Pinchas and True Kanaus: Ahavas Yisrael, Pure Motives, and the Bris of Shalom

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Shalom Aleichem and Bruchim Habaim. Tonight, we talk about kanois. Parshas Pinchas. Pinchas is the quintessential kanoi. He's the symbol. He was the kanoi that the Ribono Shel Olam gives credit, the proper, the proper kanoi. B'kano es kinasi, b'socham, v'lo chilisi es Bnei Yisrael b'kinasi. What is kanois? Are there halachos to kanois? Who should be a kanoi? On what should you be a kanoi? When should you be a kanoi? And how to do kanois? In Shulchan Aruch, we don't have clear halachos, Hilchos Kanois. There's no special chapter, special perek in halacha of how to be a kanoi and all the detailed halachos of kanois. Yet when we learn the parsha, when we're ma'ayin into the story of Pinchas, into the hanhaga of Pinchas, a lot could be learned, which sheds great light on what is kanois and who is a kanoi, and when should kanois be done and what should kanois look like. Of course, the story of Pinchas was an extreme case. The story of Pinchas was bo'el aramis. Someone was being bo'el, one of the shivtei Kah was being bo'el, one of the nesiei shivtei Kah was being bo'el a aramis in public. Yet, from Pinchas we learn all forms of kanoius, how one should be a kanoi and when should one be a kanoi. Many people like kanoius. They enjoy it. You see people, they're being kanoi on every little thing. They're always taking a stand and putting a protest to everything, from dvarim ruchniyim to middos to what's right or wrong, kanoim, and they like it. You see that they have a shvachkeit, so to speak. They enjoy it. A lot of times, people like the kanoi. He's brazen. He states his mind. He's powerful. I believe if the person likes the kanoius, and if the kanoi is being liked, he's probably not a kanoi, and he's probably pasul for the kanoius. Kanoius that you like, and kanoius that you are liked because you're doing it, dos heisht nisht kein kanoius. That's not kanoius. As we read in the parsha about Pinchas, neither of the two was true by Pinchas. Not Pinchas wanted to do what he did. Definitely didn't enjoy it, and not he was liked for doing it. As a matter of fact, they wanted to kill him. One of the pshatim of why the Rabbeinu Shleim, לכן, I give him brisi shalom, peace, was a protection because they wanted to kill him for what he did. Pinchas definitely didn't enjoy what he did. As a matter of fact, Chazal point out and tell us that as Pinchas was killing Zimri, he was davening to the Rabbeinu Shlolam that Zimri should be poirish, that Zimri should do teshuva, that he shouldn't have to kill Zimri. A kanai is wishing that he never has to do it. He never has to go through with it. He davens for the person that the person should be protected, both physically and his honor and his dignity. He really doesn't want to do the kanaius. He's basically forced, b'deles breira, todosas a kanai. This is the essence of kanaius.

Kanoius is not an act of what people call zealotry. A person is always taking a stand. It's that he's being pushed, and as we'll learn and explain, what is pushing him, what pushes the kanoi. But it's definitely not something that he wants to do, and definitely not enjoys to do, and is definitely not going to be glorified for doing it. Chazal tell us that Pinchas ben Elazar ben Aharon HaKohen—we know who Pinchas was. Why are we miyaches him? Why are we giving the lineage of Pinchas? Chazal tell us, it's quoted in Rashi, Sanhedrin samech pei beis, Rashi explains from the Gemara that they were memavaz him: 'Erisa ben puti zeh, shepitem avi imo agalim la'avodah zarah, v'harag nasi shevet, lefichach ba'akasiv yichsa achar.' They were saying that he had the genes of a grandfather that was oved avodah zarah. He fattened animals for avodah zarah, and his act of kanoius stems—it's rooted, the genes are from there. The Torah says no. The Torah is me'id that actually his kanoius comes from Aharon HaKohen. Aharon HaKohen was ohev shalom, v'rodef shalom, and the mekor, the root of his kanoius, Pinchas, was ohev shalom and rodef shalom. It wasn't hatred. It wasn't to hurt the other person. It's the opposite. He cared very much. He came from a very good place, from a makor tahor. Kanoius has to come from a very pure place. And if it's not, as we see pshat in this Chazal, then it's avodah zarah. Aharon HaKohen is an extreme in tov, in good, in ahavah. He's the extreme. He's the ultimate. It needs to come from the ultimate mekor hatov, from the ultimate root of good, from the best of place. And if not, then it's avodah zarah. Why can't it