Pinẖas ~ 19 Tammuz 5780 / 11 July 2020

Usually Torah lettering must be perfect.  Here, in the word shalom, a letter (vav) is cracked.

The context is a plague caused by a flagrant violation of the norms of public worship, an association of sexual activity and idolatry. Pinẖas stops the plague and, acting as a vigilante, executes the guilty Israelite man and Midianite woman.

I see that cracked letter as symbolic of the shattered aftermath of the plague. The people of Israel will go forward, but will carry that cracked letter in the Torah forever, a reminder that plagues cause terrible fissures in society.

Another plague is described at the end of the Books of Samuel (chapter 24). In this account, God incites King David to initiate a census. Warned that counting is dangerous, David persists. After the numbers are in, David realizes that this was wrong and asks for forgiveness. Gad, the prophet gives him a terrible choice: three years of famine, three months of fleeing from his enemies, or three days of plague.

David doesn’t want a famine and says to Gad:  “ וַיֹּ֧אמֶר דָּוִ֛ד אֶל־גָּ֖ד צַר־לִ֣י מְאֹ֑ד נִפְּלָה־נָּ֤א בְיַד־ה֙ — I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Eternal, for God’s mercy is great; but do not let me fall into human hands.” You may recall those words, as they introduce weekday seliẖot.

Interestingly, the same narrative is found in Chronicles, with the primary difference being the hesitancy to link God to inciting David. Instead, Satan, the Adversary, provides the incentive.  In both narratives, a plague begins, yet God protects Jerusalem and subsequently instructs David to build an altar in the threshing field of Arona the Jebusite. David purchases the land and this becomes a turning point in Biblical history.

Jerusalem, which is midway between the northern and southern tribes, had no inherent historical Biblical sanctity (although later tradition associated the Temple with Avraham and Moriah). But in the future, the altar, the city of David, the upper city and Temple, will all be located in Jerusalem, which will grow in prominence and qedushah.

By the way, you now can walk the pathway from the original City of David area up to the area of the Temple. Plan to do so on your next trip to Israel. 

The origin of the plague is shrouded in mystery. But out of that ancient plague came the beautiful and sacred city, something very positive which affected Jewish and world history.

We know that the current pandemic is accelerating changes. There is terrible suffering and horrible pain. Human lives and businesses are in great crisis. Only the unfeeling would see this simply as “creative destruction.” We don’t know details, but we do know that our world will be different.

Yet the message from the Torah is that out of plague and pandemic there is the possibility of something positive. We don’t yet know what that will be, although we are already witnessing great creativity in medicine, on-line learning, and Torah study.

Let us return, for a moment, to the cracked letter associated with the end of the Torah plague. The Torah is no longer letter perfect, as it contains a cracked letter.

You will recall the words of Leonard Cohen in his powerful poem-song, “Anthem”.

Ring the bells that can still ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That’s how the light gets in.

Let us hope that even as our world has been shattered, even as a great fissure has opened to expose our sense of insecurity, perhaps, possibly, through this crack there will be enough light to build a new future.

Ring the bells that can still ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That’s how the light gets in.