My Covenant of Peace

Opening The Torah reading named after Pinchas, the grandson of Aaron, opens on a strange note. Just before it come a plague, immorality and a desecration of Hashem’s Name. And now, right in the middle of the storm, comes one quiet verse: “I am giving him My covenant of peace.” Peace? Now, of all times? And to him, of all people? My brother, ask yourself: what exactly did Pinchas do to earn such a reward? And what does zeal have to do with peace? Zimri’s Claim: “This Is What I Am” Zimri son of Salu, a tribal leader, was not just an ordinary sinner. The Talmud describes what he did. He did it in public, in front of Moses and in front of the whole community. But what interests us is not only the act itself. It is the claim behind it. Zimri stood there and declared, with his body and his soul: This is what I am. It was not a choice and not a planned rebellion. It was a statement about who he was. It was as if he were saying, “I am forced.” My nature, my body, the forces that pull at me: that is me. I have no choice. I have no strength left. And what did Moses do? The Talmud says: “The law slipped from his mind.” And who is Moses? Inside a person, he stands for awareness. He is the mind, the reasoned argument, the learning. At that moment, when Zimri stood there with his claim of total despair, the mind fell silent. This did not happen only out of weakness. It happened because there are moments the mind cannot reach. A person may say, “I have no choice anymore. It’s too late. This is what I am.” Then rational argument does not touch him. Law, calculation, moral teaching: all of it disappears. Pinchas: Rising Up Against Despair And then Pinchas arrives. Notice this. Pinchas did not come to prove Zimri wrong. He did not come to win an argument. He came with self-sacrifice, a power higher than reason and understanding. He did what he did, and his act said one thing only: No. We are not finished. The bond has not been cut. Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, author of the Tanya, explains this in his book Likkutei Torah. The zeal of Pinchas was not anger at the sin. It was a deep expression of love for every Jew: a refusal to give up on a Jew. It was not because Zimri had proven himself worthy. It was because the bond itself is far above and beyond anyone’s deeds. Pinchas said: Even if you have given up on yourself, I am not giving up on you. This kind of act cannot be grasped by ordinary reason. That is why “it slipped from Moses’ mind.” And that is why it was Pinchas, of all people, who stood up. The Pinchas Within You And now, my brother, here is the inner point. The Zohar, the great book of Jewish mysticism, says: “Pinchas is Elijah.” That is, Pinchas is Elijah the Prophet. And Elijah, as is well known, is the angel of the covenant, present at every circumcision. At every circumcision performed among the Jewish people, Elijah is there. Why? Because he is the witness to the eternal covenant between Hashem and the Jewish soul. It is a covenant that does not depend on deeds, on time or on a person’s falls. It is a covenant that can never be undone. Now listen. Pinchas, who is Elijah, the angel of the covenant, is also a power inside your own soul. “Your Pinchas” is that deep point in the soul that never gives up. It holds on when everything else has gone silent. It holds on when the mind says “there’s nothing to be done.” It holds on even when you yourself have given up on yourself. As Rabbi Schneur Zalman writes in the Tanya, the classic book of Hasidic thought: the very core of the soul is never damaged. Even the person who is farthest away is bound to the Infinite One by a bond that is part of his very being. This is the secret of “My covenant of peace.” True inner peace does not mean everything is fine. It means the covenant is still there. The bond is alive. Hashem believes in you, even when you do not believe in yourself.