A Thought on Parshas Pinchas

"...es brisi Shalom..." "...My covenant of peace..." (25:12) After avenging the moral tragedy which took place as our people converged with the nation of Midian, HaShem pronounced that Pinchas would be instated within the Kahuna and would be granted a covenant of peace. Observation of the Torah script shows that the word peace (Shalom) is written in an atypical manner. The letters shin, lamed and mem are typical yet the vav is written smaller than usual, as if it were a yud. There are many places where the words of the Torah are written in an atypical manner yet our sages offer interpretations of those cases where the text veers from the expected. Writing Shalom as if it were the word Shalim (shin, lamed, "vav like a yud", mem) begs interpretation. The Panae'ach Raza offers three views. The first is based on the idea that since the word looks more like shalem (complete) than shalom, it is hinting at the historical reality that up until this moment, Pinchas was not regarded as a kohen in that he was not in the Aharonic line of the descendants of Levi. It was only with this pivotal act that he was admitted into the caste of kohanim, and therefore the word hints at this having marked his completion or fulfillment in that spiritual regard. The second view is based on the idea that the vav which looks like a yud is intrinsically significant, namely, that the yud comes to hint at a later event which involved yud, as in its gematria of ten. Ten generations passed before we find, in later history, that the kahuna gedola was vested in the family descended from Pinchas. So, the covenant of peace was given to Pinchas but it did not kick in, in a complete sense, for ten generations. The third view is based on a combination of two observations. First, as noted above. there is a hint at the significance of ten, symbolized by that "vav like a yud". Secondly, writing the word Shalom in this manner actually diminishes the word from being fully Shalom. Now, earlier, our first view above focused on how the word seems to become Shalim, but this third view is focused on how the word remains Shalom but it is missing something. The Panae'ach Raza suggests that Pinchas acted with zealousness, kinah, which involved avenging the tarnished sanctity of HaShem's nation. We find another such form of kinah which is more of a zealous jealousy, namely, the process of confronting and examining the sotah, the wife suspected of infidelity. Looking back to Parshas Nasso, we find that the Torah addresses that process with ten references to kinah. Pinchas dealt with Kozbi, and with Zimri, as if it was a Sotah process. He intervened with the zeal of vengeance which the Torah allots in the Sotah trial. Hence, Pinchas was awarded the covenant of peace because he avenged the assault on morality and on sanctity as if objecting to a breach of fidelty. That is hinted at by the appearance of a yud with its dual meaning of "ten." However, the second tier of this interpretation is that the "Shalom" of Pinchas was missing something. It was not complete Shalom, for it involved an act of vengeance and of violence. Despite the ends, which was to increase kedusha in the world, the means was still an un-peaceful means. The fact was that HaShem lauded Pinchas for his zealotry and awarded him, henceforth, a covenant of peace, indicating that in this instance, the end did justify the means. However, the fact remained that there was a diminution of peace involved in that means, and this is hinted at by shrinking a part of the word Shalom through a tinier vav. That small deficit of the word alludes to the deficient peace which came about through those means. There was "peace" yet it had been achieved through actions which were not inherently peaceable. The lesson or message to be learned here is that when one must resort to aggression and violence, no matter the ends and the intention, peace takes a hit. I am sending this early because I am about to depart for Eretz Yisroel. Pray for Shalom, fully. Good Shabbos. D Fox