B"H

Tuesday, Tammuz 20, 5778 / July 3, 2018

This week’s Parsha, Pinchas, is named after Aaron’s grandson, Pinchas.

It was through Pinchas’ courageous action that a plague, which took the lives of 24,000 Jews stopped. As a reward, G-d gave Pinchas and his descendents G-d’s covenant of Shalom-peace.

The covenant of Peace which G-d gave to Pinchas was that from then on he became a Kohen. Although his father and grandfather were Kohanim, Pinchas himself was not a Kohen until this time.

In this Parsha we read about the counting of the Jewish people before going into the Promised Land. It is the fourth time in the Torah that the Jewish people are counted. The first was when they left Egypt; The second time was after they sinned with the Golden Calf; The third counting was after they built the Tabernacle and the counting in this Parsha, is the fourth count.

All the men over the age of 20 were counted. In each of the four counts there were at least 600,000.

The first three counts took place approximately within the first year after the Exodus. This last count took place forty years later, at the end of their 40 years in the desert, as they were getting ready to go into the Promised land.

Every counting had to do with a special event which warranted the counting. The first one was when they left Egypt. The purpose was to show that although Jacob came to Egypt, 210 years earlier, with only 70 people, by the time of the Exodus they were six hundred thousand.

The second count was after they sinned with the Golden Calf, when many of them died. As a result G-d wanted Moshe to count them to know how many were left. The third counting was after the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was erected and G-d rested His glory on the people, He told Moshe to count them again. Between the second count and the third was about a half year.

The fourth counting, the one in this week’s Parsha, was after a plague killed 24,000 people.

Q. G-d knew their numbers without counting them, why did He command Moshe to count them?

A. Our sages tell us that all these counts was to show and express G-d’s love for them.

Our sages explain this with the following parable: A shepherd was attending to his master’s flock, when a pack of wolves attacked and ate many of the sheep. After the attack the owner told the shepherd to count how many sheep were saved. This is because the owner loves and cares for his sheep. Each and everyone is precious to him. G-d also instructed Moshe to count the Jewish people to know how many survived, thus expressing His love for His people.

HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY