Rav Chaim Lifshitz
Pinhas

Essays and Articles:

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 Translated from Hebrew by S. NAthan

l'ilui nishmas Esther bas mordechai

“Raish Lakish says: ‘In the first temple, eighteen high priests served, and all of them were of the grandchildren of Pinhas…while in the second temple there were eighty high priests, but none of them ever finished out their year because they used to buy the priesthood with money.’”

      Pinhas is Elijah, who still celebrates every circumcision ceremony with us, and has many more adventures yet awaiting him at the time of the coming of the Messiah, when he will bring peace between fathers and sons.

     We learn from this that Elijah is above the laws of this world, which are characterized by the limitations of space and time.

     Pinhas the Zealot is Elijah the Zealot. How did this zealot merit such longevity, such an infinity of time? In order to clarify this fundamental question, we must first clarify an even more fundamental question: The Creator of the universe fixed specific laws within specific confines that activate the universe. Man too, being God’s handiwork, is subject to the laws of the universe.

     What is the relationship between the laws of the universe and the laws of the Torah? Is the Holy One too subject to them? Not to the laws of the universe of course, for He has no body and no image of body, but is the Holy One subject to the laws of the Torah? After all the Midrash tells us that the Holy One puts on tefillin, as a parallel to every Jewish man who puts on tefillin. Only whereas the Jew’s tefilin contains the verse, “Hear O Israel…God is one,” the Creator’s tefilin contains the verse: “Who is like your people Israel, one nation in the land.”

     Does this midrash really testify to the Creator’s being subject to His Own laws? I find this puzzling because being subject to laws – as sublime as they may be – implies a limitedness of some sort, and it is impossible to attribute any trace of limitedness to the Holy One. We would have to say that the Holy One is not subject to the limitations placed by these laws, but rather it is His will to fulfill them. He is not subject to, nor is He compelled by their requirements. We must suffice with this explanation.

     Zimri ben Salu came before Moses, the master and teacher of Israel, with a question that he wished to ask: “The daughter of [non-Jewish] Jethro – who permitted her to you?” All of Israel are reduced to tears on hearing this question, and Moses among them. But why did Moses weep? Was Moshe not capable of answering this simple question and informing Zimri that his marriage to Tzipora had taken place before the Torah was given? The sons of Jacob as well, founders of the tribes of Israel, had married their sisters, because it had preceded the giving of the Torah. Why did Moses not give this answer to the insolent Zimri?

     Pinhas took advantage of the momentary confusion, in which no clear instruction was forthcoming from the teacher of Israel, and fulfilled the halacha that stipulates that where God’s Name is being desecrated, one need not stand on ceremony and await the master’s instruction.

     Perhaps we could suggest that this taking advantage of an opportunity by a zealot indicates a situation that has not been defined by the halacha. A situation that has not been defined by the halacha resembles the Holy One’s situation, for He too is undefined. It is here, at this undefined point that the zealot crosses over to the other side, to the undefined condition resembling the condition that characterizes the Holy One, where definitions and rules do not apply.

     Should you wish to challenge this, saying: How does the zealot dare to put himself into the position of his Creator? Well – the Torah itself comes to testify through the mouth of the Holy One Himself: “Behold, I am giving him My covenant of peace,” thereby informing us that the Holy One has agreed with him, and has established His covenant of peace with him as a sign of His agreement. From here we derive the non-limitedness in space and time that will characterize Pinhas, who is Elijah, forever.

     Indeed this is only fitting and proper for someone whose very bones burn with the raging fire of zeal for the Name of the God of Hosts, to the point of self-sacrifice, for all the tribes had begun to abuse him, and he heroically withstood them all in order to sanctify God’s Name through his zeal.

     It behooves us to investigate the difference between the laws of the material world – which are the laws of creation – and the laws of the Torah. Elijah after all never exempted himself from the laws of the Torah. When he confronted the prophets of the Ba’al in a way that gave the impresssion that he might be interested in joining them, he was impelled only by his sense of the urgency of the moment: “Now is the time to act for God, for they have breached Your Torah.”

