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The Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection is the one-stop shop for the Torah inspiration shared by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe in one simple feed. The Jewish Inspiration Podcast, Parsha Review Podcast, Thinking Talmudist Podcast, Living Jewishly Podcast and Unboxing Judaism Podcast all in one convenient place. Enjoy!
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Parsha Review Podcast.
Good morning, everybody. Welcome back to the Parsha Review Podcast. This week's Parsha is Parsha's Pinchas. Pinchas is a known hero in the Torah, and if we look at the end of last week's Parsha, Parsha's Balach, we see Vayar, Pinchas, Ben Elazar, Ben Aaron Hakohen. We see that Pinchas stands up when there is a plague that takes over the Jewish people,
which was all part of the plan of Bilaam. Bilaam wanted the Jewish people to become non-Jews. Let's integrate them. Let's assimilate them. Let's find a way for them to be like all of us, and then we don't have to worry about cursing them, because he saw the curses weren't working out well for him. Bilaam tried on Balach's request to curse the Jewish people, and every time he tried, it came to be a blessing. So it didn't work out well for him. The plan didn't work as expected.
He says the only way to do it is from within. If we're able to get the young Jewish men to marry the non-Jewish girls, then we'll be able to take them from within, and then we destroy the entire Jewish people. And that was the plan, and you know, it's interesting that in modern day, there's been the same tactic by the nations of the world towards the Jewish people with all of the assimilation that we see today going on in our generation, this generation, previous generation, sadly,
where the Jewish people have not been as careful as we should have been with maintaining our status within the Jewish people. But either way, Pinchas sees what's going on. He doesn't like it, and he, as we know, he takes a spear. He takes a spear, and he puts it straight through Zimri and Kozbi, and the plague ends because people are awakened to this. And this is really Batei Otzer HaMagefa, Ma'al Bnei Yisroel, and this ended the plague from upon the children of Israel.
And there were 24,000 people who died in this plague. Okay, now we begin this week's Parshah, Parshah Pinchas, and it begins with the reward, and it's very interesting that many times when you see the devastating things that transpired, like here with Pinchas, that 24,000 people died of our brothers and sisters, that's at the end of the Parshah. But then the new Parshah starts off with a whole new tale of a good story. What's the good story? It's the reward that Pinchas gets. And Hashem spoke to Moshe saying,
Pinchas, the son of Elazar, the son of Aaron, the Kohen, the high priest, turned back my anger from upon the children of Israel, and I did not destroy the children of Israel with my, in my vengeance. Therefore, what's going to be his reward? I'm giving him the, what's the peace prize? The peace prize. I'm giving the Nobel Peace Prize. I'm giving him the Nobel Peace Prize. I'm giving him the Nobel Peace Prize. I'm giving him the Nobel Peace Prize. I'm giving him the Nobel Peace Prize.
The peace prize. I'm giving the Nobel Peace Prize. I'm giving him the covenant of peace from God, not Nobel, but nobility of Hashem. Okay. He's getting that prize. And it shall be for him and his offsprings after him a covenant of priesthood that is eternal. So we see that anyone who was of the children of Aaron, who was not yet born, was going to become a Kohen. But those who were already alive weren't going to become a Kohen because they didn't, they didn't get that, that,
that inheritance. Here is an exception that Pinchas became a Kohen later. And only, he was the only one to become a Kohen at a later time. Tachas Ash-Shirkine as a reward that he took vengeance for his God and it was an atonement for the children of Israel. So there's a bunch of very interesting things that need to be the over here. And then it says over here exactly what happened, that he slain the Midianite woman,
Zimri, the guy, Kazbi Bastur and Zimri Ben-Solu who were doing what they were doing. It really is a fascinating story. But if you notice in the parasha of, of this parasha of Pinchas, when we talk about Pinchas, there is a small yod in his name. What's even more interesting is that you'll notice that the, Torah does not have a single portion named for Moshe or for Aaron or for Abraham or for Isaac or for Jacob or for any of the tribes.
I mean, you think Joseph deserves a portion, right? You think Moshe deserves a portion, but instead you see that really not great people and really exceptional people got a portion. You have Balak, you have Korach. I mean, all the wrong guys are getting portions. And then you have Pinchas who was a righteous individual and he does get a portion in his name. But we don't see anything from Moshe. So another interesting thing, just as a side note,
is that this week we begin the three weeks. The three weeks we know are the three weeks of trepidation, I would call it. We have, it's called the three weeks of tragedy that befell the Jewish people, which is a time of great mourning. It begins this Thursday with a fast day of the 17th of Tammuz and it concludes with a fast day of the ninth of Av, which is three weeks later. And in these three weeks,
these are three weeks of challenge for the Jewish people in our history. What is number one key to bringing the Jewish people to good times, to good tidings, to positive outcomes? When we're united. It's interesting that since the holiday of Shavuot, since in Israel they observe one day of Shavuot, which was this year on a Friday, and in the diaspora, like in here in Houston, Texas, we observe a two day Shavuot, so it was Friday and Shabbat.
