Thursday, July 9, 2015

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Pinchas

The following is a brief summary of some of the thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha. I have attempted to reproduce these vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

R' Frand began the parsha vort by quoting Bamidbar (25:13) "V'Haisa Lo...Bris Kehunas Olam..." This was Hashem's covenant to Pinchas as a reward for his attack mentioned in the prior parsha. Rashi asks - since Pinchas is the grandson of Aharon, he was already a Kohen. What was the significance of this reward? Rashi answers that the Kehunah was given to Aharon and his children for those children who would be born afterwards. Since Pinchas was already born and was not anointed with Aharon and his sons, he did not have the status of Kohen.

R' Frand explained that this is an example of the exquisiteness of Hashgacha. Pinchas is not a Kohen at this point. Every day he sees that his father, grandfather and uncle are bringing sacrifices and he cannot. He could be upset that he was prevented from having the status by accident of his birth order and with no fault on his part. And, Pinchas observed this for nearly 40 years.

R' Frand quoted the Zohar who stated that if Pinchas had been in the original group who were annointed or he had been born afterwards - he would have been ineligible to be a kohen since the halacha teaches that a kohen who kills - even by accident - cannot give the priestly blessing. Thus the reason that Hashem did not make him a kohen until this point was so that he could be a kohen forever. Indeed, the Tosafos in Zevachim 101 states that all of the kohanim gedolim in both bayis rishon and sheni were all descendants of Pinchas.

The Zohar continues that even though Moshe knew all the halachos and even knew what to do at the sin of the Golden Calf, he did not know what to do when Zimri and Cuzbi were publicly intimate. Why? Because if he did, Pinchas would not have been able to act.

R' Frand closed the vort by stating that we see from this that although we may have doubts as to why and how things happen, Hashem has a plan.

R' Frand told a few stories to illustrate this point. The first story that he told involved a boy who went skiing and sustained a head injury. The injury was so severe that the boy needed to go for an MRI. During the MRI the Radiologist found a tumor which had it been left alone would have grown so large as to have been inoperable. But for this ski accident, the doctors never would have found it. 

I will iyh discuss the other stories in posts over the next few weeks.

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