We are in parasha Pinchas. Pinchas means dark skinned. The parasha takes its name from the second part of the first sentence.

Transcription

1 Message to Beit Adonai Yisroel Torah Portion: Numbers 25:10 29:40 Pinchas ( dark skinned ) Haftarah: Jer 1:1 2:3 (first Haftorah of Affliction ) Suggested Acheron K tuvim: Col 2:13-15 The Broken Vav Central question of this message: between Pinchas, Elijah, and Yeshua? What is the connection We are in parasha Pinchas. Pinchas means dark skinned. The parasha takes its name from the second part of the first sentence. Num 25: Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 11 "Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned away My wrath from the sons of Israel, in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I did not destroy the sons of Israel in My jealousy.

2 You might have already noticed that most translators of the name Pinchas choose to call him Phinehas (or a variant of that name). If you trust the Masoretic pointing, which here may be reliable, since it doesn t relate directly to a messianic prophecy (where the Masoretes notably made changes to mask or obliterate the messianic nature of the verses), then the proper pronunciation (and thus the proper transliteration) of his name would be Pinchas. So we can understand his actions in context, let s back up to last week s parasha, and see what leads up to the event for which Pinchas is most famous. 2

3 Num 25: While Israel remained at Shittim, the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab. 2 For they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. 3 So Israel joined themselves to Baal of Peor, and the Lord was angry against Israel. 4 And the Lord said to Moses, "Take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight before the Lord, so that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel." 5 So Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Each of you slay his men who have joined themselves to Baal of Peor." 6 Then behold, one of the sons of Israel came and brought to his relatives a Midianite woman, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, while they were weeping at the doorway of the tent of meeting. 7 When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he arose from the midst of the congregation, and took a spear in his hand; 8 and he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and pierced both of them through, the man of 3

4 Israel and the woman, through the body. So the plague on the sons of Israel was checked. 9 And those who died by the plague were 24,000. Moses has already demonstrated that he has no problem confronting evil in the camp of Israel, as he did regarding the golden calf, and even with regard to the uprising led by Korach. So, what paralyzed Moses, so that he didn t have the courage to act to stop this abomination by his own hand? Was it because he himself was married to a Midianite woman? Did he not see what this man was doing, right there in the courts of the Mishkan? Some have suggested that the eyes of Moses were blinded to this, so that Pinchas might act, and be found righteous in the eyes of the L-rd. But it is immediately clear that the quick and decisive action by Pinchas is not only approved by G-d, but secures for him (and his children after him) a special blessing. Num 25:

5 10 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 11 "Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned away My wrath from the sons of Israel, in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I did not destroy the sons of Israel in My jealousy. 12 Therefore say, 'Behold, I give him My covenant of peace; 13 and it shall be for him and his descendants after him, a covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God, and made atonement for the sons of Israel.'" 14 Now the name of the slain man of Israel who was slain with the Midianite woman, was Zimri the son of Salu, a leader of a father's household among the Simeonites. 15 And the name of the Midianite woman who was slain was Cozbi the daughter of Zur, who was head of the people of a father's household in Midian. What law permitted Pinchas to kill the Hebrew, without a ruling by a Beit Din (trial by court) establishing their guilt? None. In fact, without that ruling, couldn t his action have been described as murder? Our sages have even postulated that if Zimri had arisen 5

6 and struck Pinchas first, killing him, it would have been a lawful act of self-defense. What Pinchas does in his zeal for G-d is remarkable, and no doubt caused all around to gasp in horror. But G-d smiled. Pinchas then becomes the first of a small group of biblical heroes who will commit audacious acts to preserve G-d s holiness the zealots. The audacious actions of Pinchas were rewarded by G-d with a special blessing, and that was that he would have My covenant of peace; and it shall be for him and his descendants after him, a covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the sons of Israel.'" There are some very important theological nuggets hidden in these verses, and I want to examine only two of them, both of which are closely related. First, I want to examine one word in verse 13. 6

7 The Hebrew word there is olam. It is rightly translated into English as perpetual, or everlasting. But I think those translations are not the best one in this particular instance. It comes from an ancient Hebrew root that carries with it the idea of concealed or hidden. The passage could legitimately be translated thusly: 7

