Shabbat Shalom and welcome to Judeo Talk. The Torah portion for this week is Parsha Pinchas, Numbers 25:10-30:1.
Though it may seem that many Torah portions are a mish-mash of unrelated stories, the majority of them are actually careful selections of thematically similar threads. Parsha Pinchas is all about inheritance in one form or another.
The first story, that of Pinchas the grandson of Aaron, is the most large-scale, high-concept version of inheritance. Pinchas discovers a prince among the tribe of Shimon who has instituted idol worship in his domain, a capital crime as it violates one of the initial Ten Mitzvot. Pinchas kills the prince and his wife for their sin, which seems brutal until God informs Moses that, had Pinchas not enacted such justice, God would have destroyed all of the Israelites for harboring such a crime. As a reward, God grants Pinchas the B'riti Shalom, the covenant of peace. In this story, the entire society inherits the responsibility of upholding the law, while Pinchas represents a new generation inheriting the original covenant between God and Abraham. As previously mentioned in this blog, the concept of the covenant is one of an agreement. God blesses the Israelites if and only if they uphold their end of the bargain.
The second inheritance here is that of each tribe's lot of land in the new country. God's instructions are plain: Give more land to larger groups of people and less land to smaller groups. In other words, be fair. For the Israelites, the Holy Land is a fresh start. Everybody is going to get their fair share.
The next kind of inheritance in this parsha is the most literal type, though in a brand new context. A man named Zelophehad dies, leaving behind only five daughters and no son. At this time in history, all wealth and station passed from a man to his first-born son, and at the death of the first-born son it fell to the next eldest son. With all this talk of inheritance and fairness, Zelophehad's daughters contend that they are entitled to their father's estate as they are his closest relations. So as to make this case unambiguous, God gives the final ruling. Yes, the daughters are completely entitled to the estate. This is a revolutionary legal decision and it establishes the proper order for inheritance in every conceivable case.
The final inheritance in this parsha is the passing of Moses's leadership onto Joshua. Because Moses has been forbidden from entering the Promised Land, the people need a new leader. What's important here is that God selects Joshua. This makes it clear that Moses didn't pass his power to a successor as a king would. Joshua is not Moses's son or adviser. God selects Joshua for his good qualities, establishing the precedent that we ought to empower those who will be good leaders rather than selecting them by arbitrary means.
Parsha Pinchas is about fairness and responsibility, how each generation must endeavor individually to establish justice and peace. There are no kings here, nor are there sins passed from parent to child. Pinchas is a hopeful parsha, as it ought to be. These Israelites, rough as they are, still stand at the very edge of the Promised Land.