 25,8, and in 26,14-15, although there is no need for this. We have mentioned repeatedly that the letters "י and ה" in the Hebrew for "man" and "woman" teach us that only when they remain aware of G–d's Presence in this world are they safe from burning up in the passion of their sexuality, seeing that without those letters of G–d's name their names would signal merely masculine and feminine "fire" respectively. The name of G–d contained in those two people whom Pinchas slew was Ya-h. These two had disgraced the name of G–d by their conduct. The Torah in order to draw our attention to all this repeats: …. ושם … איש … ושם האשה, (26,14, 26,15). Rashi already explained that at the count of the people after this episode the peculiarly worded names of the tribes i.e. ה-ראובנ-י, and not simply ראובן demonstrated that the name of each tribe contained the name of G–d. G–d thus personally testified-that the members of all these tribes were conceived while their respective parents maintained absolute chastity. This too is the meaning of Psalms 122,4: שבטי י-ה עדות לישראל, "Israel are G–d's tribes, as per G–d's personal testimony." The letter ו in the word שלום, is "amputated" in 25,12. Baal Haturim points out that the numerical value of that word equals זהו משיח, "this is the Messiah." By diminishing the size of that letter, it is as if one had not thought about the last letter in the name of אליהו. Elijah is the prophet who announces the imminent arrival of the Messiah and prepares people for that. Removing part of the letter ו is meant to convey to us that Elijah (as alluded to by the absence of the last letter in his name), will materialise when one least thinks of him.. The letters added to the names of the tribes during this count therefore can be viewed as making up the second name of G–d contained in the name אליה, the name Ya-h. The Torah informs us in Exodus 6,25 that Pinchas' father had married one of the daughters of Putiel, who according to Midrash Hagadol fattened (play on word Putiel) all the idols in the world and the other tribes despised him on account of his ancestry. Since the name פוטיאל concludes with the letters of the name of G–d, however, the Torah alerts us to the fact that he converted to monotheism, i.e. El Ya-h. The whole verse is an allusion to Joseph who controlled his desire in his involvement with the wife of his master Potiphar, whose similarly sounding name reminds us of what took place then. Just as Joseph preserved the holy covenant with G–d at that time, so Pinchas, his descendant maternally, restored the holy covenant with G–d by taking G–d's revenge on Zimri. As a result, G–d granted him "My covenant Peace." Targum Yonathan on that verse says that Pinchas was made into an angel who would live until he could announce the final redemption. It is further written (of Pinchas) that G–d's covenant of life and well-being was with him (Malachi 2,5), that "the true Torah was in his mouth. He walked with Me in peace and equity, nothing perverse was on his lips. He served Me with complete loyalty; he held many back from committing iniquity, for the lips of a priest guard knowledge and people seek Torah from his mouth, seeing that he is an angel of the Lord G–d of Hosts" (Ibid 6). This verse clearly alludes to Pinchas, since Pinchas became an angel, as our sages comment on Joshua 2,4, (Tanchuma quoted by Rashi). Since Pinchas held back many from sinning, he is described by the prophet as having the true Torah issuing forth from his mouth. "Truth" is an element that reinforces and strengthens religious belief and practice. It is not something merely personal, but is something that must be demonstrated to the community in order to be capable of convincing such a community to do penitence. Such a result is called אמת, truth. Truth is something of an everlasting nature.

