A Thought On Parshas Pinchas

"...Pinchas..." "...Pinchas..." (25:11)

I was always amused by the name Pinchas as a child. Firstly, I knew only a few boys who had that name. Secondly, it did not seem to flow as easily as so many Hebrew names which have at most three consonants and a few vowels. It seemed easier to say Avraham, Yitzchak, Hillel and so on. I was puzzled about this name with four consonants. Many people pronounced it "Pinkas" or spelled it "Phineas" which did not make it easier on me. I never knew what the name meant, either. I sort of assumed that it was Egyptian or something, like "Tzofnas Pane'ach", the title Pharaoh gave Yosef in Egypt.

Rabbeinu Bachya writes that the unique role that this figure played in our national history is that he was able to draw on his aggression in order to generate an act of kindness. By rushing to intervene during a national catastrophe of Chillul HaShem proportions, he was able to rid from our midst a threat and an abomination in order to protect our people. With his act, he modeled for his tribe and for all of us the elevated function of a Kohen. It is their role to take aggressive energy in the pursuit of collective peace. They do this through the avoda of korbanos, by accompanying the army of HaShem to the edge of battle with words of musar and structure, and they do this in the pursuit of peace within marriage, as we know from our lore about Aharon HaKohen.

The name Pinchas contains that formula: its letters are the two syllables Pnei Chas - turn toward compassion. Pinchas is a Hebrew name indeed and it flows very smoothly now. When a boy is named Pinchas, he is blessed with the hopeful image that he will pursue acts of kindness and caring, and will use his energy and might in modeling that which is right.

Now, linguists tell us that Pinchas derives from the Egyptian panhs'j which means "Nubian" and that it was a name used in Egypt for residents of Nubia. We can posit similar ideas when looking at the names Moshe, Bitya, and others yet we also see within the letters and their meanings allusions to values and concepts distinctively Jewish. Let us do the same for Pinchas. Let us live by his image and model and work hard on energetic caring for each other and for our nation.

Good Shabbos. D Fox