4:54pm - Candle Lighting, Friday.
5:56pm - Havdalah, Saturday.
(Melbourne Australia)
Eruv Status: KOSHER
Shabbat Shalom!
This Shabbat is Shabbat Mevarchim ("the Shabbat that blesses" the new month): a special prayer is recited blessing the Rosh Chodesh ("Head of the Month") of the upcoming month of Av (also called "Menachem Av"), which falls on Shabbat of next week.
Prior to the blessing, we announce the precise time of the molad, the "birth" of the new moon. See molad times.
Please click here to view the Yeshivah Shule Tzetel for Shabbos Parshas Pinchos.Please click here to view the PDFs of the Weekly Publications distributed in Shule each Shabbos.
PARSHAH IN A NUTSHELL
Numbers 25:10–30:1
Aaron's grandson Pinchas is rewarded for his act of zealotry in killing the Simeonite prince Zimri and the Midianite princess who was his paramour: G‑d grants him a covenant of peace and the priesthood.
A census of the people counts 601,730 men between the ages of twenty and sixty. Moses is instructed on how the Land is to be divided by lottery among the tribes and families of Israel. The five daughters of Tzelafchad petition Moses that they be granted the portion of the land belonging to their father, who died without sons; G‑d accepts their claim and incorporates it into the Torah's laws of inheritance.
Moses empowers Joshua to succeed him and lead the people into the Land of Israel.
The Parshah concludes with a detailed list of the daily offerings, and the additional offerings brought on Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh (first of the month), and the festivals of Passover, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret.
HAFTORAH IN A NUTSHELL
I Kings 18:46-19:21.
The prophet Elijah is the main protagonist of this week's haftorah. According to tradition, Elijah shared the same soul as Pinchas, the hero of this week's Torah portion. They also both zealously fought on G‑d's behalf, while disregarding the dangers involved.
Following the showdown with the Baal prophets at Mount Carmel, which led to the execution of the Baal priests, the evil Queen Jezebel issued a death sentence for Elijah. Elijah fled to the Judean desert and asked G‑d to take his life. While he slept, an angel awoke him and provided him with food and drink. Reenergized, Elijah went for forty days until he arrived at Mount Horeb (Sinai), and he slept in a cave on the mountain. And the word of G‑d came to him and asked him for the purpose of his visit. "And [Elijah] said: 'I have been zealous for G‑d, the Lord of Hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant. They have torn down Your altars and they have killed Your prophets by the sword, and I have remained alone, and they seek my life to take it."
Elijah was instructed to leave the cave and stand on the mountain: "Behold! G‑d's Presence will pass." There was a great and strong wind splitting mountains and shattering boulders, but Elijah realized that G‑d was not in the wind. Then came an earthquake followed by fire, but again Elijah understood that not in the earthquake nor the fire was G‑d. After the fire there was a subtle silent voice, and Elijah realized that the Divine Presence had appeared.
G‑d asked Elijah again for the purpose of his visit, and Elijah repeated his earlier response. G‑d instructed Elijah to go to Damascus and anoint Hazael as king of Aram and Jehu as king of Israel and to anoint Elisha as a prophet in his stead. These three would continue Elijah's battle against the Baal.
Elijah followed the instructions and he immediately found Elisha and recruited him as his aide and eventual successor.
SAGES ON THE PARSHAH
https://w2.chabad.org/media/pdf/112643.pdf
Pinchas the son of Elazar the son of Aaron (Numbers 25:10)
Why does G‑d refer to Pinchas as "the son of Elazar the son of Aaron"? Because the tribes of Israel were mocking him, saying, "Have you seen this son of the fattener, whose mother's father (Jethro) fattened calves for idolatrous sacrifices, and now he goes and kills a prince in Israel?" Therefore, G‑d traces his lineage to Aaron.
(Talmud, Sanhedrin 82b)
Few professions are as cruel and inhumane as the fattening of calves for slaughter. So when Pinchas slew Zimri, many said: "Look at this holy zealot! He acts as if motivated by the desire to avenge the honor of G‑d and save the people, but in truth he has merely found a holy outlet for his cruel and violent nature. After all, it's in his blood—just look at his maternal grandfather . . ." So G‑d described him as "Pinchas the son of Elazar the son of Aaron" in order to attest that in character and temperament he actually took after his paternal grandfather—the compassionate and peace-loving Aaron.
The true greatness of Pinchas lay in that he acted in complete opposition to his nature, transcending his inborn instincts to bring peace between G‑d and Israel.
(The Lubavitcher Rebbe)
THIS COMING WEEK IN HISTORY
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