So the Shabbat parasha reading for the parasha of Nassau was one week earlier in Israel than it was in the diaspora. So we've been off schedule with our brothers and sisters in Israel. They're reading parashas Nassau, by us it's still the holiday of Shavuot. They read Baaloscha and we're reading Nassau. They're reading the next portion, we're reading Baaloscha and so on and so forth till we caught up last week. We read Chukas and Balak together while in Israel they only read Balak
and now we're all united again. So our sages mentioned that this unity, that now we're all on the same page always falls out on the week of the three week starting to teach us that the Jewish people need to always be united. It's a little hint, a little something on the side, a sidebar. But when we talk here about Pinchas having his own portion, so if we notice when Pinchas' name is mentioned here, it's mentioned with a small yod. And perhaps we can say,
you know, Moshe and Aaron did unbelievable things to protect the Jewish people. Moshe and Aaron, Moshe prayed for the Jewish people by the sin of the golden calf. Aaron did amazing things to protect the Jewish people, to pray for them. But what did Pinchas do? Pinchas killed somebody. You wonder, like, is that the example of leadership that we should be pointing out as someone who's really great, someone who should be emulated, someone who should be, you know, revered?
And clearly in the eyes of Hashem, yes, he should be. And it's prominently in our Torah as an example. You know, we have Korach as an example of what not to do. We have Balak as an example of what not to do. Pinchas is an example of what, yes, to do. But shouldn't we have an example like Moshe? Shouldn't we have an example like Aaron? I mean, these were great people. These were our leaders. Sages tell us the small yod, every yod,
the letter yod is also, in Yiddish, it's also yid, right? Which means a Jew, the yod. In fact, there's a story that Reb Maalik Biderman says. He says that there was once somebody learning, how to read Hebrew. And he sees that there's two little lines, two little lines, two little dots. And that's the name of Hashem. Two little yods is the name of Hashem. So he reads the end of the verse. And then you see, again, two dots, one on top of the other.
And he says the name of Hashem. So the teacher says to him, no, no, no, no. This is not the name of Hashem. He says, what are you talking about? This also looks like two yods. It's like the colon at the end of the thing, at the end of the verse. He says, this is also two yods. He says, no, no, no, it's not two yods. He says, but you said when they're next to each other, they're two yods.
Here we have them, you know, also they should be two yods. It should also say it as the name of Hashem. He says, no. He says, when two Jews, two yods, two yids are next to one another, they're equal. Hashem says, count me in. That's my name. But when one is on top of the other, when one feels elevated above the other, that's not Hashem's name. Hashem doesn't want to be associated with that, which is what people say.
L'chaim could be spelled with one yod. The word l'chaim, we know we say l'chaim when two people take a drink together. They say, oh, l'chaim. So why does it need two yods? It can have one yod. Because one Jew alone can't make a l'chaim. You need another Jew with you to make a l'chaim. And then what? Hashem says, I'm with you as well. The small yod represents the Jewish people. The yod represents the Jewish people.
A small yod in the name of Pinchas is perhaps hinting, Pinchas was an ordinary, simple Jew. He was a small Jew. He wasn't somebody who was like, oh, Moshe, a leader, we expect greatness from him. Aaron, a leader, we expect greatness from him. Pinchas, I'm a little guy, I'm a nobody. Look, I have a small yod. Look, I have a small yod. That's who Hashem expects greatness from. That even each and every one of us who are small yods
relative to Moshe and Aaron, we can shine like a Pinchas. We don't have to be a Moshe and an Aaron. We say, listen, I'm not the leader. You know, they've done all these studies about people getting mugged in New York City in broad daylight. Nobody turns around, nobody even blinks. I'm supposed to stop it? It's a crime, I'm supposed to stop it? Not my problem, I'm not the police. I'm not the Moses and Aaron. I'm just a little guy.
And here is an example in the Torah where the Torah says, no, no, no. You little guy, you little yod, you little Jew, you can be a great leader. You can be a man of peace. You can be a leader in this regard. Someone who's forever seen as the one who calmed God's vengeance. So it's an unbelievable thing, unbelievable status. Yeah, Pinchas was able to do that because Pinchas utilized his tools. He utilized them in a way that God says,
oh, here's a guy who's maximizing his ability. So I wanted to talk a little bit more about this. You know, they say that not all heroes wear capes, not all heroes, we can all be a hero, and that's true. But we know we mentioned that many times in order to attain peace, we have to depart from truth. Sometimes in order to make peace, you have to compromise. Compromise is never truth. You say, I owe you $10.