be somewhere in the middle? It's not Aharon HaKohen, but it's not avodah zarah. It's an act, makes sense, something that a person, he calculated that it's right to do. Chazal teach us, and that's the pshat in this Rashi, it's either/or. It's either Aharon HaKohen, the ultimate ohev shalom v'rodef shalom, or if not, then the other extreme is what this kanoius is. It's avodah zarah. A very high bar for kanoius, rabosai. Before a person does kanoius, does he do cheshbon hanefesh? Does he think deep into his action, deep into his heart, where it comes from? Why is he doing this? Is he doing it from ahava? If he's doing it from ahava, he'll daven to the Eibishter that he shouldn't have to do it. He'll daven to the Ribono Shel Olam to save the person that he's being mekaneh against, a todasas pinchas. And if not, you're being ki'ilu oved avodah zarah. The mekor is avodah zarah. I've always asked, avodah zarah, what does it have to do with killing? He killed an osi shevet. He murdered. If the grandfather was a murderer, then I understand. You're saying, oh, the genes of killing come from there. But it had to do with avodah zarah, what the grandfather did. How is it connected to what Pinchas did, which is to kill? Efsher kemetzagin, rabosai. Chazal tell us, kol hako'es ki'ilu oved avodah zarah. When someone gets angry, it has overtones of avodah zarah in it. The pshat in the Chazal, ka'as means that you don't fully realize that the Ribono Shel Olam runs the world, and that's why you get angry at things. When you get angry, the Ribono Shel Olam ... What are you upset?

Others understand it that a kaas means he loses himself completely. His mind is completely lost at that moment from his anger, and he loses the fear of the Ribono Shel Olam, that there's a Ribono Shel Olam. He loses—it's like a blind spot. Kaas makes a person completely not b'daas, doesn't have control over his thought. He loses his mind completely. It's an expression in English: when a person is b'kaas, he lost his mind. He lost it. What did he lose? He lost the daas, the control, the focus, avodah zarah. So with this we can explain that when they connected maaseh Pinchas to Yisroel's avodah zarah, because they thought it's kaas, he got angry. And anger, according to Chazal, is connected to avodah zarah. That's the pshat in Shepiten. They connected the act of Pinchas to the avodah zarah because they thought he did it from anger, because kano'us could come from anger. And many a time the kano'i talks from anger and he acts from anger. That's avodah zarah. Kano'us has to not be with anger at all. Kano'us has to be b'daas, meyushiv, the opposite, from love, from ahavah. That's kanoius. When asked, who is a kanoi, and what is kanoi, who can be a kanoi? If these are the conditions, if this is what kanoius is, there's a very famous Chiddushei Harim. Chiddushei Harim says, B'kanos kinasi b'socham. They all ask the meforshim, what's b'socham? We'll say different pshatim from the Rishonim a little later in the shiur. But one of the pshatim, says the Chiddushei Harim, is b'socham. He created. He was mechadesh kanoius in Klal Yisroel. He instilled this midah till Pinchas came. No one symbolized kanoius. Like you have the avos, each av, Avraham is chesed and Yitzchok is tefillah, and Yaakov is Torah. Pinchas is kanoi; he's the av of kanoius. He taught Klal Yisroel. He was mashrish. He rooted kanoius b'socham in every Yid. Every Yid has a shtikel Pinchas in him from this parsha, from the maaseh of Pinchas. So what is kanoius? It's ahavah. Pinchas's kanoius is kanoius. If it's not Pinchas's kanoius, it's not. Might even be an act of avodah zarah. One of the halachos of kanoius, of Pinchas's kanoiim pog'in bo. Boiel aramis was the story. He was boiel an aramis. Halacha is, boiel aramis, kanain pogin boi. Halacha v'ein morin kein, which means that this is the halacha, that the kanoi is able to hit, to be pogea in the person who's doing the aveirah, רוצה kill him. Yet v'ein morin kein, the beis din won't pasken this when he comes to ask the shaila. Why? It's interesting. If that's the halacha, let the beis din pasken it. The mefarshim explain, kanaius is not a beis din psak. Kanaius is not—the Torah tells you to go do it. Kanaius, the Torah tells you if you want to do it. If it's something that hurts you deeply, it disturbs you deeply, and therefore you want to go make a stand, you're allowed to go do it. Ad kedei kach, Chazal tell us that if Zimri turned around and killed Pinchas, he would be 100% right for doing it, and Pinchas was taking his life into his own hands by killing Zimri, because he was a rodef.

