This week's parsha, Pinchas, begins, "Pinchas... diverted My anger from upon the Children of Israel by zealously avenging Me among them..." Therefore, "I hereby bestow My covenant of peace upon him." And Hashem then gave him "eternal priesthood," meaning, that "him and all of his descendants after him," will be Kohanim.
The reward for his actions was that he became a Kohen. You can't earn to be a Kohen, neither can you be rewarded it. Hashem made Aaron and his children who were anointed with him Kohanim and all the children who would be born from them from that point and on would be naturally holy. Hashem put it into nature, that their descendants, and only their descendants, would be Kohanim.
Rashi tells us about being a Kohen, that just as Hashem separated between night and day, and no matter what, nothing can change that, so too, he separated Aaron and his sons to be holy, and nothing can change that.
Pinchas was born before and he wasn't anointed with his father, Elazar. So how could he be awarded for his actions and efforts, "zealously avenging Me among them," to be a Kohen?
Parshas Pinchas continues with the fallout of the Midian episode and Pinchas's act of zealotry - the command to go to war with Midian and the counting of the Jewish people, to see how many were left after the plague that Pinchas ended with his act of zealotry - then it continues with things that pertain to the land of Israel - the way they would divide the land of Israel, the appointment of Yehoshua, who would lead the Jewish people into the land, and the parsha ends with the routine sacrifices, of which some of them would be brought first when they enter the land. -
Being that the name of the parsha is Pinchas, and the name of a parsha encompasses the theme of the entire parsha, that means that the entry into the land of Israel has a direct connection to Pinchas. What is the connection between Pinchas and the entry into Israel?
Pinchas represents his actions, that he was zealous for Hashem. So the real question is: How does Pinchas's way of serving Hashem connect to the entry into Israel?
Our sages say about the entry into Israel, If not for their sin, the final redemption would have come as they entered the land the first time. That means that the first entry into the land, even though the final redemption didn't come, it was similar to it and we can take a lesson from the details of the first entry for the ultimate, final and complete redemption, that we are waiting for.
Pinchas definitely has to do with the final redemption, as our sages say, "Pinchas is Eliyahu," the one who will herald the final redemption.
In the time of Moshiach, "no longer will your Master be covered." That the essence of Hashem from beyond existence will, shine openly in existence, even in the physical world.
We are created in the image of Hashem, meaning that our spiritual makeup is in the image of Hashem. Just as Hashem is in existence and beyond existence, so too, our neshamas are in existence and beyond existence. The neshama has five parts, there is the nefesh, ruach, neshama and chaya, that work within existence and then there is the yechida, that is one with Hashem's essence beyond existence.
In order to bring Moshiach we have to tap into our yechida, in order to draw Hashem's essence that is beyond existence into the world.
This is the meaning of what our sages say, "If Israel (the Jewish people) will do teshuva, they will be redeemed, and if they don't do teshuva, they won't be redeemed." It is clear that the word teshuva in this saying, doesn't mean plain repentance, because it says,"and if they don't do teshuva, they won't be redeemed." That means that every one of us has to do teshuva. But what if somebody is good and doesn't have to do teshuva? We must conclude that teshuva here is something much greater, something that even the greatest Tzadik could do.
There is a deeper level of teshuva, to return to your essence, your yechida, the part of you that is one with Hashem's essence beyond existence. And when you tap into your yechida, all the blemishes that were caused by sins automatically fall away, because it's Impossible for our essence to have flaws. So if you tap into your yechida, all sins automatically fall away and you draw the essence of Hashem beyond existence into the world.
How does one tap into the yechida?
It is through serving Hashem with true self sacrifice, and that is what Pinchas did. He acted for Hashem, even though it put him in harms way. He wasn't thinking of being a hero or what he's going to get out of it, he wanted to do what Hashem wants and to put an end to the plague that killed 24,000.
There are different types of self sacrifice. The is the one who when he is faced with a situation that might require self sacrifice, he turns to the code of Jewish law or to his rabbi, to see if he should sacrifice his life or not. This is calculated self sacrifice, not pure self sacrifice.
Then there is the self sacrifice of Pinchas. Where everything Hashem wants is done with self sacrifice, without any calculations, this is pure self sacrifice.
If Pinchas would have asked, he would have been told no, even though the law was on his side. This is one of the cases in Torah, where the law is that zealots could take matters into their own hands, but as a matter of policy, we don't direct people to do it, as a matter of fact, if they ask, we tell them no.
Now in the time right before Moshiach, in order to draw Hashem's essence that is beyond existence into the world, we have to tap into our yechida, and in order to do that we have to do everything Hashem wants with self sacrifice. Every mitzvah, learning Torah and even the most mundane daily activities could be done for Hashem with true self sacrifice.
Even though our service to Hashem is finite, because we are finite, it draws Hashem's infinite essence. And that is what is going to happen when Moshiach comes, the reward for our efforts will be the revelation of the essence of Hashem that is drawn by our finite service and He will bestow upon us His infinite essence beyond existence, there will be a meshing of the two.
That is also what happened to Pinchas. One can't earn or be rewarded to be a Kohen, so we must conclude that being Aaron's grandson, he was able to be a Kohen, but it wasn't until his act of true self sacrifice that Hashem bestowed upon him "eternal priesthood," to be a Kohen, infinite in finite. This is hinted to in the verse, "I hereby bestow My covenant of peace upon him." To make
peace is to bring opposing sides together, the meshing of opposites.
And this is perhaps the reason that more times than not, we read parshas Pinchas in the three weeks, when our Temples were destroyed and we were driven into exile. And parshas Pinchas is the remedy and the key to bringing Moshiach. May he come soon.
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