Parashat Pinchas — “Phinehas”

Saturday 11 July 2015                                                                        Tamuz 24  5775

Parashat Pinchas — “Phinehas”
Numbers 25:10-29:40; 1 Kings 18:46-19:21; John 2:13-25

God’s holy place is called the Tent of Appointment. His holy times are called the appointed times. The reason is to teach you that the Sabbath and the holy days are like tabernacles pitched in the flow of time. When we enter the appointed times, we enter a holy temple made of time.

Numbers 28–29: The LORD warns Israel, “You shall be careful to present My offering…at their appointed times.” (28:2) Numbers 28–29 is an ancient priestly calendar, a detailed list of the prescribed Temple sacrifices for each festival day. The verse refers to the Sabbath day and the biblical festivals as moadim, i.e. appointed times. They are God’s appointed times for meeting with man. They are also appointed times for sacrifice.

Since we are without the Holy Temple, the laws of Numbers 28–29 are not actually applicable to us. They are a list of sacrifices, and the Bible forbids us from making sacrifices outside of the Temple. We are forbidden from offering a sacrifice, but we are still obligated to keep the appointed times.

The word translated as “careful” in Numbers 28:2 is the Hebrew verb shamar, the same word typically translated as “observe.” For example, the famous passage that says “the sons of Israel shall observe the Sabbath, to celebrate the Sabbath,” translates the same verb as “observe.” Thus we learn in this passage that we are to be scrupulously careful to keep the appointed times at the appointed times.

It is all too common to take a rather sloppy attitude about matters of faith and observance. It is often said, “It doesn’t matter which day we keep the Sabbath, as long as we keep ‘a sabbath.’” Or someone might say, “Our Seder isn’t on the seder night, but at least we are doing a seder.” This kind of loose and casual attitude toward God’s commandments is sometimes misconstrued as being more ‘spiritual’ in that it is more concerned with the intent of the law then with the actual details.

But this is arrogance in the extreme. Who are we to determine the intent of God’s laws? Who are we to disregard the specific details of His commandments on the basis that we deem them irrelevant? Should we expect Him to bend His schedule to meet ours? If we can make the appointment whenever it is convenient for us, then it is really not God’s appointed time.

For example, if I was to agree to meet you at a certain coffee shop, at a certain time of day, this coming Tuesday, but then I decided that Wednesday would work better for me, and showed up on Wednesday instead of Tuesday, I would not actually be keeping the appointment, would I? You would have been there on Tuesday. I would have been there on Wednesday. We would never have met as we were supposed to meet.

It is much the same with God’s appointed times. We are to be ‘careful’ to ‘observe’ them in their ‘appointed times.

Furthermore, the same word for ‘careful’ – ‘shamar’ – also means “to build a hedge around, to guard, to be circumspect’. The inference is that we are to walk circumspectly with our G-d and be diligent to obey His mitzvoth. You cannot improve on that which is already perfect. Anything and everything that comes ‘al pi Adonai’ – ‘from the mouth of G-d’ – is perfect! There is no room for man’s creativity. All the sacrifices and observances had to be done just so! And they were effective! They worked!

And so, Rav Sha’ul also counsels us to walk circumspectly with our G-d and with one another:
Eph 5:21
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth),
10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.
11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. 
14  Therefore He says: "Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Messiah  will give you light."
15 Walk in Wisdom. See then that you walk circumspectly , not as fools but as wise,
16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 
18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,

Here, in the Greek, we are commanded to walk circumspectly, diligently fulfilling His instructions, neither adding or subtracting, nor substituting our ideas.

Walking as children of light, being filled with His Spirit and obeying His revealed order in time is our safeguard against the evil that is proliferating even in our day!

Shabbat Shalom!