Pinchas
Moses spoke to the
Lord, saying, “Let the Lord, Source of the breath of all flesh, appoint someone
over the community who shall go out before them and come in before them, and
who shall take them out and bring them in, so that the Lord’s community may not
be like sheep that have no shepherd.”
27:15 – 17
What prompted Moses to make this
request immediately after the chapter dealing with the laws of
inheritance? Since the daughters of
Zelophehad inherited their father, Moses said:
Now is the time to make my claims.
If daughters inherit, then it is only right that my sons inherit my
glory…Said the Holy One blessed be He…Your sons idled away their time and did
not occupy themselves with the study of Torah, but as for Joshua, much did he
minister to you…
Bamidbar Rabbah
Moses pressed for a leader to be
appointed now, not because he saw no proper candidate for the job. He did see a person who showed the qualities
of a natural successor. This is Pinchas,
who has just demonstrated a quality of leadership unmatched in courage and
ingenuity by taking action in killing offenders and “turning the wrath of God”
from his people.
Kotzker Rebbe (18th Century)
The meaning of Moses’ prayer is
this: Master of the universe, God of
spirits and all flesh, you know the minds of all men, and how the mind of one man differs from that of another. Appoint over them a leader who will be able
to bear with the differing spirits of every one of your children.”
Rashi (12th Century)
Joshua is a man “in whom there is
spirit,” A man who knows how to stand up
against the spirit of each one of them, to teach us that to be tolerant does
not necessarily imply passivity or spinelessness.
Nechama Leibowitz
(10th Century)
All the commandments given to
Moses concerning Joshua were aimed not only at establishing Joshua’s position,
but also at advancing him to a status higher than he had enjoyed
previously. So far, we did not encounter
Joshua as a spiritual leader. The
daughters of Zelofehad had appealed to Moses and Eleazar, but Joshua was not mentioned…the order of
instruction would now be as follows:
Moses would instruct Joshua and with that Moses’ role would end; Joshua
would instruct Eleazar, Eleazar
the princes….Thus, from now on Joshua would rank second to Moses, in contrast
to his previous position.
Hen Tov (17th Century)
Joshua…wins the rabbis’ unanimous
approval because of his refusal to go along with the slanderous report of the
10 spies…The Midrash says that Caleb lingered in Hevron,
where he went to worship at the graves of the patriarchs, while Joshua
accompanied the other 10 emissaries in their tour of the land; thus he had to
confront their negativity and fear every day of the mission…
Rosalyn Bell (Contemporary)