The following is a brief summary of some of thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. 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 shiur by asking - what practical lesson can we learn from Pinchas? B'H we will not be faced with the spectacle that occurred. And in order to be a Kana'i like Pinchas, one's motives must be pure beyond question!
R' Frand quoted the Sefer Maor HaParsha by Rabbi Luban who opined that there is a practical lesson. A person can at some point find himself in a situation where something needs to be done. He could say to himself, who am I to be the one to step forward and do this? I am not a great person. But we learn from Pinchas that there are times when no one is stepping up and someone needs to do something. Pinchas looked and saw the Nasi of the tribe of Shimon who was doing something very wrong on a public stage. While Pinchas was not a great man at the time (he was even made fun of afterwards as a descendent on idol worshippers). But still, he stepped up and acted.
R' Frand underscored this point by noting the Medrash Rabbah which writes that 12 miracles were performed for Pinchas in order for him to be successful. On a basic level - consider that had Zimri turned around and killed Pinchas, Zimri would not have been punished. And consider the strength needed to pick up a spear which had impaled two people.
But Pinchas did not consider himself or his own stature and abilities. He acted and we should draw a lesson from him.
R' Frand connected with this with the story of the daughers of Tzelophad. They approached Moshe when they thought that the halacha was incorrect. R' Frand painted a picture - consider a Beis Ya'akov girl who approaches R' Moshe Feinstein ZTL and tells him that she thinks he is wrongly deciding a halacha.
Rashi comments that when they approached Moshe he had forgotten the halacha and Hashem said to him - they are correct, this halacha is written in my Torah in Heaven. They saw what Moshe did not see and knew that they were correct.
Much like Pinchas, they did not say - who are we to step up?
R' Frand then tied this in to the Haftorah where Yirmiyahu receives a prophecy. He responds - who am I, I am a Na'ar. To this Hashem responds - don't say that you are a Na'ar, what I tell you, you will repeat. Like Moshe who said - who am I to go to Pharaoh, Hashem told Yirmiyahu he needed to act and not think about whether he was "great" enough to act.
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