Concerning such truth, the prophet Jeremiah (5,1) proclaims in the name of the Lord: "Roam the streets of Jerusalem, search its squares; look about and take note; you will not find a man. There is none who acts justly, who seeks integrity, that I should pardon her." This is surely a very remarkable statement. How could the existence of even a single such “איש” be questioned, when at that time there lived in Israel numerous prophets and pious men in Israel! Does not the same prophet in chapter 24,1 describe that G–d showed him a vision of the חרש והמסגר, two Torah scholars of renown, (Sanhedrin 38) who were exiled together with king Yechonyah (Kings II 24,16-17)? The answer is simply that these Torah scholars had failed to act publicly to call upon the masses to mend their ways, and return to the ways of the Torah. Jeremiah laments that there is not a single person in the courtyards of Jerusalem who has the moral courage to proclaim his convictions publicly! Rabbi Amram in Sanhedrin 119 states explicitly that Jersusalem was destroyed because the Torah scholars ignored the commandment to admonish their fellow Jews. (Leviticus 19,17) He derives this from the verse in Lamentations 1,6: היו שריה כאילים, לא מצאו מרעה. "Her leaders were like stags that found no pasture." The prophet there drew a parallel between the spiritual leaders of Israel and the stag whose head is usually down on the ground near its tail. The leaders of the Jewish people, similarly, buried their heads in the sand in order "to see no evil, hear no evil-etc." When contrasted with this kind of behaviour, Pinchas stood out as a man of truth in whom the jealousy for his G–d was paramount. This explains why he was rewarded with everlasting life, i.e. this is why the prophet Elijah did not experience death on this earth.

Pinchas saw the letters of the word מת in his mind's eye, and this inspired him to be a barrier to "death." How did he do so? When commenting on the lance, רמח which Pinchas used to slay Zimri, the Zohar describes Pinchas as "garbing" himself with this lance in order to mete out justice here on earth so that mercy could be invoked in the parallel regions of Heaven. He saw his own name (numerical value 208) rise heavenwards, realising that his name had the same numerical value as that of "יצחק" the patriarch who personified the attribute of Justice on earth. He also saw the letter מ fly in the air. This letter is an allusion to death, מות. This allusion has already been commented on in Genesis 3,6: ותרא האשה כי טוב וגו' … ותקח מפריו ותאכל ותתן. "The woman saw that it was good,…she took from its fruit, ate, and gave" (to her husband). We find here four words commencing with the letter ות, and in the middle of these words a word commencing with the letter מ. When you join this letter מ to the four words which commence with the letters ות, you obtain the word מות, "death" each time. In other words "death" is present in all four compass directions. This is what the sages had in mind when they referred to Pinchas' mind's eye as seeing the letter מ "flying" in the air.

The letter ת possesses another peculiarity, namely that it signifies death, written in blood, as we know from the statement of Rabbi Acha bar Chanina in Shabbat 55a. He tells us that G–d had never issued a favorable decree and reversed Himself except in a single instance, viz. the situation referred to in Ezekiel 9,4 when G–d told the angel Gabriel: "Pass in the midst of the city, in the midst of Jerusalem, and mark a sign on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan for all the abominations that are done within it." G–d had instructed Gabriel to place on the foreheads of the righteous the letter ת in ink so that the Divinely appointed forces of destruction should not touch those people. The foreheads of the wicked people, however, were to be marked with the same letter written in blood, so that they would fall victim to the forces of destruction. The ministering angels challenged G–d on this decision, wanting to know in what way the former were better than the latter, seeing that they had failed to perform the commandment of admonishing their fellow-Jews. G–d answered these angels that He was well aware that even if the righteous people had admonished their compatriots it would have been to no avail. To this the angels replied that the fact that G–d was aware that such admonitions would have proved futile did not absolve the righteous from at least having tried, seeing that they had no way of knowing whether their attempts to admonish the people would prove successful. As a result of this, we read in verse 5 of the same chapter: "Then He said to these in my hearing (the prophet's) 'Follow him through the city and strike. Let your eyes neither spare nor show mercy. Old man, young man and maiden, children and women, massacre to utter destruction. But any man on whom is the sign do not approach. And begin from My Sanctuary' i.e, Mikdashay so they began with the old men who were in front of the House." Rabbi Yosef reads the word Mikdashay as Me-kudashay, i.e. "My holy ones," the people who observed all the commandments of the Torah from the letter Aleph, to the letter Tav. So far the quotation from the Talmud in Shabbat 55. A few lines further on the Talmud questions why the sign chosen for these markings had been the letter ת, and answers that this letter is the first letter of the word Tichyeh, i.e. "you will live," as well as the first letter of the word Tamut, i.e. "you will die." Shmuel said that the reason is that at that point the merit of the patriarchs had been exhausted and it no longer could be called upon to protect their descendants from G–ds anger. Rabbi Yochanan, however, feels that the letter ת symbolised that these people could be granted grace only through the merit of the patriarchs. Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish, also on that folio, says that that letter is the final letter in G–d's "seal," seeing that Rabbi Chanina taught that the "seal" of G–d is אמת, "Truth." At any rate, we know that the combination of the letters מ-ת spelled death, since there was a מגפה, a deadly plague, which killed twenty-four thousand Israelites at that time. The letter ת discussed in the Talmud is also known to have been written in blood on the foreheads of the wicked.

