“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Pinchas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the kohen has turned My anger away from the children of Israel by his zealously avenging Me among them, so that I did not destroy the children of Israel because of My zeal. Therefore, say, ’I hereby give him My covenant of peace.’” (Bamidbar 25:10-12)
“In a place where there is no man, try to be the man.” (Ethics of Our Fathers 2:6). Pinchas saw a terrible wrong being committed and decided to act. We had fallen into the abyss of immorality with the nation of Midyan, a terrible Chillul Hashem (Desecration of God’s name) was occurring and no one was taking a stand. Pinchas became the man and sprang into action. His actions were not motivated by anger or resentment; they were a manifestation of his love, care, and concern for his people. For his spiritual heroism, God rewarded him with the covenant of peace, bris shalom.
Pinchas was fortunate in that he was gifted the covenant of peace, as peace is often exceptionally elusive. We too must work to create this bris shalom for ourselves. It is during this period of the Three Weeks that we must try to right our historical wrongs. Our current 2,000+ year diaspora came about as a result of sinas chinam (unwarranted hatred). Our greatest threat has never been the Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans; our greatest threat is often ourselves. Our inability to love each other as we should is often at the root of many national issues.
Our Torah is filled with many beautiful and meaningful mitzvos (commandments). These mitzvos teach us how to create and sustain a relationship with God and with one another. Imagine for a moment if you were to be asked, which is the most important of all of God’s commandments? Which mitzvah do you think outweighs the rest? Perhaps, it is Shabbos or Bris Milah (circumcision) both of which are referred to as an Os (sign) between God and His nation. Perhaps, it is not any one particular mitzvah but a unit of mitzvos like the Aseres HaDibros (Ten Commandments) which are the spiritual centerpiece of our Torah. Long before you and I pondered this question, the great rabbinic sages were having this very discussion.
“You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself (Leviticus 19:18); Rabbi Akiva said, ’This is an important principle of the Torah.’ Ben Azai said, ’This is the narrative of the generations of man on the day that God created man, in the likeness of God He created him’ (Genesis 5:1), is even more important.” (Sifra, Kedoshim)
Rabbi Akiva and his disciple Ben Azai were trying to figure out what is the most important, core principle we have in our Torah. Rabbi Akiva explains that everything flows from loving the other. This is reminiscent of the story of the gentile who approached the great sage Hillel and said, “I want to convert on the condition that you (Hillel) teach me the entire Torah standing on one foot.”To which Hillel responded, “That which is despicable to you, do not visit upon the other.” Rabbi Akiva continues this tradition and explains that the mitzvah of (Love your fellow as you love yourself)is the most important tenet of our belief. If you cannot love another how can you love God? If you cannot love someone who you can see, touch and experience, how can you love that which is amorphous and beyond the scope of human comprehension? If you work to love your fellow Jew, you will come to love God.
