During the Gulf War, General Schwartzkopf called an urgent assembly of the troops under his charge. The soldiers lined up and stood at attention, not knowing what to expect, as the General walked up and down the rows. Finally he spoke up: “Is there a tailor in this unit?” A soldier in the back saluted, “Yes, sir! I’m a Taylor!” “Come to my barracks,” said the General, and the two of them marched off. In his room, the General started taking off his pants. The soldier looked nervous. When the General tried to hand him the pants, the soldier fidgeted and headed for the door. “Didn’t you say you were a tailor?” said the General. “Oh, no, Sir,” responded the soldier. I am a Taylor in name only, not a tailor by profession!”[1]

* * *

Pinchas: The Covenant of Peace

In this parsha, G-d tells Moses that Pinchas, the son of Elazar, son of Aaron the Kohein, acted on behalf of G-d–and saved countless lives–when he killed Zimri. Zimri was at the moment engaging in an intimate act with a Midianite woman. When Pinchas killed Zimri, he brought an end to a plague that killed 24,000 people. For this act G-d rewarded him by making him a kohein, a priest, as the passage says, “Therefore, say: Behold! I give him My covenant of shalom. It will be an eternal covenant of the priesthood for him and for his descendants after him.”[2]

QUESTIONS
1.) According to Torah law, the priesthood is hereditary. Pinchas was not born a kohein. Why did G-d seemingly break his own law to give this gift to Pinchas?

2.) What does it mean that G-d gave Pinchas the Covenant of Peace? His act doesn’t appear to be very peaceful.

3.) In our passage, the Vav in the word shalom is ‘split’ (). In its graphic design, this Vav is written like two separate letters: a Yud above, and a small Vav below.[3] What can we learn from this?

EARNING THE PRIESTHOOD
It seems that Pinchas should have been a kohein to begin with.[4] He was the son of Elazar, and the grandson of Aaron–both his father and grandfather were kohanim. However, when G-d nominated them for the priesthood, He said, ‘All your offspring from now on will be kohanim.’ Pinchas was already born, therefore he was excluded from this Divine decree. However, G-d really wanted Pinchas to be a kohein–but He wanted Pinchas to earn it.

How did Pinchas earn the priesthood? The Rambam defines ‘a kohein’ in spiritual terms: “One who dedicates himself to stand before G-d, to administer and serve, and follows the straight path that G-d has created–he is just as sanctified as the Holy of Holies (he is like the High Priest). G-d becomes his portion and his inheritance forever and ever.”[5]

In other words, when we dedicate ourselves to G-d through acts of self-sacrifice, we can reveal the level of the ‘kohein’ in our souls. This level is synonymous with our yechidah, our super-consciousness.[6] The ‘kohein’, the yechidah, is also the spark of Moshiach within each of us.

Pinchas’s act was one of self-sacrifice, transcending logic and personal safety. He acted for a higher purpose, to sanctify the name of G-d alone. Through revealing his yechidah he was able to enter the heavily-guarded house of Zimri, and to pierce Zimri and the Midianite woman. Then he carried them throughout the camp on his spear, putting his life in utter danger. Because of this act of self-sacrifice, acting as a Kohen, as the Rambam explained, G-d pronounced him a ‘kohein’, and not merely in name, but in profession.

UNITED IN PEACE
The word yechidah means ‘unique’ or ‘united’. The yechidah is the essential part of the soul that is united and bound with G-d; it is the union of human and Divine. Shalom, peace, is the uniting of opposites. When we reveal our ‘yechidah’ level of soul, we are capable of uniting, and bringing peace between, the finite physical world and the infinite spiritual worlds.[7]

The ‘split’ letter Vav in the word shalom illustrates this unity. The upper part, the Yud, represents G-dliness and spirituality. The small Vav below, having the gematria of six, represents the world which came into being during the Six Days of Creation. The Yud and the Vav are united as a single letter.

COVENANT OF PEACE
This, therefore, is an implication of the Covenant of Peace given to Pinchas: he was given the ability to move freely between the spiritual and the physical worlds. For example, when Joshua sent him as a spy to scout out Jericho, Pinchas was able to disappear from the view of the soldiers of the king.[8] Also, as S’forno comments on our verse, Pinchas lived at least 300 years.[9] Pirkei D’Rabbi Eliazer says that Pinchas is actually Elijah the Prophet,[10] which means that he is still alive even today. All of this demonstrates that Pinchas’s act–although outwardly appearing violent–was truly an act of peace and unity.

