“How To Get What You Want…Or Not,” Rabbi Zecher’s Shabbat Awakenings

July 26, 2024 | 20 Tamuz 5784

Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection as we move toward Shabbat. You can listen to it as a podcast here.

Let me begin with how not to get what you want: be overly passionate, self righteous, indignant, hot headed, violent, murderous even, act out with abandon, disrespect leadership, attribute your behavior to God.

Here’s how to get what you want: gather a cohort that supports your idea, bring others closer in, recognize that it takes convincing, be patient, use your words, understand your power, use it wisely, seek what is better for the greater good.

This week’s Torah portion offers us each of these models.

The Israelites, having stopped in Midian, became too intimately involved with the Midianite women. The reaction was harsh and punitive. One person took the issue into his own hands and with his sword he pierced through an Israelite man named Zimri in the moment of his intimacy with a Midianite woman, named Cozbi. It was a horrifying scene, yet Pinchas stemmed the punishment upon the rest of the people.  As a result,

GOD spoke to Moses, saying:
Pinchas, son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the Israelites by displaying among them his passion for Me, so that I did not wipe out the Israelite people in My passion.

Say, therefore, ‘I grant him My pact of friendship.

It shall be for him and his descendants after him a pact of priesthood for all time, because he took impassioned action for his God, thus making expiation for the Israelites.’ (Numbers 25:10-13)

(The ancient priests may have used the imprimatur of the Divine as self-serving in elevating Pinchas as one of their own despite his egregious behavior.)

Elsewhere, the daughters of Zelophehad, recognized that they had no inheritance as women after their father died. They stepped forward together, though each is named specifically and plead their case before Moses, God, and the community. They draw near not with aggression but with explanation:

The daughters of Zelophehad, of Manassite family—son of Hepher son of Gilead son of Machir son of Manasseh son of Joseph—came forward. The names of the daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah…

“Our father died in the wilderness. He was not one of the faction, Korah’s faction, that banded together against GOD, but died for his own sin; and he has left no sons.

Let not our father’s name be lost to his clan just because he had no son! Give us a holding among our father’s kinsmen!”

Moses brought their case before GOD.

And GOD said to Moses,

“The plea of Zelophehad’s daughters is just: you should give them a hereditary holding among their father’s kinsmen; transfer their father’s share to them.  (Numbers 27:1,3-7)

Their desire was altruistic because they wanted to ensure the perpetuation of the name and property of their departed father. God heard their position and rendered the decision in their favor.

Pinchas, it would seem, was rewarded with the Divine “pact of friendship.” בְּרִיתִ֖י שָׁלֽוֹם

Yet his legacy does not endure. The Torah scribes added their own commentary. They refused to recognize his deed as worthy of praise. Just as Pinchas had broken peace with his violence, they broke one of the letters in the word for peace. Every scribal rendition of the Torah lacks the full letter vav, as if his peace is perpetually impure and not holy ever.

We see leaders of all kind in our own day. Some spew hate, seeking what they want with violent attacks using their words as swords to pierce the heart. They even receive rewards of admiration. Others think wisely and bring people together with thoughtful arguments and considerations. They engage in holy interactions and see the world beyond themselves.

We all get to choose whom we admire. What are we willing to do, say, and think to get what we want? The Torah lets us decide.

Shabbat Shalom! שבת שלום

We celebrate Shabbat this week with Qabbalat Shabbat at 6:00 p.m. outside in the Garden. Register here to join on Zoom.

On Shabbat morning, we gather at 9:00 a.m. in the library for a short Shabbat service and Torah reading followed by a lively discussion of this week’s Torah portion. All levels and abilities are welcomed. Register here to join on Zoom.

Gather online to say goodbye to Shabbat with a lay-led Havdalah on Zoom at 8:00 p.m

See Temple Israel’s webpage for Livesteam options.

I continue to value the many comments you exchange with me through these Shabbat Awakenings.  Share with me what you think . Your email goes directly to me!

Rabbi Elaine Zecher