I say, I paid you back and I owe you nothing. Let's compromise, I'll give you five and we're done. We'll quarrel all day. You lose five, I lose five in my opinion, and that's it, we call it a day. Compromise is definitely not the truth. It's either 10 or it's zero. But people are willing to compromise. God is willing to compromise for the sake of peace, for the sake of peace. We see this with the, a few portions ago,
we read about the wayward woman who was accused by her husband of having an adulterous affair. God says, erase my name in the water. Let it bring peace between a husband and wife. God says, I'm willing to have my name erased. God's name, Hashem Eloheichem, Emet. The name of Hashem is truth. God says, I'm willing to have my name erased so that there'll be peace between husband and wife, so that there'll be a resolution to this dilemma. We're living in a world today
where truth isn't obvious anymore, where the truth is the most rear commodity you will ever find, whether you look in the media, whether you look in newspapers or online media, you look on social media, where, you know, I was with my children once at a baseball game, and there's a person sitting next to us who was taking a picture of themselves for about 30 minutes, finding the right angle so that they can post it on their social media,
the one that was not portraying them truthfully, but the one that looked best. You imagine, we're living in a world where everything is show. Everything is, you know, selling a narrative, selling a narrative. It could be a personal narrative where we need to adjust the photos so that it fit my idea of what I should look like versus the reality, or news. You have to sell a certain story. There's certain things that the news will be willing to cover, certain things
that the news will not be willing to cover. The problem is, is that in the search for truth today, we've gone so far away from real truth. And what we see, and this is the, I'm sure that if you had all of these modern day pundits about equality and talking about acceptance and talking about diversity, you have, and if they were around in the time of Pinchas, they would have, and by the way, they were around, because you see what happens right after this.
They start complaining to Moshe. They start complaining to Moshe saying, who's this guy, Pinchas, just killing people indiscriminately? And there's an uprising. And God needs to quiet it down. Say, I give him the peace prize. I give him his briefly shalom. I am sure that today's media people would stand there and picket in front of the old Moed and say, you know, justice for all. And they would be picketing for equality and they'd be picketing for, I don't know, whatever other cause.
What happened? What happened to objective truth? What happened to people just using common sense? That if we go so far away from common sense, we call it a pride. We take pride in the things that we do that go against what Hashem says in his Torah. What in the world is going on that we lost the compass of what is truth, of what is real. And if we, we mentioned this numerous times. A piece from my great-grandfather where he talks about Torah HaSecha,
the Torah of the mind. You know, we all know a very fundamental principle. My son sitting right here, he knows this principle. You can't punish somebody unless you warn them. If there isn't a sign saying that a parking spot is reserved for handicapped, someone parks there, you can't give them a ticket because there's no sign, there's no warning. If there's no speed limit sign and there are rules to it, how frequently it needs to be posted
at the entrance of every ramp into merging into the highway, there has to be a sign for the speed limit. So the people who are joining now the traffic on the highway, they should know, they should be warned. This is the speed limit. And if you go above the speed limit, you're at risk of getting a ticket. There's a warning. We all understand it's basic, it's basic humanity. If you don't warn somebody, you cannot punish them. Ayn onshin eleim ken maz hiren
is the erul in the Talmud. We're was the warning for the people of the flood, for the generation of Noah. We're was the warning for the people of the Tower of Babel. We're was the warning for Cain and Abel. We're is the warning for all of the generations and all of the punishments that were given by the Almighty to all of the generations prior to the giving of the Torah. Torah was given in year 2448 from the creation of Adam and Eve.
We're is the warning for all of these things. There are only seven Noachide laws. A lot of the punishments were for non-Noachide laws. They weren't warned. How can they be punished for something they were not warned for? Says my great-grandfather, God gave us innate wisdom. It's something called common sense. And that if we don't use common sense, we are held liable. The Torah doesn't teach us any laws that are common sense. Just like you wouldn't know the laws of mixing wool and linen.
It's not a common sense law. The Torah needs to warn you about that. The same thing about theft. The same thing about murder. The Torah doesn't warn us not to murder. And if you ask, well, it says it in the 10 commandments. It kind of does tell you that. Look at what the commentaries explain. They don't call lo tirtzach, do not murder. They call that don't embarrass someone in public. Because not murdering, that's common sense. You don't need the Torah to tell you that.
These are things the Torah teaches us that before you learn Torah, you need to have common sense. And it's all too uncommon in our generation to find common sense. It's all too uncommon for people to just see right from wrong. What is right and what is wrong? And the challenge that we're facing as a generation, as a society, is calling things a spade a spade. Call a spade a spade. Say it as it is. No, I can't, it's not politically correct.
I know that as a rabbi, there have been many situations where my rabbi has guided us, you can't talk about certain topics. Because it's politically incorrect and people may put you down for it. You cannot discuss certain topics. Because the generation is so challenged with seeing right and wrong that if you start pointing it out, they'll call you evil. But the Torah says, leave it to God. God can talk about it. You just, it's not your place. Stay out of it.
