This is a devar Torah I gave over at the final Shabbat morning service of the Aleph Ordination Program summer study intensive. I publish it here as part of my commitment to break white silence and participate in the holy work of working towards racial justice.
Shabbat shalom.
Welcome to Parashat Pinchas, in which we learn, once again, the value Torah places on social action, and in disruption inspired by heartfelt causes.
We get off to a rocky start, with the post-script to the story that ended parashat Balak. To refresh your memory, Aharon’s own grandson, Pinchas, takes matters into his own hands in the midst of an epidemic of baal worship, and impales Shimonite leader Zimri and his Midianite consort, Cozbi on his spear. This act of vigilantism results in G8d ending the devastating plague wrought through Divine anger at this outbreak. If we listen carefully, we can hear echoes of the episode of the golden calf at the foot of Sinai…
Resuming with our current parasha, we learn in verse 25:12 that G8d has rewarded Pinchas for his action with a “b’rit shalom” - a covenant of peace. Wait - what???
As with so many things in Torah that strike a raw nerve for our modern sensibilities, it is clear that our ancient sages also took umbrage to this outcome.
Enter: the broken vav.
You may be familiar with the brilliant visual midrash employed to disrupt the narrative of G8d’s reward to Pinchas. Just in case you’re not… the one letter of a Torah scroll which is not only allowed, but which is mandated to be flawed, is the vav in the word Shalom in this verse, which is split into two pieces. The interpretation of this midrash I first learned tells us that a peace achieved through violence is a broken peace.
We are all too aware of the ways in which our society is badly in need of repair. Particularly present is the recent reignition of the urgent call for racial justice. This calls for disruption of the status quo - experienced as peace for some, as oppression and violence to others. The broken vav has much to tell us about how to make a true b’rit shalom. Here are some things I’ve discovered...
Sometimes, disruption is necessary to achieve true peace. From a jail cell in Birmingham, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King famously wrote a letter to fellow clergy in response to their criticism of his civil rights activities as “unwise and untimely.” Here are some of his observations on the need for disruption for the sake of repair. He writes:
You may well ask, “Why direct action? How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? To put it in terms of St.Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.
Today, while the unjust law of segregation that Dr. King was working to reverse is no longer explicitly written into our legal framework, it is implicitly encoded through unjust policies that result in mass incarceration, and gross inequities in housing, education, healthcare, and pay - to name a few. Human personality continues to be degraded.
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What can the break between the head of the vav and its foot tell us about the time relationship between thought and action? It is clear that an act made in haste can result in a peace that is broken, but a timely, well-thought-out act can result in a true b’rit shalom. How much time do we take in determining whether to take action, and of what sort? To quote Dr. King again:
Time is never neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively… We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right… Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.
Two weeks ago, when we began our Smicha Week journey together, Rabbi Mordecai Liebling taught us about the creative use of time, of the planning and discipline that has gone into civil rights movements contemporary and historic. While the answer to the question of “when” is, most definitely, “Now,” many seemingly spontaneous actions we have witnessed have, in fact, been planned over the course of years, cultivating the discipline of non-violence.
Additionally, to do this work effectively in the world, we must take time for frequent self-examination in order to disrupt the racist programming that we have inherited. As Rabbi Sandra Lawson taught us that day, we need to keep drying off the rain of the messages that continue to soak into our consciousness.
Later in our parasha, the five daughters of Tzeloph’chad, protesting an unjust law, teach us how to effectively channel our passion for justice.
In the wake of the plague, another census is taken. On the brink of entering the Promised Land, Moshe instructs us as to how it should be divided. Our five sisters: Machlah, Noah, Choglah, Milcah, and Tirtzah, fatherless, go to Moshe to make a case for daughters’ right to inherit land in the absence of sons.
The Women’s Torah Commentary notes that all other sibling relationships we have encountered in Torah thus far have been fraught with rivalry, jealousy, suspicion, and deceit. Here, five orphaned sisters come together to state their need with a unified voice. They do not mince words: “T’neh lanu achuzah b’toch achai avinu (Give us a holding among our father’s kinsmen)!”
Upon hearing their case, Y-H-V-H replies: “Ken! B’not Tzeloph’chad dovrot. Noten titen achuzah b’toch achai avihem.” Yes! Their claim is just. Give them what they want.
If your passion for justice is ignited, may you be blessed with the ability to use time creatively through both breathing in Divine wisdom and acting according to the urgency of the moment. May you be blessed with the courage to look honestly within yourself so that you may be effective outside of yourself. May you be blessed to find ways to lend your unique voice to the unified voice crying out for justice, to honor Torah, to honor G8d, and to uplift human personality!