Holy Backbone – Holy Brit (Covenant)

Where did Pinchas get his unbelievably invincible inner strength from?

Pinchas had backbone. His phenomenal emuna and holiness made him strong. According to the Gemara and the Midrash, on his mother’s side he was the descendant of Yosef. No wonder he so courageously acted – alone, with no backing except from Above – to uproot the debauchery that penetrated the camp of Israel at the highest level. He placated the Almighty and mitigated what could have been a disastrous stern judgment, even more than the 24,000 of the Shimeonite Tribe who died for sinning with the Midianite women.

Emuna in action is what it’s all about. Our entire purpose of learning about faith in G-d is to put it into action. It’s easy to do when everything is going your way, but how about when things get tough? Let’s look in detail at one of Judaism’s greatest heroes and Pinchas’s great-grandfather. Yosef is an inspiration for all of us who battle the never-ending war of temptation.

After Yosef followed his father’s command, his brothers turned on Yosef and nearly murdered him. Later he was sold several times into slavery, and finally to Potifar, a main assistant to Pharaoh. Yosef worked inside the mansion on a day-to-day basis. The Torah says, relating his success, that “G-d was with Yosef.” A teaching from the Arizal mentions that the Divine Presence can only rest on a person who is happy. If we apply the principle, it means that even in this situation, after being nearly killed and then sold into servitude, still Yosef kept his faith, calmly trusted and knew it happened for a reason.

The wife of Potifar however tried to seduce him. She was the most physically attractive woman of the land. Yosef had every reason to throw away his faith. Was slavery the reward he got for obeying his father’s original command to check on his brothers? Why all the pain, the pit, the servitude; and now the hottest girl in Egypt is all over you and you can’t do anything with her because you believe in G-d who seems to be doing only evil to you? But Yosef adamantly refused.

In matters of personal holiness, we need to realize that only G-d can help. Yosef no doubt screamed out to G-d from the pit that his brothers threw him into, filled with scorpions that threatened his body. Can you imagine his prayers to escape the attack on his soul led by Potifar’s wife?

At the height of temptation Yosef refused, but this time it resulted in his being thrown into prison. There it says in the Torah that Hashem was with Yosef, meaning he again maintained his joy. We see a second time that he is happy, based on the rule that Hashem only resides in a place of joy.

Thirty minutes of praying for one thing daily, according to Rabbi Arush, grants us the “Certificate of Desire”.  By earning it through prayer day after day, we show G-d our sincere efforts to rid ourselves of the evil inclination. During the 30 minutes we assess ourselves over the last 24 hours and ask for forgiveness if we flunked up. We also ask for assistance with the next day, as well as joy, because the possibility of sadness exists when we realize how far we are. But the good news is that if we do our 30 minutes, the heavenly court can’t judge us even if we screwed up. Why? Because we are doing what we can, and G-d sees us making a sincere effort; in that case He is very patient with us. We just need to be consistent and happy throughout our journey of success and failure.

Rabbi Arush says that a person who guards his covenant merits children who will be able to expound on the Torah. Why do we bless our boys on Shabbat to be like Efraim and Menashe, Pinchas’s great-grandfather and great uncle? Because they maintained their Judaism despite being the only Jews in Egypt! How could they do so? Only due to their father Yosef and his high level of guarding personal holiness! Like father, like son.