First, a personal comment: It's fascinating how a person's life experience shape them.... As I sit here in the great backwoods of Maine and read about the Israelites in the Wilderness, I realize that my view of a a wilderness is very different from where they were. I need to remind myself that the Israelites are not in a seemingly endless pine forest with numerous lakes ;-) but somewhere hotter and drier.
Pinchas has never been an easy parsha for me, as the whole zealotry/fanaticism mode of viewing the world is not how this shy introvert functions. Most commentary also seems to focus on the issues of Pinchas's zealotry and the incongruity of his peaceful reward.
But I'm going to focus my attention on a couple other bits of commentary on the parsha that caught my eye.
Moses realizes that the end of his life is approaching and that care must be taken with future leadership.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks:
Knowing that he is about to die, Moses turns to G-d and asks him to appoint a successor:
Moses said to the Lord, "May the Lord, G-d of the spirits of all mankind, appoint a man over this community to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the Lord's people will not be like sheep without a shepherd."
It is a farsighted, selfless gesture. As Rashi comments: "This is to tell the praise of the righteous - that when they are about to leave this world, they put aside their personal needs and become preoccupied with the needs of the community." Great leaders think about the long-term future. They are concerned with succession and continuity. So it was with Moses.
Elsewhere, in a bit that is relevant to today's political climate, Rabbi Sacks also says:
If you do not challenge people, you are not a leader. But if you challenge them too far, too fast, disaster happens. First there is dissension. People start complaining. Then there are challenges to your leadership. They grow more clamorous, more dangerous. Eventually there will be a rebellion or worse.
When times are normal, change can come slowly. But there are situations in which leadership involves getting people to change, and that is something they resist, especially when they experience change as a form of loss.
Great leaders see the need for change, but not everyone else does. People cling to the past. They feel safe in the way things were. They see the new policy as a form of betrayal.
A leader who fails to work for change is not a leader. But a leader who attempts too much change in too short a time will fail. That, ultimately, is why neither Moses nor his entire generation (with a handful of exceptions) were destined to enter the land. It is a problem of timing and pace, and there is no way of knowing in advance what is too fast and what too slow.
On a different type of faith and fanaticism, from Rabbi Neal Loevinger:
The five daughters of Zelophechad complain to Moshe that the laws of inheritance, as articulated up to this point, are unfair to women, who would not inherit a stake in the land from their father’s portion. The law is changed so that women would indeed inherit if they had no brothers. Although the daughters of Zelophechad are rightly acknowledged as proto-feminists for their willingness to speak out against the unfairness of the patriarchal system, the laws are only changed a little bit, in the case of women without brothers.
What is amazing to me about the story of the daughters of Zelophechad is not only their willingness to speak out against an unfair system, but their incredible faith in the future. … At the point that the daughters made their complaint, their point was still only theoretical, because the Israelites had not yet possessed the Land of Israel, much less apportioned it among the tribes and clans….. the daughters of Zelophechad believe so much in a positive future that they are willing to take steps right now, this minute, to make it happen, even if current conditions (i.e., being stuck in the desert, not yet near the Land) would tend to make one focus on just surviving the moment. It’s like saving money for a house, even if one is just barely paying the rent, or doing any other action that helps prepare one mentally for the future one hopes for.
Many hopes are never realized, but hopelessness tends to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Without faith in the future, it’s hard to move forward, even on a journey of 40 years. The daughters of Zelophechad never lost their dream, and changed even the Torah itself with the power of their faith.
So, how do you view Pinchas? How have you reconciled his zealotry with his peaceful reward? Is Moses a relevant model of leadership? Any other insights to share?