Pinchas 

The sicha for parshas Pinchas is in Vol. XVIII of Likkutei Sichos.

Concerning the previous Rebbe whose birthday and Chag HaGeulah is Yud Beis/Yud Gimmel Tammuz, the Freidicke Rebbe says about himself that he was born in the week of parshas Pinchas and most of the events in his life also occurred in the time of parshas Pinchas which are all hinted at in the parsha. This means that the geulah, the avodah and the events in general of the Freidicke Rebbe’s life are closely tied with the events of Pinchas. And Pinchas is the name of the sedra, so in the sedra we have a reflection of the life of the Freidicke Rebbe.

This is also hinted at in the fact that the Freidicke Rebbe’s name is Yitzchak which has the same gematria as Pinchas, which is mentioned in the Zohar. This numerical similarity shows that there is an inner connection, particularly when the gematria is actually quoted in the Torah, in the Zohar.

The Rebbe’s first name was Yosef. Pinchas is from the children of Yosef, as the Torah says, that Pinchas’ mother came from the tribe of Yosef. The fact Yosef does not have the same gematria as Pinchas whereas Yitzchak does shows that the aspect of Yitzchak is more openly related to Pinchas than Yosef which is related in a more hidden way as we shall soon see.

The obvious similarity between Yitzchak and Pinchas, between the Freidicke Rebbe and Pinchas, has to do with the zealousness of Pinchas on behalf of the Jewish people. Pinchas killed a Jewish man who was having relations with a non-Jewish woman and in that way stopped the plague that was killing the Jews by the thousands. There is no halacha concerning the punishment for such illicit relations other than for those who are zealous can take the law in their own hands. But if they come to ask what the law is, they are not told what to do, it is up to them, they have permission to do, but they don’t have any instruction to do.

This is also the manner in which the Previous Rebbe went about protecting Jews in his times. His mesires nefesh for strengthening and defending Torah in Russia which led to his arrest was in a form of mesires nefesh for which there is no instruction. There is no obligation in Torah to be that way; it is up to the person to voluntarily be moved to do this. We find that there is mesires nefesh required for three sins, murder, idolatry and adultery. For any other mitzvah, there is no obligation to have mesires nefesh but there is permission given to be moved with that zealousness on behalf of the Jewish people.

Now we can ask the question, the mesires nefesh of Pinchas is described not in the parsha of Pinchas but at the end of the previous parsha in Balak. Parshas Pinchas talks about the reward that Pinchas received for his mesires nefesh, so why does Yud-Bais/ Yud Gimmel Tammuz come out in the week of Pinchas rather than in the week of Balak. We can understand this first by explaining the Gemarrah in Yerushalmi where it says that the Sages of Pinchas’ generation wanted to excommunicate him for what he did, but then the Heavenly voice came and said that G-d promises to Pinchas and his children, bris kohunas olam, an eternal covenant of priesthood.

So this makes the mesires nefesh and the zealousness of Pinchas much greater, it was not only a physical one, he gave up not only his body, but he gave up also his soul – they were going to excommunicate him, before the Heavenly voice told him of his reward. He suffered the disapproval and condemnation of the Sages of his generation. And even so, when he saw that Jews were confused, that Jews were misguided and that there was a plague raging among the Jews, he didn’t stop to consider any of the consequences, the physical nor spiritual and he did what he had to do to remove the anger and the plague from the Jews.

This kind of devotion with such a mesires nefesh comes from the essence of the Jewish soul which is higher than the Torah itself. Therefore the mesires nefesh that comes from the essence of the Jewish soul is higher than the limitations and the restrictions of the Torah. The Torah says that for these mitzvahs one has to have mesires nefesh and for those mitzvahs one doesn’t, but in the essence of the Jewish neshama, there is a mesires nefesh for every Jew under all circumstances.

And that is why Pinchas’ reward was appropriate - the blessing of eternal kohuna, of eternal holiness passed on from generation to generation. This too goes against the logical restriction of Torah itself. According to Torah, kohuna is something that comes as an inheritance from father to child. And since Pinchas at that time was not yet a kohen, it was therefore not logical that his children should be kohanim. But because of his zealousness, because of his mesires nefesh, he reached the level that was higher than the restrictions of Torah, and therefore he was given a reward that according to the norms of Torah couldn’t be possible and yet was given to him beyond the norm, beyond the restrictions of Torah.

