Mark Call of Shabbat Shalom Mesa takes another two-part look at parsha “Pinchas” this week (Numbers 25:10 through 30:1).
The Erev Shabbat overview teaching begins with the end of the story of Pinchas (aka “Phineas” in some English Bibles), the now-legendary zealot who stayed the plague against the children of Israel by running a pair of coupling pagans through with a spear, and continues through the ‘second head count’, as the mixed multitude prepare to enter the land, to a summary of the daily and <em>moedim </em>offerings.
This week the Sabbath Day teaching is about The Zealot, but with the caveat that Pinchas was “in the camp” whereas we today are in exile; arguably, the “opposite part of the cycle.” As Mark also notes, it should perhaps be no surprise that the haftorah portion this week, from the story of Eliyahu (Elijah) the prophet, I Kings 18 into 19, is also a man who self-describes as “zealous for YHVH”. And there’s a whole lot to be learned from that comparison!