Remember that the creation of the universe proceeded under the parole of "truth," since the final letters in the words בראשית ברא אלוקים combine to make the word אמת. At the end of G–d's creative activities we again find this symbol for "truth" when we look at Genesis 1,31: “וירא אלוקים את וגו'.” The universe was created for the sake of man, i.e. אדם, who represents the Maaser, tithe of אמת. (The letter מ =40, being 10% of ת=400 and the letter ד in אדם being one tenth of the letter מ in the word אמת. The letter א in אמת, is of course, irreducible). The serpent was the first to introduce the lie into the universe by claiming that G–d had eaten from the tree of knowledge before being able to create the universe. Proverbs 16,28 describes the serpent when saying: "a quarrelsome one alienates his friend." By removing the first letter of the word אמת, all that you are left with is מת, "dead." When you remove the first letter from the word אדם, on the other hand, you are left with the word דם, blood. Anyone who is able to protest wrongdoing with a chance of success and fails to do so has blood inscribed on his head. Those were the people who, though they are described as observing the commandments of the Torah from א-ת, were not pious in the true sense of the word since they failed to admonish the other members of their society. Under such circumstances the letter מ which ought to symbolise a letter from the word for truth, i.e. אמת, symbolizes the word מות, death, instead. When the Talmud describes their piety in this manner, i.e. א-ת, it merely wants to draw our attention to the missing letter מ in those people's piety. Hence the Angel of Death had unrestricted control even over such Torah- observing people..

This brings us to the meaning of: השיב את חמתי, "he turned away My wrath" (25,11). When Pinchas saw the letter מ flying in the air, he took the lance, רמח, to publicly display his jealousy on behalf of G–d and succeeded in transforming חמתי G–d's wrath, i.e. the letters מת in that word into the other two letters in that word, i.e. into חי. This is why Pinchas became Elijah, an angel who goes on living forever.

There is another aspect to equating Pinchas with Elijah the prophet. I have explained this when discussing the meaning of our saying the line: אמן יהא שמיה רבא מבורך, “Amen, may His great name be blessed,” a formula we use daily when reciting the Kaddish prayer. This can be applied to the name אליה"ו הנבי"א by spelling the name אליהו with the letter ו, and writing each letter as a word in either of the four possible versions called מילואים. These are the methods of writing the Ineffable Name of G–d practiced by Kabbalists. I have explained this on several occasions, notably in my commentary on Parshat Bamidbar, when I discussed the symbolism of the measurements of the tablets on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed. The result of such spelling is that the Ineffable Name amounts to 72, 63, 45 or 52 respectively, depending on whether the letters י, ה or א are used to write these letters as words. The name אליהו הנביא, spelled by using primarily the letter ה in order to convert letters into words, results in 52, (one of the ways of spelling the normally four-lettered Ineffable Name of G–d). By manipulating other letters in the combination, the other numerical values we know for the Ineffable Name can be obtained. Having combined the letters I have highlighted, the remaining letters of the word הנביא, i.e. נביא, equal 63, or another one of the numerical values of the Ineffable Name. The first two letters of the word אליהו, [the ones in front of what I have highlighted Ed.] are אל, and allude to the full-worded spelling of the Ineffable Name of 63, since that spelling contains 3 times the letter י, and one א, making a total of 31. The Ineffable Name spelled so that its numerical value totals 45 contains three times the letter א, plus once the letter י, equaling 13, or the numerical value of אחד. Put differently, we have here an allusion to El Echad, G–d is One. This is a veiled reference to Zachariah 14,9: "On that day, G–d will be One and His Name will be One. The prophet means that the Ineffable Name at that time will be complete in all its possible spellings, מילואיו. It follows that anyone who pronounces the line of אמן יהא שמיה רבא awakens in G–d an awareness of His people's exile, and of the need for their Redemption. Such a person will be assured of a share in the World to Come. Evil decrees pending over him may be cancelled; he also causes G–d to shake His head and say: “Hail to the One whose subjects praise Him in such a fashion” (Berachot 3, Shabbat 119, Berachot 57). When you combine the remaining totals of the other two מילואים of the Ineffable Name, namely 45 and 72, and add the numerical value of אמן, i.e. 91, you will get 208, i.e. the numerical value of the name פינחס.

