Parshat Pinchas – 5780
Rabbi Shaanan Gelman
This past week as we were planning to install a divider for our bima to
enable olim to be called to the Torah, I had an interesting
conversation with a shul member. The
individual seemed genuinely pleased that we were going out of our way to create
this newfangled “shul accessory” despite the challenges entailed and commented
that - “People are just looking for some semblance of normalcy, to whatever
extent possible. And if a plexiglass barrier
allows a person to receive an aliya it would represent a significant step back
towards the life we once knew.”
Human beings crave normalcy above all else – I imagine this was the
sentiment among the klal Yisrael Yisrael in the aftermath of the story
of Pinchas.
The episode of Pinchas and Zimri, with all its gruesome and harrowing detail
represents a fever pitch, after a long list of tumultuous events in the
desert. Over the past few weeks alone we
have read about the spies, the treachery of Korach, Moshe hitting the rock, the
deceit of Balaam, and a devastating plague which threatened the lives of 24,000
Jews. Pinchas doesn’t exist in a vacuum,
he is a sign of his times.
Every parsha has been page turner, filled with the sorts of stories that
grab front page headlines. But then we
arrive at a law which is innocuous and even bland by contrast, the mitzva
of the Korban Tamid, The twice-daily sacrifice:
במדבר פרק כח
(ד)
אֶת־הַכֶּ֥בֶשׂ אֶחָ֖ד תַּעֲשֶׂ֣ה בַבֹּ֑קֶר וְאֵת֙ הַכֶּ֣בֶשׂ הַשֵּׁנִ֔י
תַּעֲשֶׂ֖ה בֵּ֥ין הָֽעַרְבָּֽיִם:
Though it may seem uneventful and lackluster, the Korban Tamid is described
with lofty terminology and ambitious imagery:
במדבר פרק כח
(ו) עֹלַ֖ת תָּמִ֑יד הָעֲשֻׂיָה֙ בְּהַ֣ר סִינַ֔י לְרֵ֣יחַ
נִיחֹ֔חַ אִשֶּׁ֖ה לַֽיקֹוָֽק:
It is a continual burnt-offering, which was offered
in mount Sinai, for a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto
the LORD.
Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch[1] calls our attention to this
verse, wondering why the possuk describes the Korban Tamid as taking
place on Mt. Sinai? He suggests that
there is a recurrent connection between the revelation at Sinai and the Altar
in the Beit Hamikdash. For this reason,
the Navi Yechezkel refers to the mizbeach as "הראל" or the mountain of God.
Furthermore, Har Sinai is described as being surrounded by fire, just
like the Altar, which consumes the sacrifices in fire.
The mizbeach is being presented as a recapitulation of the Sinaitic
experience, a sentiment uniquely expressed during the twice daily offering of
the tamid. Rav Hirsch then adds the following beautiful
thought:
דברים אלה מתאימים יפה למגמת חזרה זו על מצות
התמיד. קרבן התמיד נעשה על ידי כך לנדר "נעשה ונשמע" הנמשך לעד והמתחדש
בכל יום, והוא המשך לאותו נדר שהאומה נענתה בו למתן תורה ונתקבלה בו לברית התורה.
ואכן העולה איננה אלא בבחינת נדר להתקדם תמיד בלימוד ובמעשה.
The Korban Tamid is a daily reaffirmation of the phrase “we will do, and we will listen”,
the very phrase uttered by the Jewish children on Mt. Sinai, and it is that
commitment which we double down upon each time we offer the Tamid.
What is about the Tamid that Rav Hirsch and
others found so unique and so compelling?
Why does this korban,
over all other forms of service, remind us of the reception of the Torah?
Perhaps the explanation is that the Tamid’s
uniqueness lies in its regularity. What I mean by this is that it is offered
every single day, morning and evening, without exception. The Kohanim had to commit themselves to this
mode of service, every day, rain or shine, festival, Shabbat or a Tuesday in
the middle of Mar Cheshvan. What better
expression of commitment to God and to a value system than to engage in an
activity constantly! Most daily tasks
become drab and wearisome over time, they require a change of pace, a vacation,
a fresh perspective if we are to continue that engagement. But the Tamid remained constant!
The contrast between the extreme narratives in
the opening frames of our sidra,
from the devastating plague, to Pinchas and the census, and the rather
uneventful and regimented Korban Tamid expresses this very sentiment. Sometimes its nice just to have some
semblance of normal in our lives. What
we wouldn’t do for a day without some extreme, threatening, devastating and
soul-crushing story in the news! Some of
us cant remember a time when we opened up the front page of the paper and saw
anything conventional and boring – a human interest story, a regular day in the
market, a healthy summit of world leaders…even a box score in a baseball game
would be a breath of fresh air.
The Tamid is the antidote for chaos, for it
marks the restoration of normalcy and a return to predictability.
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov and Rav Kook both noted that the expression עולת תמיד is an anagram of the words תולעת תמיד. A תולע is a worm that eats, slowly, steadily destroying an object…chewing
away at our resistance, our patience, waiting for us to drop our guard –
Similarly, the rapid paced, hectic news cycle eats away at our emotional,
psychological and spiritual resilience.
Erratic behavior, shocking and jarring events destroy us because– without
regularity, every day is different than the previous, nothing is learned and
there can be no disciplined change and growth.
The tamid is a ריח ניחוח, a sweet fragrance, because it
reintroduces structure into our lives.
Sadly, we no longer have the Korban Tamid, a devastating loss which is commemorated
on the 17th of Tamuz, the fast day with which we commenced the
period we are now within known as the Bein haMetzarim.
The loss of the
communal daily avoda meant that sacred routine is gone and that nothing can be
relied upon with regularity.
Instead of
offering a daily sacrifice, we recite the passages of the korban tamid
each day in our prayers. When doing so
we are reminded that we have within our hands the ability to reclaim normal
routines. And normalcy in of itself,
holy, a Sinai-like experience.
I propose that
we try to identify parts of our lives in which we may invest in routine, despite
the anarchy.
Family time –
make sure to slot an hour or two a day just to be with family, to eat dinner
together, to watch a film, play a game or laugh. Take a daily stroll with your spouse or have
an outing with one of your children or go on your own to collect your thoughts
for 15 minutes in the woods or by the lakefront.
Torah learning –
do we have a regular moment in our day in which we study Torah never missing
that sacred encounter, no matter what?
Tefila – even if
we can’t daven with a tzibur, is there a set time for us to talk with Hashem each
day?
The response to
unpredictability is routine – try to bring some semblance of normal into your
daily life, you will be glad that you did.
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