(înapoi la pagina ZOHAR CUPRINS / PINCHAS – click)
17) It is written, “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and also wept when we remembered Zion.” Should it not have written “Jerusalem,” as it is written, “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget”? However, it is like a person who had a respectable and handsome palace, and robbers came and burned it, to the dismay of the owner of that palace. Here, too, whose sorrow is it that the Shechina is in exile? It is of the righteous, Yesod.
It is written, “The righteous is lost,” truly lost, since the whole work of Yesod is to bestow, and if the Shechina is in exile and he has no one upon whom to bestow, it is as though he is gone and lost. Here, too, “when we remember Zion” means when we remember the sorrow of Zion, which is Yesod, for the absence of Zivug, it is his sorrow.
18) One who honors the name of his Master at that and keeps the covenant is rewarded with his Master honoring him with everything. How do we know? From Joseph, as it is written, “And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had,” and as it is written, “And he set him over all the land of Egypt.” Moreover, when Israel crossed the sea, Joseph’s coffin entered it first, and the water could not maintain themselves before him, as it is written, “The sea saw it, and fled.” “Fled” means that the sea saw him, that it is written in him, “and fled,” and it went out.
19) He was rewarded with honor in his life, and was rewarded with honor in his death. In his life, because of that time when he did not want to cling to Potiphar’s wife, as it is written, “And he refused, and said to his master’s wife.” And it is written, “And he did not listen to her to lie by her or be with her.” For this reason, he was rewarded with honor in this world.
Because it is written, “And she caught him by his garment,” and it is written, “and [he] fled, and went outside.” For this reason, after his demise he was rewarded with entering the high curtain in the palace of the Holy of Holies. It follows that he took what was his in this world, and took what was his in the other world.
20) Pinhas was rewarded in this world and was rewarded in the next world. He was rewarded with more persistence than all those who came out of Egypt, and was rewarded with being the high priest, he and all his sons after him. Was he rewarded with the priesthood because he did this act? No, for some say that he was rewarded with the priesthood before, without it. Therefore, how do we explain the verse, “For he was jealous for his God,” which means that by merit of this act he gained the priesthood, which he did not have before?
21) Any priest who has killed a soul is forever disqualified from priesthood, for he has disqualified his degree toward it, as priesthood is the degree of Hesed, and killing a soul is the opposite of it. And because Pinhas killed Zimri and Cozbi, he was disqualified from ever becoming a priest. And because he was jealous for the Creator, He had to give him anew an everlasting priesthood, to him and to his descendants after him, and to all generations. This is why it is written, “For he was jealous for his God.”
Inscribed is Pinhas above and inscribed is below. Above, before he came to the world. Below, since he was among those who went out of Egypt. When the Creator said, “And I remembered My covenant,” He wanted to remove Aaron from his mission to Egypt because his two sons blemished the covenant. But when the Creator saw how Pinhas was keeping the covenant in his stead, correcting Nadav and Avihu, He sent them. This is why it is said here, “Inscribed is Pinhas above and inscribed is below,” since thanks to him, He sent Aaron on his mission.
22) It is written in Pinhas, “I give to him My covenant of peace,” meaning peace from the angel of death, who never controls him and in whose Dinim [judgments] he is not judged. Can it be that he did not die? He died but he certainly did not die as do the rest of the people. He lived longer than all his contemporaries because he gripped that upper covenant. When he passed away from the world, in sublime passion and in comely Dvekut [adhesion], he departed from the rest of the people in the world.
(înapoi la pagina ZOHAR CUPRINS / PINCHAS – click)