The following paragraph, dealing with the laws of inheritance, also contains allusions to the Ineffable Name of G–d. The Kabbalistic commentator Rekanati expresses it thus: "The verse commencing with: ואל בני ישראל תדבר לאמור, איש כי ימות ובן אין לו “Say to the children of Israel ‘if a man dies and he does not leave behind a son, etc.” (27,8), tells us that even laws covering such mundane matters as the inheritance laws and other laws concerning interpersonal relationships, depend on the מרכבה עליונה Divine entourage in the Celestial Regions. Their evolution and emanation are rooted in those regions. תפארת ישראל and שכינת עזו respectively, are called בן ובת, who inherit חכמה and בינה known as אב ואם. These four concepts are mystically part of the Ineffable four-lettered Name of G–d. Keeping this in mind you can understand why the בן, son, takes precedence over the daughter when inheriting the property of their father or mother, and why the son is obligated to provide for the daughter (his sister). Our sages called this system “the sons inherit, whereas the daughters are provided for” (Baba Batra 122b).

Let us now return to the repeated use of the word לאמור or אמור in 25,10 and 25,12 respectively. We have already mentioned that the first such expression concerns the exoteric aspect of Pinchas' exploits, whereas the second concerns the esoteric aspect of his deed, namely that he became Elijah.

When Moses asks G–d to appoint a leader for the Jewish people (27,15) that would take his place seeing his death was imminent (27,13), he also asks for the appointment of someone visible now, i.e. יפקד איש. In verse 17, Moses repeats himself asking that this leader should perform two functions which sound alike, i.e. אשר יצא לפניהם ואשר יבא לפניהם, as well as ואשר יוציאם ואשר יביאם. What is the difference between these two requests? Do they not both mean "who will lead them in battle and bring them safely back home?" Actually, the first function of the leader Moses requests is one to be fulfilled immediately אשר יצא לפניהם. The second function referred to, ואשר יוציאם, refers to the ultimate redemption. G–d answered both of Moses' requests by telling him that the leader for the immediate future would be Joshua (27,18). At the same time, G–d showed Moses all the ensuing generations and their respective leaders until the arrival of the Messiah, as we have quoted earlier from the Midrash. He showed Moses how the generations would suffer a continual spiritual decline until the arrival of the Messiah who would be equipped with all the possible intellectual and spiritual attributes. As a demonstration that the decline would set in immediately, G–d told Moses that Joshua would receive only part of his glory, i.e. מהודך, "part of your glory, but not all your glory." The very decline in the quality of successive generations and their leaders leads to the increase in spiritual rejuvenation at the time of the Redemption. An excess of light over darkness will remain until messianic times. This means that the light of the future, the אור חדש, will exceed in intensity the light that had existed at the time of creation, before the original sin, the light which had remained hidden ever since (Bereshit Rabbah 3,6). This subject-matter requires a detailed explanation; it has been touched upon in our commentary on Parshat Balak when we discussed the verse מה טובו אוהליך יעקב (24,5), and demonstrated how the very destruction of the Holy Temple is the cause of the eventual building of an even holier enduring Temple. Due to the increasing diffusion of the pollution introduced into the world by the serpent there was a need for the exile of the Jewish people and the spiritual light in the world kept decreasing. Once wickedness will cease completely, a great light will shine, as we have explained at length in Parshat Balak. This will be further dealt with in the two portions Mattot and Massay. I have devoted a great deal of space there to demonstrate the spiritual value of exile for the Jewish people. The exile experience leads to purification of the Jewish nation, so that the future will bring with it not only a purification of the spirit but also of the physical, i.e. of matter itself. The whole world will become filled with knowledge of [G–d]; everything will be אור, light. I believe that the same approach is correct when we evaluate the gradual spiritual decline of successive generations which is all due to the pollutant the serpent has introduced into the world which infests more and more of our universe. This decline will be reversed in the future and the halachic rule: אין מיעוט אחר מיעוט אלא לרבות, "when we find successive restrictions in the language of the Torah, the purpose is to teach us something of an expansionary nature instead," will apply. Applying this rule to the messianic age when it arrives, this means that the amount of light in the world will exceed even that which existed at the time it began to fade. It is this light which Isaiah (60,1) refers to when he says: קומי אורי כי בא אורך, "Arise, shine forth, for your light has dawned!" It is just because the darkness was so dense that there will be a compensating excess of light.

