Pinchas's Covenant of Peace: A Reward for Klal Yisrael

1“Therefore say: Behold, I give him My covenant of peace.”¹ On this the Midrash says: “The Holy One, blessed be He, said: By right he should take his reward. Great is the peace that was given to Pinchas, for the world is conducted only through peace.” The Midrash goes on at length about the greatness of peace.² Several holy sefarim, the Kol Simchah, the Toras Moshe and the Sifsei Tzaddik, ask: we hold that “there is no reward for a mitzvah in this world.”³ How, then, can it be that “by right he should take his reward”? We must also ask what the greatness of peace has to do with Pinchas.

2aLet us first cite the words of my holy father and teacher, zt"l, explaining this Midrash. In the LeShem Yichud, the declaration of intent said before a mitzvah, we say “in the name of all Israel.” The reason is that when an individual does a mitzvah, there may be accusers against him Above, for who can be found righteous before Him in judgment? But when many do it, no one accuses from Above, as Chazal said that the Holy One, blessed be He, does not reject the prayer of the many.⁴ That is why we say “in the name of all Israel”: to include the individual with the many in every mitzvah he does.

2bThis is the meaning of what the verse says of Pinchas, “when he was zealous with My zeal in their midst.” He did his deed “in their midst”: he dedicated his act of zeal to the community, for the merit and survival of the many. So Hashem said, “Behold, I give My covenant of peace,” and Chazal explained, “By right he should take his reward.” For while there is no reward for a mitzvah in this world, that is because the mitzvah is eternal and man is not, so he cannot receive its reward in this world. But of Klal Yisrael it is said, “The Eternal One of Yisrael will not lie,”⁵ meaning that Israel endures forever. Since Pinchas dedicated his mitzvah to the many, [who are eternal,] “by right he should take” his eternal reward in this world itself.

3To understand the whole matter, we can explain it as follows. The commentators, as the Kli Yakar cites them, raise a well-known question about the Torah's words “If you walk in My statutes … then I will give your rains in their season”:⁶ surely “there is no reward for a mitzvah in this world”!⁷ They answer, as the Rambam writes, that this is not a reward for the mitzvah.⁸ Rather, “if there is no flour, there is no Torah,”⁹ so Hashem gives rain so that Klal Yisrael will have an abundance of blessing and through it be able to engage in Torah and mitzvos. It is like the saying “the reward of a mitzvah is a mitzvah”:¹⁰ the reward for one mitzvah is that we are able, and privileged, to do another. Such a blessing does not count as a reward, so it is given even in this world.

4On this basis we may say the same was true of Pinchas. The commentators, among them the Tzror HaMor, the Maggid Meisharim, the Alshich and the Ohr HaChaim, write that Pinchas made peace between Bnei Yisrael and their Father in Heaven. The Holy One, blessed be He, hates lewdness,¹¹ and there was wrath and a great accusation against them; then “he turned back My wrath from upon Bnei Yisrael,” and peace was made. This is what is meant by “when he was zealous with My zeal in their midst”: Pinchas's intention was to increase peace among Bnei Yisrael. Therefore, measure for measure, the verse says, “Behold, I give him My covenant of peace.” The covenant of peace that Hashem gave Pinchas means that he would be privileged to increase peace in the world. For, as is well known, “Pinchas is Eliyahu,”¹² and Chazal said that “Eliyahu comes neither to push away nor to bring close, but to make peace in the world.”¹³ That is why, [like the rain in the Torah's promise,] this does not count as a reward for the mitzvah.

5This is the meaning of what the Baal HaTurim, R' Yaakov ben Asher, wrote: the word lachen, “therefore,” has the numerical value of middah bemiddah, “measure for measure.”¹⁴ For here the reward comes not as a reward for a mitzvah but as measure for measure. And since what Pinchas was privileged to attain was the attribute of peace, the Midrash dwells at length on how great the power of peace is, for through its power peace is continually made in Israel. This reward, then, serves only to let Bnei Yisrael endure in this world and keep the mitzvos.

6This makes good sense of Targum Yonasan's rendering of the verse “Behold, I give him My covenant of peace”: “Va'avdineih mal'ach kayam veyeichei le'alma levassara ge'ulta besof yomaya” [“I will make him a living angel, and he will live forever, to herald the redemption at the end of days”].¹⁵ Israel's redemption depends on peace first being made within Israel, and Pinchas was privileged to inherit the attribute of peace. So Pinchas, who is Eliyahu, must come before Moshiach, and through the peace he makes in the world the Redeemer will be revealed.

7The Second Beis HaMikdash was destroyed because of baseless hatred,¹⁶ and in this matter the Satan still dances among us, so that we keep moving further and further from the redemption. As we say in the prayer, “Because of our sins we were exiled from our land and distanced from our soil.”¹⁷ At first glance the word “distanced” is unnecessary: once we were exiled, we could not go up to the place of the Beis HaMikdash even if we lived near our land. We may say that it means this: instead of bringing the redemption closer, we keep moving further from it through the baseless hatred among us. So we must strive to live in love and peace, and then the redemption will speedily draw near.

8May Hashem grant that we be privileged to increase peace, love and brotherhood, and through this to hasten the End, with the coming of Moshiach. Amen, may it be His will.