8 My covenant of peace; and it shall be for him and his descendants after him, a covenant of a hidden priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the sons of Israel.'" Here is a mystery. If a person is truly a priest, his priesthood is hidden, and this person is nonetheless part of the people, how can his priesthood be hidden? The answer is that his priesthood is concealed from the people around him by a spiritual filter over their eyes. They just don t have eyes to see what is really there, and who this person really is. But there is also something special in these verses which you can t see in the English. You can t even see it in the printed Hebrew of the Torah. You can only find it in the hand-written Torah scroll. A fundamental rule of halakha for scribes is that every letter of every word of Torah must be written as a complete body (Heb. guf). If any letter is faded, or not complete, the entire Torah is 8

9 called invalid. It can, however, be restored by a sofer (scribe), and be restored to kosker (acceptable) status. So, you can see how this establishes the meticulous degree of care characterizing the scribes throughout the ages. This is the primary reason we can trust our Torah scrolls as reliable today. Focus on the word shalom, the last word in verse 12. Don t look to the printed text in this message, because it s not there. Look at it in the scroll itself! There appears to be, in the third letter of the word shalom (the vav), a mistake a slip of the pen. This particular way of writing that particular letter actually has a name. It s called the broken vav. And it s not a mistake, and we can easily prove it was intentionally written this special way. 9

10 Because in this precise writing of the vav in only this very word shalom, in this precise verse, in every Torah scroll, you find the exact same broken vav. As you might imagine, this broken vav has caused a fair amount of discussion among our people over the ages. Some of our sages have suggested that because Pinchas had blood on his hands, that the covenant of shalom he was promised would be incomplete (as the vav is incomplete). Others have said that since the Talmud in Kiddushin 66b declares that a person s service must be perfect and without blemish, we are to remove the vav from shalom, and thus render it shalem, which means whole, perfect. They suggest that the proper rendering of the passage should be I give my covenant of perfection. 10

11 I believe they are missing something very important. And it s because they have missed Yeshua. Let s begin to put it all together. After Elijah did spiritual and physical battle with the prophets of Baal, he took refuge in a cave, because the queen of Israel, Jezebel (her name implies a question, who gets honor?) had sworn to kill him. 1 Kings 19: Then he came there to a cave, and lodged there; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" 10 And he said, "I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, torn down Thine altars and killed Thy prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away." Elijah was also zealous for G-d during a time much later in Israel s history when the people were again seduced by Baal worship, and departed from G-d. His actions in killing the 11

12 prophets of Baal were parallel to the actions of Pinchas in our parasha today. Again, there is no Beit Din, no trial, no witnesses. Elijah simply carries out immediately the righteous judgment of G-d against the prophets of Baal. In Yalkut Shimoni, Torah (p.771) Pinchas is equated with the prophet Elijah. Targum Yonatan, in an ancient commentary to our parasha for today says, Pinchas is described as an angel who lives forever and will be the harbinger of redemption in the end of days. Today, we set a place at our Passover table for Elijah, because our tradition is that at the end of days Elijah will come to set all things right, and to declare the arrival of the Messiah. Our sages have determined that these zealots were not bound by the requirement of a Beit Din before declaring the judgment, and taking action on it for one central reason. They are acting as the very hand of G-d they are doing what G-d Himself would be doing. We can see that this interpretation is supported by the very wording of the passage that we are studying. 12

13 I believe a better translation of verse 11 could be: Pinchas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned away (aleph tav) the fire of my anger from the sons of Israel in zealousness (aleph tav) My zealousness, [displayed] among them, and I didn t consume (aleph tav) the sons of Israel in my zealousness. Note I have included above in my translation the three instances of the aleph tav in this passage. I put them in the translation to show the close connection between the aleph tav and the concepts in that passage. 1. Turning away the fire of G-d s anger 2. Pinchas zeal is closely associated with G-d s zeal 3. The sons of Israel are not consumed 13

14 You recall that the aleph tav is not translated in the interlinear, because it has no English counterpart. Truth is, it has no Hebrew counterpart either. It simply connects the actor with the thing being acted upon. To complete the holy triad of zealots, the zealot of all zealots then appeared. The account of the event demonstrating His zeal is found several places, but it is best set forth in the writings of John. John 2: And the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers seated. 15 And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the moneychangers, and overturned their tables; 16 and to those who were selling the doves He said, "Take these things away; stop making My Father's house a house of merchandise." 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Thy house will consume me." Let s begin tying all this together. 14