This is what G–d showed Moses before he died, since Moses could be considered the ראש העולם "the head of the world, and the opening word of the Torah is בראשית, meaning בשביל משה רבנו שנקרא ראשית, "the world was created on account of Moses who is called ראשית." G–d commenced the creative process with the directive "let there be light," a reference to the light emitted by the forehead of Moses (Exodus 34,29). This kind of light was hidden (after Moses died). Moses is also considered the סוף העולם, the "end" of the world, i.e. when the world will finally renew itself it will draw on the qualities possessed by Moses. Such a world will be more perfect than the original world. The Zohar on Deut. 3,24: אתה החילות comments that Moses represents the beginning of this process, i.e. the first perfect human being, and the Messiah will represent its conclusion. The generations between these two find themselves surrounded by varying degrees of darkness, to compensate for which they will experience this excess of light at the time of the Messiah.

We read in Chronicles I 16,27: הוד והדר לפניו, עז וחדוה במקומו, "Glory and majesty are before Him, strength and joy are in His place." This verse contains a lesson about the exiles of the Jewish people, i.e. that they are for the good of the Jewish people. The chapter quoted describes an ongoing activity, i.e. בשרו מיום אל יום ישועתו, that even the redemption that has not occurred yet should be spoken of daily, or better still, it refers to a period of over one thousand years. Considering that in our eyes G–d's day is equal to a millenium, it follows that this is why Adam died on the day he ate from the tree (as he was warned he would in Genesis 2,17), though he lived close to one thousand years, the verse quoted in Chronicles, clearly refers to a period of exile. Lamentations 1,13, which describes the exile as already lasting כל היום,-at least one thousand years,- prompts the Zohar to comment that "my very glory," הודי, has proven to be my ruin." When you re-arrange the letter of the word הוד, you get דוה, as in כל היום דוה, "suffering constantly" (ibid.). I have already elaborated on this elsewhere, where I wrote that the word "הדר," is derived from "היפוך, i.e. "turning something around, reversing it," similar to the meaning of the expression "הדרן עלך," i.e. הפוך בה והפוך בה," (keep reviewing it, keep busy with it). What the Zohar meant was that the original "הוד," glory, will eventually lead to an even greater degree of "הוד" in the messianic future, just because that "הוד" had been converted to "דוה." We are told of that day in the future that ישמח ה' במעשיו, "that G–d will delight in His works" (Psalms 104,31). When you re-arrange the letters of the word ישמח, you have the word משיח, a reference to when that time will come. Concerning that day, the Midrash says that the Messiah will be given the combined “הוד, glory of Moses and הדר (its reversal) of Joshua, meaning that from the time of Joshua the spiritual decline set in, and the glory, הוד, kept turning into progressively more דוה, suffering. The הדר, decline would then reverse itself, i.e. the meaning of that term would no longer be negative. This process will lead to the cessation and disappearance of the iniquity due to the pollutants that the serpent spread throughout the world, and will enable the Messiah to make his appearance, and the new dimension of "light," the glory of the Messiah to manifest itself. The הדר (reduced measure of majesty in relation to Moses) of the new leader Joshua will be reversed at that time, a time described in Ezra 