There is no psak. It's not a beis din. People walk around all the time. Spoke to this, and I got a psak halacha, kanoius and psak halacha. Don't go in the same sentence. There's no psak to be a kanoi. There's no psak halacha of kanoi in peleg. It's the halacha, and the taich is because the kanoi, it has to be something which is close to his heart. It's something that disturbs him, and he goes into action when he sees what he sees, and it bothers him so much that he jumps into action. But no one can tell him to go do it. The kasha, acher, we must ask, but Pinchas did come to ask. And Moshe Rabbeinu tells him, Go do it. Kina d'ikrisa d'li'ava pervanka. The one who reads the letter, the declaration, he's the one who, when he reads it, he should go and follow it through. When a king sends a declaration, Hear ye, this is what the king wants, the one who reads it, he should be the one who fulfills the decree. Why? And on the other hand, the question is, if that was the halacha and he heard it from Moshe Rabbeinu as Pinchas tells Moshe, Moshe, you did not teach us. Moshe, did you not teach us kanoi pogein bo? Moshe says, Yes, go do it. So he did come to ask. What's the pshat? And I think the teretz, rabboisai, is: avada, it doesn't come with a psak beis din, but you still have to ask. You need to be sure. Either Pilchas wanted to be sure that he heard it right, or he wanted to be sure, even if that's the halacha, that he could do it, if he's doing it right, and if he's the kanoi that's the one that's to do it. Kanoius needs to be thought out properly, and it needs to be discussed with gedolim. Pinchas was teaching that he knew the halacha, but he wanted to be sure, and he wanted to double-check if what he's doing was right. And as we soon will see, because kanoius, even if it's the right thing, but it's not coming for the right reasons, is pasul. And even if it's the right thing for the right reasons, sometimes it's not the right move. Sometimes it's not the right reaction, as we will soon see as well. Kanoius is extremely sensitive. That's the word I'd like to use: extremely sensitive din. Not poshut. Not, that's it, let's go. There's a very famous vort: Vayikach romach. What is vayikach? Pinchas vayikach romach. Baal HaDrush explain that Pinchas took the romach. He wasn't holding it. He had to take it out of the holster, so to speak. Vayikach, a lesson. In other words, just say that he killed him. Why do we have he took a romach and he killed him? And the answer is, don't be holding the romach. A lot of people are quick, they're swift to react. Vayikach romach. He took it. It wasn't out. It had to be taken out. The proper kanoius needs to be analyzed. Are you doing it for the right reasons? What's underlying in your kanoius and why you want to be mekaneh? There's a ma'amar devar from the Rishonim, beautiful. Rabbeinu Shlomo says, Lachein, emor, hineni nosein lo es brisi shalom. He's getting a reward. Why is he getting this reward? Tachas asher kinei lElokav, vayechaper al Bnei Yisrael. Tachas, v'haysah lo ulzar'o acharav.

Tachas. Asher kinei leloi kov. Tachas. Tachas means instead of, zeh tachas zeh. When you want to switch something, you give this tachas zeh. So the word shouldn't be tachas. The right, correct word maybe would have been more, biglal, or asher kinei leloi kov. The word tachas seems like it's a zeh l'zeh, this for this. Says the Rishon HaMeir Dikavart, it's a different mahalach. What the Torah and what the Ribbono Shel Olam is sending a message: tachas, what's underneath, the underlying reason why he did it. We always have to look tachas, beyond the surface. Why is the Kanoi doing it? And the answer is here by Pinchas: asher kinei leloi kov, vayechaper al Bnei Yisrael. One, he was kanoi for the Ribbono Shel Olam, and he was trying to protect Klal Yisrael with this. That was the underlying reason of his kanoius. Always check, always double-check, always search for the underlying agenda of the kanoi, and make sure that it's tahor, make sure it's kosher. I told you that not only do you have to do it for the right reasons, but even if the halacha is so by kanoius, and you're doing it for the right reasons, maybe it's not always the right thing. That's not always the right response. Maybe your tikkun that you think you're doing in the kanoius is a kilkul. Needs a lot of weighing with daas Torah, gedolim who see past, present, future. Hinei eidah, that the eyes, they see, they have clear vision. Every navi was called a tzofeh. Why was he called a tzofeh? He saw far. Tzofeh means when you go up on a high, like a watchtower, you're able to see very far. Why? Because you're high up. The navi, the manig, he's high up and he sees tzofeh very far into the future. What looks like a good kanoius, a good tactic of how to protest in front of you here today, might have its, might have its toitzaos, its kilkulim. It might cause things in the future which could be negative. This I saw from a pshat from the Beis Yisroel, a me'udiker