YASHRESH YA’AKOV
Pinchos
Yashresh Ya’akov - Parshas Pinchos
   

Why did Pinchos deserve to be rewarded?

(25,11) “Pinchos the son of Elazar the son of Aharon the Kohen has turned back My anger from upon the Children of Yisrael when he zealously avenged My vengeance amongst them, and I did not destroy the Children of Yisrael with My vengeance.”

The Midrash comments on this posuk that “it is by rights that he should take his reward”. This Midrash can be explained by the Midrash in parshas Emor on the posuk in Iyov 41:3 “who preceded Me that I should pay” - who affixed a mezuzah before I gave him a house, who performed a circumcision before I gave him a son, etc. That is, Hashem always benefits a person before he has the possibility of performing the mitzvah. Hence, the reward a person receives after he performs a mitzvah is a free, undeserved gift.

But here it was not possible to give Pinchos any prior benefit before this mitzvah, because this mitzvah occurs only if someone else transgresses, G-d forbid, and this is not definitely going to happen. And afterwards there is no time to give a reward prior to the performance of the mitzvah, because the mitzvah of “the zealous should attack him”can only be performed whilst the sin is being done. Therefore, it is by rights that he should take his reward after the performance of this mitzvah - he justly deserves the reward, and it is not a free gift.

Since the law is that a Kohen who has killed is no longer allowed to serve, how could Pinchos have been made a Kohen?

(25,11) “Pinchos the son of Elazar the son of Aharon the Kohen has turned back My anger from upon the Children of Yisrael when he zealously avenged My vengeance amongst them, and I did not destroy the Children of Yisrael with My vengeance.”

Another explanation of this Midrash is that it is coming to answer the difficulty of the Zohar, which asks how could Pinchos be made a Kohen - the law is that a Kohen who kills can no longer perform any priestly service!

However, the reason for this law is because a Kohen who kills demonstrates contrariness to the priestly character trait of loving-kindness. But Pinchos through his action turned Hashem’s anger away from the Children of Yisrael and thus through him all of them were saved, Thus the act of justice that he performed was in fact completely an act of loving-kindness!

This is what the Midrash means when it says “בדין he should take his reward” - with the act of justice which he performed, the killing of Zimri, he should take his reward to become a Kohen and perform the priestly service. Because on the contrary, he has now perfected his trait of loving-kindness - through this killing he turned away Hashem’s anger from the Children of Yisrael and thus his act of justice was an act of complete kindness!

When you print this page. Printer Friendly Layout