And when you have seen it

(Numbers 27:13)
Tammuz 23, 5775/July 10, 2015

This week's Torah reading of Pinchas marks the beginning of the conclusion of Israel's stay in the wilderness. The forty year sojourn has been nothing if not rocky, and the book of Numbers pulls no punches in chronicling Israel's many mishaps and misadventures. A subtle theme runs through the book of Numbers, and this theme provides for us a prism through which we can peer and try to understand the root causes of Israel's ups and downs. This is the theme of seeing, of vision. The challenge of seeing, as understood by Torah, is the ability to take in what lies before us, to interpret it correctly, and to act upon it appropriately.

The most prominent episode involving a misappropriation of the gift of sight is no doubt the sin of the twelve spies who after seeing the peoples residing within the land of Israel, the nature of their defenses, and the fruitful copiousness of the land itself, managed nevertheless, to cast it all in a negative light, to literally give it the "evil" eye.

Last week's Torah reading involving the curses-turned-blessings of the heathen prophetBilaam is likewise a lesson in the deliberate abuse of sight and of G-d's ability to reveal or to hide the truth from man, as He sees fit. Bilaam was blind to the angel standing in his path, a sight so clear that even his lowly donkey was able to see it. This was G-d's warning to him that his famed powers of augury and wizardry were utterly subordinate to G-d's will. Bilaam's multiple attempts to curse Israel were entirely crafted around his ability to see the entirety of the nation of Israel, (which he could not). Even his method of focusing before uttering his curses/blessings involved squinting one eye in an attempt to get a clear grasp of the subject of his pronuciation which lay before him. Ultimately,Bilaam's failure to supply his employer with the curses they had hired him to provide was a result of his short-sightedness and faulty vision. This failure was actually the strength that he played to when he gave his parting advice to Balak, which led to Israel's entanglement by the enticements of the Midianite women, a case of Israel's short-sightedness, akin to the sin of the golden calf.

This week's Torah reading of Pinchas, for the first time since the sin of the spies, describes the proper use of our eyes, teaching us that the difference between failed leadership and proper leadership is in how our would-be leaders employ their vision. If it was shortness of vision that enmeshed Israel in the desert for forty years, then it is the clarity and depth of vision that the players in this week's reading possess that will soon lead Israel out of the wilderness and into the promised land of Israel.

When other leaders were blinded by the gravity of the sin being committed before them by Zimri, a notable of the tribe of Shimon, Pinchas the son of Elazar perceived very clearly what needed to be done immediately and acted upon his accurate assessment, ending both the epidemic of sinful behavior and the ensuing plague. Pinchas' ability to see what steps needed to be taken now, without hesitation, for the salvation of his people, is a sign of true leadership, and he was duly rewarded by G-d with "an eternal covenant of kehunah (priesthood)" and "My covenant of peace." (Numbers 25:12,13) He would later lead Israel into battle in his role as kohen.

The five daughters of Tzelaphchad, Machlah, Noa, Choglah, Milchah, and Tirtzah, likewise displayed leadership when they stood before Moshe and petitioned for their father's inheritance. G-d's positive response to their inquiry and His expansion of their circumstance and its application for all generations likewise attests to the long range vision of the five sisters, again, "looking out" not for their own narrow interest, but on behalf of the entire nation.

Immediately after the petition of the five sisters, "HaShem said to Moshe, 'Go up to this mount Abarim and look at the land that I have given to the children of Israel. And when you have seen it, you too will be gathered to your people...'" (ibid 27:12,13) It is physically possible on a clear day to see the entire width and breadth of the land of Israel from the very mount Abarim mentioned in the verse. But Midrash tells us that whenMoshe ascended the mountain and looked into the land, he saw, not just the topography of the land of Israel, but he saw the children of Israel in the land, throughout all his people's generations throughout history, till the end of time. Moshe's vision was all-encompassing; he saw it all.

True Torah leaders must be visionary. They must be able to see and recognize and act upon the immediate needs of the people, as did Pinchas. They must be able to see beyond their own needs and understand the historic needs of their people, and act accordingly, assuring for all generations that which the nation requires, as did the five daughters of Tzelaphchad. Finally, they must be able to take into their sights the entire nation in the land of Israel, throughout all their generations, as did Moshe, and act, as he did, to ensure that his flock would always have a shepherd.

G-d made certain that Israel, as a nation, possessed these qualities of pure and far reaching vision before He shepherded His people into the land of Israel under the guiding hand of Yehoshua. Today, no less than in the waning days of Israel's desert sojourn, Israel requires true leaders of vision and action. Our Torah reading teaches us that this leadership, by definition, does not come from the elite or the well established. It comes from unexpected places. The future is in our hands.

-The Temple Institute