deher. Beis Yisroel, zechuso yagen aleinu, gerebbe. He asks an interesting question. Last week's parsha is the story of Pinchas. Yet in this week's parsha, the next parsha, we talk about the schar, the reward. In last week's parsha, where he did the act should be the story of the reward. Why is there a hefsek, a break, the story last week and the reward this week? In the next parsha, says the Beis Yisroel, you need to wait for the dust to settle. In every kanoius. We can't judge it at the moment. You need to know more and see more and give it time. Was it l'shem Shamayim, and were the תוצאות, were the results a positive or a negative? The Torah is teaching us, don't comment on the kanoiyus till you know if it was halacha was halacha, and Meirke was the right halacha. But was he the right person? Did he do it l'shem Shamayim? And was it the right thing to do? Zogt the Torah, Tachas asher kinei lElokav, it was the right thing. He did it for the right reasons, tachas asher kinei lElokav, and it was also the right thing, vayechaper al Bnei Yisrael. And that takes time. In history, history will teach us kanoiyus, if it was the right thing or not. Not everything in front of us, what we see and think is the right reaction is always the right reaction. This is the conditions that have to be met in kanoiyus. No wonder that we have one kanoi, Pinchas.

And he becomes Eliyahu. We don't have many kanoim. Kanoim? Pinchas. Pinchas, who got it right. He remains the kanoi through the doros. Eliyahu, we're going to get to the haftorah where Eliyahu says, Kano kinaisi laShem. Pinchas is kanois. He became the kanoi because he was the proper kanoi, because he was taka the legitimate kanoi. He was the kanoi kahalacha, she'asa kahalacha, that he did kahalacha. There's a very famous question: why is it that Pinchas gets his reward in this world? Lachein emor, tell him, Hineni nosein lo es brisi shalom, I'm going to give him the bris shalom. Rashi says, b'din hu sheyitol scharo. He deserves his reward in this world. We know what was his reward? That he lived forever. The question is, schar b'hai alma leka. There's no reward in this world. So why is Pinchas getting the reward, and b'din hu, it's right for him to get? What is it about Pinchas and what he did that the rules don't apply to him, of schar b'hai alma leka? So the pashut pshat, of course, is you don't get reward in this world because you get it in the next world. But Pinchas is not going to the next world. Reshaim don't get schar in the next world; they get it here, Chazal tell us, and the reason is simple, because they're not going to the next world. So Pinchas, who is here, chai v'kayam l'olam, so bedin hu sheyitol scharo. He needs to get his reward. He's not going to the next world. He's staying here till Eliyahu, till Mashiach. So bedin hu sheyitol scharo b'hai alma. The Chasam Sofer says a different pshat. The Chasam Sofer says, what is the reward of a person who does a mitzvah in this world? Does he get any reward? Of course there's a reward in the next world, because there's nothing in this world that could compensate, and that could be a tashlum, a payment for what the mitzvah. Mitzvah is a lot greater than anything a person could get in this world as a payment. Yet there is a reward somewhat in this world, and that is what the Mishnah tells us: schar mitzvah mitzvah, that the reward of a mitzvah is another mitzvah. Says the Chasam Sofer, that means that if you do a mitzvah of, for example, chesed, so the reward is more chesed and more chesed. Ribbono Shel Olam gives you more opportunities to do that chesed. Ribbono Shel Olam should give more opportunities that people should do aveiros and you should be a kanoi, says the Chasam Sofer. Ribbono Shel Olam doesn't want that. And mimeila, schar of the kanois b'hai alma leka, right? So bedin hu sheyitol scharo. He has to get a different reward. Of course there's Olam Haba. That's not the discussion. But the reward that is granted in this world to oseh mitzvah, that form of reward cannot be for Pinchas the kanoi. Because he can't have that. The Ribono Shel Olam gives him, again, people should do aveiros that he should be a kanoi. I would like to add a little bit from a little bit angle, to add a little bit. The schar can't be kanoius, because kanoius is not something that you should be happy to do and want to do. You can't go to a kanoi and give him the schar that, mitzvashem, zol zocheh zayn ton mer. A vildes nisht ton. It hurts him. It pains him. The kanoi is the person who doesn't sleep at night from the kanoius that he has to do. Az du shlofst ba nacht fun a kanoius that you're going to do, to ken shlofen, that means you're not a kanoi. It has to disturb you so deeply that it disturbs your sleep. So what are you telling him? I have reward for you that you'll be able to keep on being a kanoi. You want to give him a reward. Kanoius can't be a reward. Tzaddik is learning it because the Ribono Shel Olam doesn't want to continue this.