2,63 as the period when there is once again a High Priest who can stand in front of the אורים ותומים, the time when Elijah will have appeared. This period is alluded to when the Torah tells us in Numbers 27,21 that the new leader of the Jewish people will have to consult G–d by means of the אורים ותומים, i.e. the Ineffable Name worn by the High Priest Elazar in his breast plate. We also find an allusion to messianic times when the Jewish people are counted in our portion; the name of the son of Dan is given as שוחם (26,42), whereas in Parshat Vayigash, (Genesis 46,23) it is given as חשים. I have found that the Ari comments on this that the reason why the letter ו is missing in the spelling of that name in Genesis is to allude to the letters in the word משיח. In the time immediately preceding the arrival of the Messiah, one of the descendants of Dan will conduct a great battle. All this is mentioned in the Zohar's commentary on Parshat Balak (page 68-69, Sullam edition). It is based on Genesis 49,17: "Dan shall be a serpent (נחש) by the road, a viper (שפיפון) by the path, that bites the horse's heels so that its rider is thrown backwards." According to the Zohar, the "serpent" is a reference to Shimshon whereas the "viper" is a reference to Elijah who rescued Tzaliah a descendant of Dan when the latter "flew" in pursuit of Bileam. The latter, escaped by means of sorcery and Tzaliah was at a loss what to do. When Numbers 23,3 describes Bileam as וילך שפי, this is a reference to Bileam's profound identification with the negative forces in this world as symbolized by the serpent. Jacob's blessing to Dan referred to above and resulted in two descendants of Dan referred to as Tzaliah and Ira asserting mastery over the evil forces of this world. Ira was one of David's warriors. This is what is alluded to in Samuel II 8,4: "David hamstrung all the horses (of his adversary)…"The רכב referred to in that verse alludes to Genesis 49,17, i.e. an exploit of Dan. The words ויפול רוכבו אחור in that same verse refer to someone called Shalyah from the tribe of Dan who will assist the משיח בן יוסף in the war preceding the coming of the Messiah. The verse in Genesis concludes with the word לישועתך קויתי השם, to indicate that looking forward to imminent redemption at that time will be justified. The reason why the son of Dan here is referred to as שוחם is to express the hope that this descendant of Dan at the time mentioned will be equivalent to the משוח מלחמה, the Priest whose special task it was to accompany Israel in battle (Sotah 42 on Deuteronomy 20,2). [Active participation in war was certainly not the Priest's normal function. In fact any priest who had killed a person was no longer fit to perform Service in the Temple. Ed.] Pinchas too, seeing that he was descended maternally from the tribe of Joseph, whose descendants will play the leading role in the battle preceding the coming of the Messiah, was such a משוח מלחמה. At a later stage this very שוחם is "transformed" into a חומש. When someone has inadvertently used sacred property, i.e. Temple property, for personal or mundane purposes, he must make restitution of the principal amount plus twenty per cent so that the total amount paid back is twenty percent (חומש) larger than the original. The people of Israel are considered as קדש לשם "sacred to the Lord," as Rashi explains on Song of Songs 8,12: האלף לך שלמה, ומאתים לנוטרים את פריו. Israel is considered G–d's vineyard, and anything stolen from it must not only be replaced, but the חומש, in this case מאתים, must be added to make the restitution legal.