פינחס

Pinchas rose to the occasion and performed an act of zealotry to stand up for the honor of Hashem. Because of this great action of his, he was zocheh to be gebentched with the greatest of brachos. The passuk says: “behold, I have given him a covenant of peace”. The Seforno explains that since Pinchas struggled My struggle in that zechus, he received bris shalom. What is bris shalom? I will save him from all antagonism to his way of life. Pinchas will be saved from all antagonism toward him and he will be a man who will live in peace.

What does, קַח לְךָ, take for yourself, mean? Rashi explains, קָחֶנּוּ בִּדְבָרִים , take him with words. Draw him in convince him and say to him, אַשְׁרֶךָ שֶׁזָּכִיתָ לְהַנְהִיג בָּנָיו שֶׁל מָקוֹם, fortunate are you that you are zocheh to be manhig the children of Hashem.

The Torah relates an episode that took place in the midbar where a nasi of Shevet Shimon faced a tremendous challenge and he publicly did an act that shouldn’t have been done. We have to understand that he did it with a cheshbon. It wasn’t that he just fell into a ta’avah. You have to know this man, Zimri, was 250 years old. He was past the ta’avah stage. But Pinchas came along and took his life. Pinchas performed a ma’aseh kanaus, an act of zealotry and he speared them both with a spear.