Cycle of aveirah, kanois, aveirah, kanois. Nefesh shekem in tzuleigen, vos gist a maschar, zol zayn a kanois, a nishken groysus char. It's ani b'lebenish, and that's a kanoi. The bar is very high for kanois. And after we finish explaining the DNA of a kanois, and after we finish explaining what a kanois really is, almost nobody could reach that bar of kanois, of what really kanois is. And it took a Pinchas, and it's not Pinchas ben Elazar; it's Pinchas ben Elazar ben Aharon HaKohen, to the greatest extent of toiv Aharon HaKohen. Kanois can't be a person's hobby. It can't be a chronic kanoi. It has to be a kanois that he is forced, and that he's limited to only where he has to and where he has no choice. You know, Chazal tell us that a beis din that killed more than once in seventy years is a beis din katlanis. It's called a beis din that murders; it's a murderous beis din. Killing a rotzeach, or someone who's chayav misah, that's a kanois. That's a form of taking a stand, din, mishpat, what's right. And yet, there's nothing to zich barimen. There's nothing to be proud that you did it for more than once in 70 years. U'nefesh hakanoyis is the zeal b'zach, hamenshvus barimtzach, that he's a kanoi, and he was mekaneh maybe more than once in 70 years. I don't mean literally. You can't be a kanoi katlanesi, rabosai. Machn zich, the kanoiyus is far and scarce in between episodes of kanoiyus, chronic kanoiyus, a hobby kanoiyus. Dos is nisht kanoiyus, rabosai. You notice something interesting in the wording of the pasuk: Vayeiseloi Elazar acharei brisko, tachas asher kinei lEloikav. LEloikav? LEloikim. It's not his. He was mekaneh for his Ribono Shel Olam, for his God. It should say, tachas asher kinei lEloikim. I think we could say one of two pshatim, rabosai, and both are meyudike dehers. They speak volumes of what kanoiyus really is. You know, a lot of times you have people who do kanoiyus and make protests, and they give mussar, and they themselves don't keep the things that they're making kanoiyus about. How many times we find people will scream at the other guy in shul for talking, and they themselves talk. And oddly enough, It's more often than not, the ones that are screaming to be quiet are the ones that are talking. I don't know why that is. Maybe because it's a guilt feeling that he talks, he screams at the other person while he talks. We could analyze it psychologically, where that comes from a different type. But al kol panim, tachas haShechinah, lElokim, no, lElokav. It's got to be your Elokim, which means you keep those mitzvahs that you're being mekaneh for. It can't be that you're screaming he should be religious. It's that you're religious, and you want him to be like you. Tachas arshechinei, not lElokim. Religion, no, your. Something that you keep, your religion, that you keep those mitzvahs, you can be mekaneh. Nefesh Rabbeinu, maybe we could see even a deeper pshat. Beautiful, beautiful, theer, very deep, very with a lot of depth. Elokav, the kanoyus has to be that it's personal. It's my Ribono Shel Olam. It's my Torah. It's my Ribono Shel Olam, my father. It's the Torah.

His Torah, the Rabbeinu Shlam's Torah. What you're doing is disgracing Elokim sheli, Avi, it's my father. It's His Torah, and that I take personal, and that's the kanoi. The kanoi is that he was touched personally by what he saw. It hurt him because he takes it personal. Tachas asher kinei leElokav. I'll tell you a story from a bachur, and then we'll get to the pasuk. A bachur saw talmidim in the yeshiva that were reading newspapers, European newspapers. We're not like the heintige; today we're zoche to have newspapers, teigedike newspapers. Ah, beautiful. But hamoh, I used to say that they weren't the blat. A newspaper, Yiddish is called the blat. We used to call them the Yiddishe blatte. It wasn't blat; it was blatte, dirt. Kefirah and ridiculing Torah and mitzvahs. And Reb Boruch Ber sees a bachur reading one such newspaper that ridicules, and it's antagonistic against the Rabbeinu shel olam. And he tells the bachur, I don't understand you. How could you read such a newspaper? I watch and it bothers me. You're reading this newspaper. Why? Because this newspaper is talking against your father. Talks against my father? Yes, it's talking against your father, the Tatten Himmel, the Rabbeinu shel olam, your father. Would you read a newspaper that all the articles are ridiculing your father? You wouldn't take such a newspaper into your house. You definitely wouldn't sit there and read it. The Rabbeinu Shloilam, he's being offended by what's written in this paper, so how could you go and read it? Years ago, someone did me a taiva. Years ago, someone did me a taiva. When I came to thank him, he says to me, You don't have to thank me. I owe it to you. How do you owe it to me? I promised your father I would help you. I'm thinking, where does he know my father? I asked him, I said, Chabid, where do you know my father from? And he points upwards, his finger up, and he says, Your father, the Rabbeinu Shloilam, I promised him I'd help you, after echa kameicha. That's how a Yid has to view the Datte. It's a real relationship with the Rabbeinu Shloilam. Tachas haShechinah, not leElokim, but tachas haShechinah lelibav. And this is what we promised the Rabbeinu Shloilam. And listen carefully, rabosai, shashine daher. We promised this to the Rabbeinu Shloilam, that we will fight for His honor because He's our Elokim. When we left Mitzrayim and we went through Kriyas Yam Suf, and we owed so much hakaras hatov to the Rabbeinu Shloilam, and we announced in song, Zeh Keili v'anvehu. Don't say Elokim, Keili. It's mine, my personal. I saw the kesher, the Rabbeinu Shloilam, You took care of me like a son. I saw how much love Kriyas Yam Suf was an act. Chazal even tell us that it wasn't muddy at all. HaKadosh Baruch Hu made it that they should be able to walk. The sides were the walls made from the waters, were like crystals. The Midrashim say how beautiful Kriyas Yam Suf was. It was like walking in a beautiful museum. Why did HaKadosh Baruch Hu go the extra mile, so to speak? Why did HaKadosh Baruch Hu go out of His way to make Kriyas Yam Suf beautiful and elegant? It's because He loves us. So we promise back to the Ribono Shel Olam, Zeh Keili, it's mine. As a matter of fact, Chazal even tell us that when they pointed Zeh Keili, what did they say, Zeh Keili? We know this Keili. This is the Keili that took care of us, Tachas haTapuach orarticha. When the Egyptians wanted to kill the children, the ground swallowed them by the tree and the Ribono Shel Olam gave them honey and fed them. That's the Keili. It's personal connection. There's kesher.

There's love. Zeh Keili v'anveihu, and therefore in return, I will glorify Him. Part of v'anveihu is to be mekaneh lishmoi. Part of v'anveihu is to stand for His kavod. Zeh Keili v'anveihu is the mekor of the kanoius, to glorify the Ribbono Shel Olam because I love You, Ribbono Shel Olam, because there's a kesher nafshi, ahavah, tachas nimul. You took care, and I owe You v'anveihu that I will stand for Your honor. Tachas asher kinei leloi kav. Pinchas says, Simain tata, simain b'eira oylam. That's the real kanoi. The kanoi isn't about principles. The kanoi isn't about agendas, and I want to show you, rabosai, in the Haftorah, years and years later, Pinchas, in the form of Eliyahu, also speaks kanoius. He protests. He protests that Klal Yisrael isn't keeping bris, vayomer, and he says, Kano kineisi laShem Elokei Tzvakos, ki azvu brisecha, and the Ribbono Shel Olam gets angry at him. How dare you talk about Klal Yisrael like that? And we all know because of that, as an onesh or a tikun, different time we'll explain exactly if it was an onesh or a tikun. He needs to come to every bris, al yom malacha bris. What did he say? He was supposed to be a kanoi. That was his, that was his shtelus, so to speak. He was supposed to be the kanoi. It was his job to be a kanoi. The way we explain, Tachas asher kinא lElokav, which is a kiyum, a form of zeh Keili v'anvehu. Let's see the wording. The answer might be in the wording of what Eliyahu zeh Pinchas says: Vayomer, kano kineisi laShem Elokai, kano kineisi laShem Elokei Tzevakos. Do it for Hashem. I'm not interested. That's not what I want. I didn't want you should do kanoius for a religion, so to speak, for Elokei Tzevakos. When you did it the first time, it was Tachas asher kinא lElokav. You did it because of zeh Keili v'anvehu. You did it from love of the Ribono Shel Olam and love of Klal Yisroel, Aaron HaKohen. The kanoi is filled with love, not chas v'shalom hate, and not chas v'shalom kaas. If it's hate, it's not Aaron, it's avodah zarah. If it's kaas, it's not Aaron, it's avodah zarah. And if the kanoius is not done right, maybe there's a din on him, kanoim pog'in bo. Maybe there's also, because then you become a rodef. If the kanois is not done right, rabosai, then maybe you have a din of a rodef. I think with this we can explain two more beautiful points about who is the kanoi, and what is a kanoi, and what is kanois. We spoke in the beginning on the word besoicham, bekanos kinasi. It doesn't say bekanos kinasi, period, but bekanos kinasi besoicham. So we said besoicham means he instilled kanois within the Jew, within his heart to be able to be a kanoi, to be zealous lichvod HaBorei. The Alshich says a different pshat. The Alshich says besoicham, you know, a lot of kanoim are, for lack of a better word, they're chicken, all right? What they do is they'll scream and they're behind, right, and play behind the scenes, but they won't come out and state their opinion in front of everyone. Why? Because they're afraid of the backlash. They're afraid of the backlash, right? They're sneaky, and they're afraid, right? So what do they do? Yeah, okay, they'll scream in front of...

In front of, you can't catch him, so to speak. Slippery. They're very slippery. So after Alshich, Nishpinchas. Pinchas was b'soicham knowing that they wanted to kill him. And that's the chiddush of b'soicham. He did it in front of everybody. He did it amongst everyone, where he put himself in danger. The kanoi can't do it for gain, but he has to be ready to lose everything. That's the kanoi. A kanoi who's thinking of kanoius with a gain, or a kanoius where he won't get any repercussion from it, that's not a kanoi. Rabbeinu Shlom says, it's a ... Alshich, rabosai. The kanoi's kin'asi b'soicham. He believed, and he was ready to be moser nefesh for it. I've always thought something very interesting. Something that I, you know, in a person's life, a lot of times he has to make stands. He has to put his foot down. And you wonder, is it worth it? Is it not worth it? Will I lose more than I gain? And like I said at the beginning of the shiur, das Torah, das Torah, das Torah. Go ask before you do things. And after you ask, you know what you have to do again? Ask again and be sure and make sure. The Chofetz Chaim was very well accepted and loved. By the end of his life already, he was considered the Chofetz Chaim, famed Chofetz Chaim. He got involved in a machloikes in Vilna. Reb Chaim Ozer, the great giant Reb Chaim Ozer, was trying to become rav in Vilna. Deserved it. He deserved it, rightfully so. Yet, like every gadol, not always is he accepted b'chayav, and not always the hamon am, the simpleton in the street, appreciates. And they wanted a different rav in Vilna, maybe a better speaker, or more younger, or whatever. Got to read the history of the machloikes of the rabbanut in Vilna. They had voting, but Reb Chaim Ozer lost. The balabatim in Vilna voted in a different rav. They used to call him Rav Nitam, Nitam the government. He was an accepted official, probably a polished rav. Reb Chaim Ozer was Reb Chaim Ozer, the great giant of Torah, Reb Chaim Ozer. The Chofetz Chaim went to battle, went to battle for the kavod of Reb Chaim Ozer, that they should choose him as the rav, and he must be nominated as the rav. And he even went as far as writing articles in the newspapers of Vilna, the Yiddishe blattes of Vilna. Reb Chaim Ozer writes back to the Chofetz Chaim, Take caution, for your kavod, you're going to lose your kavod if they're going to say terrible things about you. The simpletons in the street will bash you. You'll lose all the dignity that you a whole life worked to earn, so to speak. It's all going to come crashing down. You're going to lose it all. They're not going to be kind to you. And he tells them, he tells the Chofetz Chaim, they're already talking. Yeah, that the Chofetz Chaim is senile and he's talking about... And I'm sure if that's what he wrote to the Chofetz Chaim, those are from the better things that was said. I'm sure the nastier stuff, I'm sure he didn't have to write. It wasn't pretty. And the Chofetz Chaim had a lot to lose from his honor, from his prestige. Chofetz Chaim writes back to Reb Chaim Ozer, I am fully aware and I'm fully prepared to give up all my honor in this world for the honor of kavod haTorah of Reb Chaim Ozer. I know what I'm doing. Don't think I don't understand what I'm getting myself into. They will degrade me, and I will lose my standing of respect. But when I come to Shamayim, I will say I stood for kavod haTorah and I gave it all up for kavod haTorah. That's kol tachas asher kinei leilei kav. Ribbono shel olam, Chofetz Chaim...

of the Rabbeinu Shleilam so much, and he was ready to give it all up for the honor of the Rabbeinu Shleilam. The Chofetz Chaim was writing the Mishnah Berurah. His son Reb Leib was nifter. It was sudden. It was a tremendous blow to the Chofetz Chaim. He was the Chofetz Chaim's prodigy. He was the Chofetz Chaim's yad yeminoi. In the pictures you see Chofetz Chaim talking in front of the house. Who was he talking to? Talking to Reb Leib, his son. He was the dayan in Radin. He must have been a gadol shebegedolim. The Chofetz Chaim went into the beis medrash and gave a bang on the table, and he said, Rabbeinu Shleilam, my love for my son was great. Now he's not here, so I take all my love that I used to have to share some of it with my son, and I give it all to You, Rabbeinu Shleilam. It's an unbelievable, it's an unbelievable strength. It's an unbelievable emunah and ahavah Hashem. The loss of the child, Reb Leib, which means now there's love which he can't give his son, so he can give undivided love to the Rabbeinu Shleilam. And he continues to say, The son is trying to stop me from writing the Mishnah Berurah. He thinks if he takes away my son, I won't have the mind, the frame of mind, to write and complete the Mishnah Berurah. You should know that I will complete the Mishnah Berurah. Ahavas Hashem. Ahavas Hashem is so strong by the Chofetz Chaim that he's ready to give away all his personal for the Rabbeinu Shloilam. V'ahavta Hashem Elokecha b'chol levavcha, uv'chol nafshecha, uv'chol me'odecha, uv'chol kvodecha. Loving the Rabbeinu Shloilam means to be able to give up everything. Everything means b'chol levavcha, uv'chol nafshecha, uv'chol me'odecha, and most of all, b'chol kvodecha, to give up your honor for the honor of the Rabbeinu Shloilam. That's the kanoi of Tachas asher kinei lElokav. That's Pinchas. And if you can't do that, if it's not about Hashem's honor, it's about your honor, you think you're gonna make it big, or you think you're gonna be the person that everybody loves to be around. He's the strong man. He says it as it is. He's geshmak. He stands on the issues. That's not the kanoi. That's not what the Torah tells us Pinchas is. Every kanoi, and every time you want to do kanoiyus, it's very important to make sure that you go through the checklist of everything we spoke about in tonight's shiur. Is it coming from a good place? Is it l'shem Shamayim? Is it l'shem avicha shebashamayim? Is it not l'shem kevodcha? Is it coming from bad middos? Is it coming from kaas? And after all that, you need to work a little bit on the reverse shalom. You got to balance it out with shalom. There's a beautiful emek davar, the Netziv. The Netziv says, Why did the Ribono Shel Olam give him a matanah, a schar, a reward? Lachein emor hineni nosein lo es brisi shalom. Why shalom? Why is that the reward? So pashut, it's a schar, it's a reward, says the emek davar, it's something that he needed now. Because every kanai has middos of quarreling. With kanaius, if you do it, it might have an effect on your middos, on your inner self, on who you are. You might become a quarreller, a person who loves machlokes. So the Ribono Shel Olam says, I'm going to balance it. Hineni nosein lo es brisi shalom. Every kanai, maybe in his pocket, he should carry some ahavas chesed, some divrei...

Chizuk on about love, ahavas Hashem and ahavas Yisrael, and shalom. And then it would balance out the act of the kana'us. It would balance out the act of... It's a very famous Ohr HaChaim, and this will end. The Ohr HaChaim speaks about, in the parsha of Ir Hanidachas, they did avodah zarah, we kill out the entire city. The Torah says, I will in return, v'richamecha. I'll give you mercy. So pashut means I'll have mercy on you. Ohr HaChaim says, v'richamecha, I'll give you mercy, because anyone who kills, it could become part of his nature. You see people go to war, they seem to be nice people, but in war, some bad comes out of it, brings out the bad in every person in war, brings out the retzach. So maybe if you kill an entire city, it's going to turn you into a person who has in himself middos of retzichah, of achzariyus. V'richamecha, I give you a bracha. I give you a matanah that you will have rachamim. That the opposite, your kana'us will be shalom, because your kana'us must be shalom. Your kana'us has to come from Aharon, which is ohev shalom v'rodef shalom. And then you did kana'i, kineis tachas asher kineh lElokav, vayechaper al Bnei Yisrael kaparah. You're doing it for the right reasons, and it has the right results. And if not, that's not kana'us, and that's not what the Torah expects of us. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.