     This is what permitted him to do as he did. For the laws of heaven and earth, as they have been created by the Holy One, are fixed, permanent laws. One may not move away from them. Whereas the laws of the Torah are measured by relativity. For example, they apply to the children of Israel in their entirety, whereas only seven of them, the seven commandments for the children of Noah apply to all the other nations of the world. And they do not apply to the Holy One, as it says, “Now is the time to act for God, for they have breached Your Torah, “ yet they stand in relation to the Holy One.

     The laws of creation on the other hand are permanently fixed into the infrastructure of creation, and exist for its sake, and as long as the universe exists, “as long as there are days of the earth, sowing and harvest…summer and winter and day and night shall not cease.” Because God has sworn, “I shall no more curse the earth,” as it says that the Creator established a covenant “between Himself and the land.”

     In contrast to the laws of creation stand the laws of the Torah: “The Holy One wished to merit Israel. Therefore he increased Torah and mitzvot for them.” The laws of the Torah exist for the people of Israel, and only for their good. They exist as long as the people of Israel fulfill them, and they are not as absolute as the laws of heaven and earth.

     One who is zealous for God removes himself from the laws of the universe and sacrifices himself for the laws of the Torah, and these after all been established for the sake of man, to do him good. Therefore they do not apply to the zealot, because they are not always to his good. And in any conflict between the laws of the Torah and the laws of the universe, the Torah and its laws have pre-existed the creation of the universe by 900 years. And the zealot, who stands above the laws of the Torah, is also removed from the laws of the universe that are limited by space and time – as when sacrificing himself under conditions that have not been defined by the legal decision of a halachic authority. The zealot thus attaches to the infinite space of the Holy One, who has gathered the zealot unto Himself.

     The law is for the sake of man. Man is a partner in establishing the law of the Torah.

  The Torah now turns again to relating the adventures of the tribes in great detail. Why does the Torah repeat things that have already been said? To teach you that it is man himself by his own actions and his own behavior who determines the events that befall him. It is not the Holy One who imposes the Torah. The Jew himself, every single Jew, is permanently subject to it. He himself causes the things that happen to him, and not due to the laws of the universe, in that the rule-governed nature of the universe determines only events but not human beings. It is man who decides human affairs. He has not been placed in the pillory of the arbitrary, permanent, and fixed laws. According to the Torah man lives, and it is he who determines the events that befall him, according to the extent of his fulfillment of the laws of the Torah, which are above the laws of the universe. And this lies in every individual’s hands – fulfilling the laws of the Torah: “If your children will guard my covenant, even their children unto eternity will sit upon your throne.” (Psalms 132:12)

     All are subject to the interpersonal mitzvot,  except – the zealot.

     The interpersonal commandments create a connecting point between God’s servant and his Creator. Were it not for the interpersonal commandments, God’s servant would be enclosed in own subjective territory, relating to himself alone. Alternatively, he would relate to the external world, while he himself would become an object, a mere cog in a machine with no relationship to it. A gap and a conflict would result between the container and the content, for the content flows from the selfhood of God’s servant, and this content does not fit the containers found in this world.

     Only the mitzvot that deal with person-to-person relationships are impossible to divide. Here one cannot separate the contents from the forms (the containers). Separating them causes hypocrisy, or empty courtesies that are not far from hypocrisy. This is why the commandments dealing with the relationship between man and God must be immersed in the purifying waters, in the mikveh of the interpersonal commandments, in order to receive both content and container in harmonious unity. This is why the Torah preceded the universe, because in Torah law one cannot separate content from container, or from the human being who is a source of content.

      Yet the Holy One stands far above all this, and He is surrounded by His kana’im, his zealotswho are on His plane and who belong to His territory, which is unlimited.