It's too much of a hot button issue. Is that the way our generation is, that we're so weak? We are so weak that we can't handle simple truths, simple common sense. Our sages teach us that to be a leader, you have to be willing to stand up. You have to be willing to say the thing that nobody else is willing to say. You have to be willing to stand up. When you see that mugging, everybody else will walk by, you will not.
You will not walk by. You will not let it just go on unabated. You're gonna get involved and you're gonna interfere. And you're gonna stop the crime that you're seeing. Yeah, you're not the police, but you're a human being. When you see, what did Moshe Rabbeinu do? Moshe Rabbeinu saw the Egyptian hitting the Jew. What does he do? You can't just stand by, you gotta do something. Be a leader. Okay, we're not a Moshe, but at least be a Pinchas.
Be the simple Jew that does the right thing. Now within this, we have to know there's a fundamental principle that we learned. And we've mentioned this dozens and dozens of times is that there's no mitzvah to make noise. There is a mitzvah to be effective. That means if you know that by reprimanding someone, they will not listen, don't reprimand them. It's not your place to reprimand them. But if you know that there's a way in which you can influence them,
then you're obligated to do that. There's a mitzvah in the Torah, hochech tochech ha'samisecho. To rebuke your fellow, rebuke you shall rebuke your fellow. But it also says in that same verse, velotisa alavchet, but don't bring upon him sin. Why? Because if you tell somebody, and now they don't listen, now the sin is greater. And now you are held liable to that. The Talmud says just like there's a mitzvah to rebuke someone who will listen to you,
there's a mitzvah not to rebuke someone who will not listen to you. We're not obligated to say something if they're not gonna listen. Well, how am I gonna know if they're gonna listen? Well, get to know them better. Get to know them better. If you don't know them well enough to know if they will listen or not, you have no business reprimanding them. This is a fundamental principle. The world today, and this is why my rabbi gives that guidance, the world today
is not willing to listen. Most people. We have to find those few who are willing to listen, who are willing to accept a word of criticism, who are willing to grow, who are willing to at least entertain an opinion that isn't like theirs. And we mentioned this so many times. If we want to grow in our trait of patience, you know what we need to do? We need to talk to somebody who has differing opinions and just listen to them. Hear them out.
Nothing is, you're not gonna turn into a pumpkin if you just listen to them. Listen to them. Listen. It's so important for us to be willing to just take another perspective. Another perspective may be totally wrong at the end. It might be totally wrong. That's fine. It's fine. It could be wrong. But don't not listen. And what, again, what we're learning here from Pinchas is to, if you see something, do something. If you're able to bring about change,
if you're able to, like we see here, Pinchas did what he did and he ended the entire plague. I'm sure there were many people saying like, listen, it's a plague. There's nothing I can do about it. No, no, no. He did something about it. Because it wasn't about me. Bikan O is kinosi. He did it for the sake of heaven. He did it for the sake of the truth of what God, Hashem Elokei Hem Emet, because of the truth of God.
This is not my interpretation. This is not me being all self-righteous. This is because this is the will of Hashem. That's why he got this reward. The reward of the peace prize, of the godly peace prize. And goes with that, that he will become a priest forever. For all the future generations, he will be a priest as part of the Kohanic dynasty. And our sages teach us that who, that Pinchas become, he became Elijah the prophet. We see that there was great reward for this.
Great reward. Where Elijah continues that same zealousness of doing the right thing, even when it was unpopular. If we're always worried about our neighbor, we will never be worried about God. And that's a problem. We don't have to care what our neighbor says. I care about what Hashem says. And therefore, I will do what's right. Aniu beitina b'adat Hashem. We, and our homes, and our families, we're gonna serve God. It might be unpopular, so it's unpopular. My neighbors might not like it,
and my neighbors don't like it. And it's on a very basic level as well. Torah commands us to put a mezuzah on our door. I was at someone's house once. So he had no mezuzah on his front door. I said to him, what's going on? Should I get you a mezuzah? I'll buy you a mezuzah. I'll bring it over. I'll put it on. We'll do a nice little blessing. He says, no, no, no. My neighbors will know I'm Jewish. Seriously?
Are we afraid? Is that where we're living? Is that the life we're living, that we're afraid of what other people are gonna say? And there's an entire culture where they dox people. I mean, this is the world we're living in. This is 2026. My dear friends, we can't hide when we see the truth. We need to be a Pinchas. And we can't say, well, I'm not a leader. It's not my place. Pinchas was a small yid.
He was a small Jew, an ordinary Jew. And he rose to the occasion. My blessing to each and every one of us is that we rise to the occasion. We don't need a cape, and we don't need to be anybody's hero. We need to do the right thing. Hashem should bless us all. Have a great Shabbos.
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