15 Do you remember our discussion of the word olam? How it means hidden? Who is our High Priest, who has been hidden from his brothers, much as Yoseph was hidden from his brothers as he sat on Egypt s judgment throne? The messianic prophecy found in Isaiah tells us in advance that our people (in general terms) would not recognize Yeshua as a Priest, and especially not a High Priest. Isa 53:3-4 3 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But it is also clear from the Scriptures that Yeshua is that hidden High Priest, forever. Heb 9: But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that 15

16 is to say, not of this creation; 12 and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. Now, before we go on with the passage, go back to the broken vav in the word shalom in our parasha. We have already learned when we remove the vav from shalom, the word becomes shalem, which means whole, or perfect. Yeshua was that perfect sacrifice, as we see in the rest of the passage. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Yeshua was the shalem sacrifice. Perfect, complete in every way. Yeshua said he is the aleph tav. Tragically, the English translators decided to insert two Greek letters into a conversation spoken between two friends in Hebrew, and thus robbed a significant level 16

17 of meaning from Yeshua s statement. But today we can restore the original letters and all at once, Yeshua s statement becomes clear. Rev 22: "I am the Aleph Tav, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." For the first time since the beginning of all time, the true meaning of the untranslatable aleph tav becomes clear. In our passage, the aleph tav is associated with three concepts. 1.Turning away the fire of G-d s anger 2. Pinchas zeal is closely associated with G-d s zeal 3. The sons of Israel are not consumed Since Pinchas is merely a shadow of Messiah, let s replace his name, and see how Yeshua fits this association. 1. Yeshua s mission on earth was to become the heavenly sacrifice, and thus turn away the fire of G-d s anger because of our sin. 2. Yeshua s zeal is closely associated with G-d s zeal, because He is the physical embodiment of G-d among us. 3. Because of Yeshua s sacrifice, the sons of Israel (and those grafted-in) are not consumed. 17

18 The final piece in our picture is one more lesson from the broken vav. Because the vav is broken, incomplete, the peace it represents is also broken and incomplete. Remember that in pre-babylonian pictographic Hebrew, the letter vav represents a nail. Even today, if you go into an Israeli hardware store and ask for a vav, they will ask you what size nail you need. Yeshua wasn t tied to the cross. He was nailed. Those nails broke His flesh. But in the end, He broke the power of those nails. He broke their power not only over His life, but for our lives as well. And He replaced in the spiritual world His body on that cross with something else: the sentence of death, found in judicial decrees, which our sins brought upon us. Death itself is now what those broken nails hold to the cross. Col 2:13-15 And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of 18

19 debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Yes, our shalom is today broken, and incomplete. One needs only spend a few minutes seeing the newscasts to know that perfect peace is not yet in this world, or in our lives. But be assured that the final shalom in G-d s plan will be perfect. Isa 54: "For a brief moment I forsook you, But with great compassion I will gather you. 8 "In an outburst of anger I hid My face from you for a moment; But with everlasting lovingkindness I will have compassion on you," Says the Lord your Redeemer. 9 "For this is like the days of Noah to Me; When I swore that the waters of Noah Should not flood the earth again, So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, Nor will I rebuke you. 10 "For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, But My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, And My covenant of peace will not be shaken," Says the Lord who has compassion on you. 19

20 Isa 66: For thus says the Lord, "Behold, I extend peace to her like a river, And the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; And you shall be nursed, you shall be carried on the hip and fondled on the knees. 13 "As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; And you shall be comforted in Jerusalem." Pinchas was a shadow and a type. Elijah was a shadow and a type. Yeshua was the fulfillment. What law permits Yeshua to render G-d s judgment without a Beit Din? He acts with the very sword of G-d, for He is G-d. Until we stand in the presence of these great zealots in the World to Come, let us see the broken vav as evidence of just how wonderful our final peace in His kingdom will one day be. 20

21 Verses for parasha Pinchas Num 25:1-9 Num 25: Kings 19:9-10 John 2:13-18 Isa 53:3-4 Heb 9:11-14 Rev 22:13-14 Col 2:13-15 Isa 54:6-10 Isa 66: