A Thought for the Week
To Know Is To Do

Moses, Aaron and the Elders stood, weeping with despair, not knowing what to do, as Zimri, a prince of the tribe of Shimon openly defied G-d's laws of morality. With them stood Pinchas, a grandson of Aaron (from his son Elazar). Pinchas saw that the leaders were silent, yet he did not hesitate. Courageously, he re-minded Moses of the law which the latter seemed to have forgotten -- that under those circumstances, one who is "jealous" of G-d's honor may execute the offender. Moses replied "Let the reader of the letter be the one to deliver it,"1 meaning, "You are the one who has remembered and reminded us of the law. You be the one to carry out the verdict." Pinchas did, and earned a great spiritual reward for averting G-d's anger against His people.2

Pinchas was not only junior to the leaders in age but also in learning.3 Moses would first study and teach the Torah with Aaron, then with Aaron's sons Elazar and Itamar (in Aaron's presence), then with the seventy elders, and finally with all the people.4 So Pinchas, unlike his more fortunate father and grandfather, only studied the Torah together with all the people. Yet when Torah-law demanded action, Pinchas did not indulge in rationalization; he did not say, "There must be a good reason why Moses, Aaron and the elders--who surely know Torah better than I--are silent." No! Respectfully, yet boldly, he spoke up; he took decisive action with great self-sacrifice--and he saved Israel.

To know is to do: If one becomes aware of a Torah-teaching that he can implement, let him do so! If one witnesses an injustice or an act of immorality against which Torah demands a protest or corrective action, let him speak up, let him act! If he sees that the accepted leaders are silent and inactive, let him realize that this may have happened in order that he should earn a special Divine reward. (As in the case of Pinchas; G-d caused it to happen that Moses should forget the law, providing Pinchas with the opportunity to act, and earn G-d's reward of the Kehoona -- priesthood.5) For in the Al­mighty's plan for the universe each individual has certain precepts, certain opportunities for Torah-action, that are destined to be presented to him--and to noone else--for fulfillment.

If, therefore, one notices that noone is taking action in a situation that he has come across, this may be because it is his precept, for him alone to fulfill.6