REBUILDING THE TEMPLE OF PEACE
Parshas Pinchas always falls out during the three weeks, when as a nation, we mourn the destruction of the first and second Holy Temples. What message does Pinchas convey to us during these three weeks? And how do we rebuild the Holy Temple? We rebuild the Temple by serving G-d beyond our comfort zone, thereby revealing our yechidah.[11] This is how to be a ‘kohein’, not merely in name, but in profession.

The destruction of the Holy Temple raises a final question: why does the Vav have to be split, broken like the Temple? Similarly, why did Pinchas have to act aggressively, not ‘peacefully’? The word shalom can mean ‘whole’ or ‘complete’, but the split in the Vav seems to make the letter incomplete.

The answer is, although we are in the last generation of exile and the first generation of Redemption,[12] unfortunately the world is not yet perfect, and we will not experience the complete manifestation of peace until Moshiach’s revelation. The Baal HaTurim explains that the gematria of shalom (376) is the same as the words zehu Moshiach–”This is the Moshiach.” May we merit this now! Amein.

A STORY
The Lubavitcher Rebbe left New York City on three occasions throughout his entire leadership. The purpose of these trips was to visit, for only a few hours, two Lubavitcher summer camps in the Catskill Mountains: the girls’ camp, Camp Emunah, and the boys’ camp, Gan Israel.

A Sutchiner chassid and a graduate of Yeshivah Torah v’Daas, by the name of Rabbi Meir Leiberman, went to Camp Gan Israel when he was a child. This is how he described one of his experiences there.[13]

‘The day the Lubavitcher Rebbe visited, all of the campers excitedly assembled to greet him. As he passed me, he stopped and gazed at me. I was stunned—why was he singling me out of all the other campers? “What’s your name?” the Rebbe asked, smiling. Shyly, I answered, “Meir.” “Your whole name,” insisted the Rebbe. “Meir Shmuel,” I said. Then the Rebbe turned and gestured to Rabbi Avraham Shemtov, the camp administrator, and remarked, “It isn’t often that we merit to have Moshiach among us.” I’ve never seen Rabbi Shemtov look so bewildered. The Rebbe then asked me, “What’s your father’s name?” “Chaim Yaakov,” I answered. The Rebbe smiled, “The letters of Moshiach.” Only later did I understand: the first letters of ‘Meir Shmuel Chaim Yaakov’ spell the word moshiach.

‘About thirty years later, a friend of mine was going to Crown Heights to receive a dollar and a blessing from the Rebbe. He asked me if I would like to come along. I jumped for the opportunity. After waiting in line almost two hours, with thousands of people passing by the Rebbe, I only had a second or two to savor eye-contact with him. He turned to me and said, “Nu? Reb Meir, how are you? And how is your father, Reb Chaim?”‘

* * *

Not only did the Rebbe have total recall, but he had the spirit of prophecy–he knew Meir Shmuel’s name even before he said it. The most amazing and important thing, however, was that the Rebbe saw Moshiach in every person.’

ACTION: Today, reveal your yechidah–your spark of Moshiach within–by praying with a complete heart for the universal peace of Redemption.

FOOTNOTES
[1] Adapted from Say it with a Story, by Susha Alperowtz
[2] Numbers, 25:12-13. See also Rashi’s commentary there, based on the Talmud, Zevachim 101b.
[3] The split Vav could also be viewed as a small Vav above and a Yud below. See Sefer HaMa’amarim M’lukat: Rosh Kodesh Kislev 5748, Ch. 22
[4] Likutei Sichos, Vol. 4, p. 1074
[5] Mishna Torah, Laws of Shemitta and Yovel, at the end of chapter 13.
[6] There are five levels of the soul. They are, in ascending order, nefesh, ruach, neshama, chaya, and yechidah.
[7] “True monotheism is when a person understands that everything in creation is included in G-d’s oneness.” Even, “…the object of scientific discoveries is to find unity in all phases of life…” For example, “Einstein’s achievement was to unite energy with matter. Whoever will discover how to unity electricity with gravity will enjoy even greater glory.” Mind Over Matter, p. 65
[8] Joshua II, passage 4—see commentaries.
[9] See also commentaries on Judges 11.
[10] Ralbag on Kings I, p. 17a. See also Targum Yonasan Ben Uziel on Exodus 6:18, and Zohar II, p. 190a.
[11] This explains why Pinchas is identified with Elijah the Prophet, the one who reveals the good news of the Redemption and the rebuilding of the Temple.
[12] Sefer HaSichos 5750, p. 255
[13] From Living Torah – Tamuz 5767.