Family Parshah
Pinchas Roundup

In the previous parshah we read how Pinchas stopped a fierce plague that had killed many Jews. In this week's Parshah we read about his reward: G‑d gives him a special covenant of peace and appoints him as kohen, a priest.

After the plague, G‑d tells Moses to count all of the men between the ages of 20 and 60. These are the men who will receive a part of the Holy Land. The total count is 601,730. G‑d also tells Moses how the land will be divided between the twelve tribes. The tribe of Levi is counted separately, as it will not receive a part of the Holy Land as they will serve G-d in the Holy Temple, the Bet Hamikdash. The tribe of Levi includes 23,000 men.

Machlah, Noah, Chaglah, Milkah and Tirtzah, the five daughters of Tzelophchad of the tribe of Menashe, ask Moses an important question. Their father had passed away without having any sons, and according to the law at that time their family would not be entitled to receive a part of the land of Israel. So they asked Moses to give them their father's portion of the land. Moses asked G‑d what to do and G‑d said that the daughters of Tzelophchad are right, that they should get part of the land. G‑d then adds a law to the Torah's laws of inheritance that if a man passes away without having had any sons, the inheritance should be given to his daughters.

G‑d tells Moses to go up on Mount Avarim, from where he can see the entire Holy Land before passing away. Afterwards, Moses puts his hand on Joshua bin Nun in front of the Jewish people, showing that he will be the next leader.

This week's parshah ends with a list of the daily offerings as well as the extra offerings which were brought on Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh, Pesach, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret.