Dear Friends,
I hope this note finds you well during these challenging times.
“Continuity” is a Jewish buzzword. NCSY Summer’s Kollel is a fabulous place to see what it means.
Last night I had the privilege of spending the evening with Kollel in the vibrant atmosphere of their big tent Beis Hamedrash in Beit Meir, near Yerushalayim. In addition to the sheer electricity of hundreds of people animatedly and excitedly studying Torah, it was remarkable to see the generational flow of Torah, senior roshei yeshiva and accomplished rebbeim, college-aged advisors and high school students all studying together the Torah of generations, Chumash and Mishna, Gemara and Rambam, Rav Akiva Eiger, and the Sfas Emes.
That is a snapshot of the continuity of the Jewish people; gathered in the land of their ancestors and passionately conveying to contemporary teenagers the Torah received by Moshe at Sinai more than three millennia ago. It provides a strong and inspiring reminder that our lives extend beyond the narrow boundaries of our own selves when we dedicate ourselves to fulfill the dreams and promises of those who came before us and effectively transmit those dreams to future generations.
Continuity is central to the story of Pinchas. Bamidbar is known as the Book of Numbers, Chumash Hapekudim, because it contains both the census of the generation of Jews that left Egypt (ch. 1) and the counting of those who would enter Israel (ch. 26). Though the first generation of 600,000 saw its own hopes and dreams dashed due to the trials and challenges they posed to G-d in the desert, their Jewish journey to Eretz Yisrael continued with the next generation of 600,000 picking up where their parents had left off.
That perspective moved the daughters of Zelaphchad to seek to inherit their father’s place in Eretz Yisrael (27:3). Their interest in preserving his name was to ensure that his life would not end with his death, that they could perpetuate him by establishing themselves as his children on his portion of the land. Indeed, in a complex passage, the Talmud (see Rashi 26:55 citing Bava Batra 117b) teaches that while usually it is children who inherit from their parents, when it came to Eretz Yisrael the living generation that claimed the land actually bequeathed it back to their ancestors, demonstrating that they were there to realize their parents’ dreams. Even Moshe’s request for a successor should be seen in that light, though because he was Moshe Rabbeinu – a teacher rather than a patriarch – his succession came not through his children but via his most outstanding student, Yehoshua (Rashi 27:16).
The commitment to the future was what drove Pinchas’ original act of zealotry. As Rambam (Issurei Bi’ah 12:7) explains, what Pinchas reacted to was not one of many relationships prohibited by the Torah but the unique and unparallelled tragedy of a Jew essentially discarding his future by marrying a non-Jewish woman. Pinchas was horrified that this man’s children would not be Jews, that he was living in the present and disregarding the Jewish future. Hashem recognized Pinchas’ visceral and dramatic passion for ensuring the Jewish future by granting him an enduring and joyous role in the ultimate celebration of the Jewish future, making Pinchas – who is identified as well with Eliyahu the prophet – present and prominent at every brit celebrating a Jewish child and the Jewish future, where we set aside a chair for Eliyahu. And it is perhaps for the same reason that we set a cup for Eliyahu at every Pesach seder, for him to be there as we pass on our story from the past to the future.
That was what I had the privilege to witness last night in a big tent in Beit Meir. The passion and the joy of the vibrant Jewish future was vividly on display.
Have a wonderful Shabbos and may we be blessed with truly good news, besorot tovot.
Moshe Hauer