From this we understand that it is in the parsha of Pinchas that G-d tells him he will be rewarded for what he did because he was zealous for G-d, because he reached this level of mesires nefesh and brought forgiveness for the Jewish people. This is what reveals to us the true nature of the mesires nefesh of Pinchas, that it was not only a physical but a spiritual mesires nefesh. And in spite of the condemnation of the Sages of the generation and the fact that his neshama might suffer excommunication, he was moved in the core of his neshama to do what the Divine will really wanted, even though it was not explicitly stated in the Torah.

The same is true also with the Freidicke Rebbe. Not only was his work in spreading Torah and mitzvahs with mesires nefesh of his body, where he literally gave up the well-being of his body, he suffered physically for all matters of Torah and mitzvahs, but he was also not obligated to do so. There was no mitzvah to have this mesires nefesh, as with Pinchas, there was no halacha that demanded it. And therefore, there were many among the Sages, the Jewish leaders of that time who couldn’t understand the Rebbe’s devotion, his mesires nefesh, and did not agree with it. They themselves did not follow his example, as it was with Pinchas who met with disapproval from the Sages of his generation. In particular the Freidicke Rebbe’s avodah was of such a style where it put not only himself in danger but also all of his work, as we will describe later, since the main objection of the communist government was that the Rebbe insisted on teaching the young generation, on raising a generation of Jews with a good Jewish education.

This means that in addition to his personal mesires nefesh, giving up his physical well-being, he was also putting in danger his neshama, his spiritual life. He was putting in danger that which he stood for and worked for, that which was his neshama, the soul of his life. In the circumstances of that time in that country the very existence of Jews and Judaism was endangered, the survival of the Jews was at stake, and therefore he didn’t take into account any dangers or consequences, but did with mesires nefesh what had to be done for his fellow Jew.

And so it is also for us. As in the story of Pinchas, and later with the Freidicke Rebbe, what the Rebbe did was right, the true avodah which is necessary under those circumstances was also revealed to the world as the proper approach. The difference only was that concerning Pinchas it remains even today a halacha that there is no instruction given to take revenge, to be zealous on a person who is sinning. But concerning the Rebbe’s avodah, the fact that he was released and was victorious is a clear indication from above that this is the way we are supposed to be, we now have the instruction to behave this way, to have mesires nefesh for another Jew. And so the Rebbe himself also instructed others in the way to serve G-d through devotion to the Jewish people. It is only in this way that the sparks and embers of Judaism in that country were kept alive to such a degree that they and their children are now living Yiddishkeit bris kohunas olam.

We will now understand the connection between Pinchas and Yitzchak and their gematria because the style of mesires nefesh is also related to Akeidas Yitzchak. This is Yitzchak at his highest level because his mesires nefesh was also spiritual as well as physical. Yitzchak knew that the whole lifestyle, the faith and belief and devotion of Avraham to teach the world about the oneness of G-d was really dependent on him following in his father’s footsteps and continuing the project. By allowing himself to be taken to the Akeidah, he was giving up not only his physical life but also what his life stood for, because without him, the project of teaching the world about G-d would also suffer, and yet he went willingly because he heard that this is what G-d wanted.

The previous Rebbe also had the first name of Yitzchak, which is what makes him different from Pinchas. We will understand this based on something written in Kabbalah and Chassidus concerning the difference between Yosef and Yitzchak.

Yosef is related to the letter gimmel and Yitzchak to the letter daled. Gimmel stands for gemilus chesed, giving to the poor and daled means poor. When one gives to the poor, there is the giver and the receiver, which means also the preparation and the fact. Giving to the poor is a preparation of the mitzvah, but the poor man receiving his bread, that is the fact, the actual deed of the mitzvah. So in every giving, wherever there is a giver and a receiver, there is a gimmel which refers to the preparation of the mitzvah, of the relationship, and then there is the fact of the relationship, when the receiver receives what he needs.

The same is true also within a person himself, that there is the preparation that one makes within himself to learn or to improve his behavior, and then there is the outcome, the fact, the result when he actually does a good deed or a mitzvah.

