Parshat Pinchas: Transition of Shevet Levi

ספר במדבר is also titled ספר ספרות or the Book of Countings, referring to the two times the Jewish people were counted in the Book, once prior to the חט המרגלים where the דור יוצאי מצרים were counted and once after where their children, the generation that was imminently entering Israel, were counted. The נצי”ב in his introduction to ספר במדבר explains that the emphasis on these two countings highlights the importance of ספר במדבר in exploring the transition from an enslaved people to a generation that was worthy of entering Israel.

This theme is consistently demonstrated throughout the ספר and is clearly not limited to the countings. We have already seen how the מרגלים sought to prevent the Jewish people from entering the land. A possible explanation of their treacherous behavior is that they did not want the Jewish people to enter a land where they were not consistently living under the influence of the משכן.

It may be even more significant. In the desert the Jewish people lived a miraculous life. They were protected and provided for by the shichina. The transition from the generation that left mitzrayim to the one that entered Israel is not simply that they were not under the constant supervision of the mishkan but that they now needed to learn how to live without the clear hand of God in their lives. No more will food fall from the sky and will water emerge from barren rocks. Now they will need to invest the time and energy to plow their own fields and dig wells from which they can draw water from.

Midrashic literature compares this transition to that of a baby first emerging from its mother’s womb. No longer will the baby survive miraculously submerged in liquid, it must now fend for itself, hopefully with its mother’s help, in the real world. Where food and hydration must be sought and direct exposure to oxygen is required for life.

Now, we can obviously explain the physiological transition of life. But that does not undermine the significance of that miracle. Just this past week, I witnessed many babies being born and as the pediatrician I got to experience the enormity of that miracle.

There is however in our parsha specifically a transition that I have not noticed being noted by the mifarshim. Today we are told of Pinchas getting some sort of reward for being the sole responder to the terrible avira committed by Zimri. The Ralbag argues that he was promised the כהן גדול status for himself and his sons while they were being chosen by Godly intervention. In this we find a continuation of the legacy of שבט לוי not seen by his grandfather, Aharon.

אהרן הכהן was the אוהב שלום ורודף שלום, the midrash says that when he died all cried for him. There was no one who could bear a grudge against אהרן הכהן. That is not the status we usually consider when thinking of שבט לוי. לוי was the one who wiped out an entire city for revenge on his sister. His sons were the ones who responded to Moshe’s call after the חט העגל and put to death all who served the idol. They were the ones who served as a model for פנחס who stood up and extra-legally executed Zimri.

Recall, that while שבט לוי killed all who served the calf, אהרן was the one who made the calf. True, he did it with the hope that he would be able to prevent the unavoidable sin from occurring, but he still built it. פנחס served as the transition in the כהן גדול from not only being one who was loved by all but also the one who fought ferociously to defend God’s honor.

That שבט לוי is the one chosen to be the religious leaders of the Jewish people. To serve as a model that would forever be zealous in ensuring תורה and יהדות remain strong within the Jewish people.