A thought on Parshas Pinchas
"...Kazbi bas n'sie Midian achosam...""...Kazbi the daughter of a Midianite prince, their sister..." (25:18)
Last week's parsha recounted the saga of Kazbi daughter of Tzur, a prince of Midian, who was killed by the avenging zeal of Pinchas. Here, the Torah refers to her as "the sister of the Midianites." What does this change of title teach?
The Chezkuni cites a midrash which puzzles over this point. How was Kazbi a sister of her people? The answer is that once she gave up her life for her people, her people were henceforth identified through her. They prided themselves in being "sisters of Kazbi." Midianites would refer to themselves as "kasbians."
Devoting yourself to a cause can lead to others elevating you to the status of an icon. Giving up all that one has for the sake of a heavenly cause can indeed guide others to see one as a model. When a person lives and dies for a value or principle, others will identify that value with the martyr or saintly figure who promoted that value.They will consider themselves his disciples and followers.
In today's world, we hear about the dreaded jihad: there are people set on self sacrifice in the process of eliminating their enemy. We Jews need to think about "yihad", which is the dedication of ourselves to those causes which find favor Above, and about which others will say of us, "they lived their lives as Yehudim should."
To a degree, each time a yeshiva or seminary is named after someone whose life was devoted to great things, we call its students by that name "He is a real Chaim Berliner" or "she is a real Sara Schneirer type."
I challenge each of us to contemplate this over Shabbos: with whom do we truly want to be identified? Who out there would want to identify with us? Are the people who would consider themselves our "sisters" and "brothers" people with whom we would want to be seen with?
And reflecting back on Kazbi: what will your cause be?Good Shabbos. D Fox
Last week's parsha recounted the saga of Kazbi daughter of Tzur, a prince of Midian, who was killed by the avenging zeal of Pinchas. Here, the Torah refers to her as "the sister of the Midianites." What does this change of title teach?
The Chezkuni cites a midrash which puzzles over this point. How was Kazbi a sister of her people? The answer is that once she gave up her life for her people, her people were henceforth identified through her. They prided themselves in being "sisters of Kazbi." Midianites would refer to themselves as "kasbians."
Devoting yourself to a cause can lead to others elevating you to the status of an icon. Giving up all that one has for the sake of a heavenly cause can indeed guide others to see one as a model. When a person lives and dies for a value or principle, others will identify that value with the martyr or saintly figure who promoted that value.They will consider themselves his disciples and followers.
In today's world, we hear about the dreaded jihad: there are people set on self sacrifice in the process of eliminating their enemy. We Jews need to think about "yihad", which is the dedication of ourselves to those causes which find favor Above, and about which others will say of us, "they lived their lives as Yehudim should."
To a degree, each time a yeshiva or seminary is named after someone whose life was devoted to great things, we call its students by that name "He is a real Chaim Berliner" or "she is a real Sara Schneirer type."
I challenge each of us to contemplate this over Shabbos: with whom do we truly want to be identified? Who out there would want to identify with us? Are the people who would consider themselves our "sisters" and "brothers" people with whom we would want to be seen with?
And reflecting back on Kazbi: what will your cause be?Good Shabbos. D Fox
posted by Rabbi Dr. Fox at 1:37 PM
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