And so the relationship between gimmel and daled that follow one and another, every energy stars off with a gimmel and ends up with a daled. That is why there are three worlds, Atzilut, Beriah and Yetzirah, and then there is the world of Action. That is why also the gimmel is represented by the midah of yesod, which is the mashpia, that has all three types of emotions contained within it. Then there is the daled which refers to malchus, the actual creation of the lower world. The emotions are all gathered in yesod, yesod gives to malchus, and malchus actually creates.

So here is what we see in the two names Yosef and Yitzchak.

Yosef and Yitzchak refer to the giving and the act, or the preparation and the deed. This also refers to “na’aseh v’nishmah”, the hearing, the understanding that leads to the doing, and then the doing itself. Concerning Pinchas, his mesires nefesh was only in the act, in that he did what he had to do. But the learning didn’t come from him, because he was not the nosi, the head of his generation or the teacher of his generation. On the contrary, his teacher was Moshe. So in Pinchas, of course he was taught, he had the “nishmah” but his strength was primarily in the doing, in the “na’aseh”. And since the act carries with it the essence of the intention, the earliest intention is expressed in the final act, therefore by doing what he did, he revealed the highest level of connectedness with G-d, the t’chila that is expressed in the sof maaseh, the beginning that is expressed in the end.

But with Freidicke Rebbe, he was the head of his generation and the nosi hu hakol, and therefore in him both the na’aseh and the nishmah were essential and strong. And this is expressed in his name Yosef and Yitzchak, Yosef referring to the gimmel, the preparation and Yitzchak to the daled, the actual deed. We see this in the actual behavior of the Freidicke Rebbe. On the one hand, he had mesires nefesh for the most basic mitzvahs of Yiddishkeit and for the simplest of people, and for the youngest children to teach them aleph beis, the beginnings of Yiddishkeit, and by sending shochtim and mohelim, melamdim and rabbonim, to simply do the physical work of keeping Yiddishkeit alive. That was the “na’aseh”. Then on the other hand, the Freidicke Rebbe excelled in explaining and revealing the deepest aspects of Torah, the nishmah, the understanding of G-dliness on equal footing with the na’aseh.

This gives us another connection between the Freidicke Rebbe’s name, Yosef Yitchak and Pinchas, and also a ha’arah in our avodah, how we should behave.

By the Rebbe’s shluchim the Rebbe demands to take advantage of every opportunity to do a mitzvah without stopping to consider and to measure and to judge because there is no time for that – the main thing is “Yitzchak” which is gematria Pinchas. The main thing is the doing – we have to go out into the world and prevail on Jews that they should keep Torah and mitzvahs. Even if a person feels that he hasn’t made the proper preparation, he doesn’t have the nishmah properly in his own Torah and mitzvahs, yet he shouldn’t wait and he should go immediately and help the other person with his na’aseh, with the doing of his mitzvahs.

And particularly when we find ourselves at the end of golus and there is no time to wait until a person prevails upon himself that he should make his proper preparations, to have his nishmah in tact, because “ut, ut, kummt Moshiach” and we have to use every second that is left to have mesires nefesh for the na’aseh for another Jew.

Even more than that, since we are doing this as a shliach of the Rebbe, the head of the generation, in your na’aseh there is the nishmah of the Rebbe, which is the Yosef, just as it was with Pinchas. He was taught by Moshe Rabbeinu, that was his nishmah, and then he went and added the na’aseh. So when we go as shluchim of the Rebbe, then we have the nishmah coming from the Rebbe, the kavanah is already intact, all we have to do is add the na’aseh – complete the act.

This is also hinted at in Yitzchak, which is the daled, the four, because four means that the gimmel is included in the four, and one more is added which is the action. Through this avodah we are zocher that Pinchas will be revealed as Eliyahu because Pinchas is Eliyahu and Eliyahu is the one who announces the coming of Moshiach. This also is on the level of na’aseh, Eliyahu comes to bring together the hearts of the parents and the children, and so on, and that is the geulah, the fourth and final geulah, which is associated with the number four. There are four expressions of geulah and four cups of punishment that G-d will give to the nations that have made Jews suffer. Accordingly there are also four cups of blessing, of nechama, consolation that G-d will give to the Jewish people, b’karov mamush.

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