Torah Pearls #41 – Pinchas (Numbers 25:10-30:1)

Dr Nehemia, what do you know about the “Broken Vav?”

It is sad how many preach that Pinchas was wrongfully zealous and ‘took it upon himself’ without going thru a proper trial, etc…
That assessment totally ignores verses 3-5, that Yah had already commanded… He already gave the verdict and sentence to impale the guilty, and commanded Moshe in turn to command the leaders to execute them, but also afterwards that Yah commended and rewarded Pinchas with the covenant of SHALOM, of an everlasting priesthood!

I heard some rabbis mention the “broken vav.” Apparently, in that word SHALOM in verse 12, the vav is “broken” and several rabbis use this to say it wasn’t a true shalom… how could there be shalom when there was such rash zealotry murdering 2 potentially innocent people.

One rabbi said that the Mazzorites held to that zealot opinion and therefore CHANGED the text, breaking the vav to support their theology.

I figured Dr Nehemia would be the one with insight into that… Thanks!
I always look forward to your teachings!

Shabbat shalom, question who’s that on the picture? I think it’s Elijah looking out for the storm so the Haftarah but it could be Pinchas, Moses, Joshua?
Connection: a princess gets killed, here a Midionite and in the Haftarah a Sidonian? Yezabel.
Thanx.

I’d love to get my hands on that list Nehemia put together.

“They provoked wrath at the waters of Meribah and Moses suffered on their account, because they rebelled against Him and he spoke rashly. (Psalms 106:32-33)

no Hebrew gospels please. if anything they were of the roman empire.

I loved “Dr. Gorden’s” psychological analysis (man those are hard words to spell! 🙂 )of Moses. I wonder how many psychologists have treated cases of “Moses Syndrome?”
Anyway, I’m bit confused over “pi” being two-thirds of Elijah’s spirit. I’ve noticed that stepbible.org says that “peh” can mean one-third of a shekel, but regarding the archaeological discoveries what I’ve read (along with Nehemia’s comment) below is that these weights say “pim” and that they weigh two thirds of a shekel (which is also how modern translations translate pim in 1 Sam.13:21) and not one-third of a shekel. I did notice however that in 2 Kings in the Elijah incident it’s spelled “pi” but in 1 Sam. 13:21 (along with the weights) it’s in the plural,”pim.” Does that account for why it would mean one-third in 2 Kings 2:9 (with sh’nayim making it two-thirds) and two-thirds in the other cases?

Jonah, I cannot believe you didn’t call Nehemia out for quoting New Testament!

Nehemia’s father was quoting an ancient rabbi, YESHUA! Mat_26:41 “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak! author? Rabbi Yeshua! LOL

Love listening to you guys. May Yehovah bless all of you.

Nehemia, although scripture states that Moshe spoke to God face to face, did not Yaakoc speak with the man whom he wrestled with in Gen 32:24-30, saying he saw god face to face, and he too spoke with the wrestler? And in Gen 18 did not Yehovah appear to Abraham and speak with him? And common sense, if Adam walked in the garden with Yehovah, and they spoke to one another, Moses seems to be not the only one in scripture to speak with Yehovah. This is not diminishing Moses’ value of service to Israel, but he doesn’t seem to be the ONLY one God carried on a conversation with But, you have proven me wrong time and time, and time again, so I’m just humbly “suggesting.” 🙂 Have a good day. Really enjoy your knowledge.

Keith may have had a feasible point about the 24,000 that died in the plague. Consider the Corona plague of 2020. It has been said that the greatest risk was/is to the elderly population, and those with pre-existing conditions.

Those that were left from the generation 40 years prior would have been the elderly generation, (40 years older) so it does seem quite sensible to wonder, if maybe, this plague in essence didn’t clear out the rest of the older generation that were, “still holding on.”

After all, for Yehovah’s Word to be accurate, those still living after the 40 years in the desert HAD to die for His words to be fulilled.

RE: The Way established in the wilderness begins what with the burning bush anointing wherein Moses balks at being both Seer and Prophet. So Yah says OK here comes Aaron, let him be your Prophet. This is the way going in and out of Egypt up until the new anointing at Mt Sinai wherein Aaron becomes both high priest and Seer and Moses now is his Prophet. Meaning Moses is now right where he got out of at the burning bush anointing. So we need not be surprised when Moses gets so involved with people quarreling at the waters of Meribah that he becomes too emotional to sanctify the word given unto him by Aaron. And when he gives the message that is given unto him by Aaron he adds to the message. And the word of Yah given in Deuteronomy sThuays thou shalt not add nor subtract from the word of God. In other words when Moses adds to the message he fails to sanctify the word of the Lord. The Way needs sanctification in order to protect the word of God. The Seer and the Prophet are replaced so that the Way lives on and endures even when if Seer, or Prophet or Judge fails to sanctify the word of God inherent in the Message. The Message is the most important thing. King Saul fails to sanctify the message and he is replaced by David. When David inherits Abiathar, he has to ask the same question twice only the first time. After that he needs only ask once and then he acts upon that word because the message is sacred. And the first time, David asks, his Seer Abiathar gives him the same answer. Thus David knows he can rely on the word that Abiathar gives unto him.

Any and all feed back greatly appreciated.

Sincerely

Rich Willis

It has also been speculated that the city-state of Sparta was founded about this time by Simeonites. A fierce bunch they were…the shoe fits there too.

On second thought it occurs to me that Malachi 4:5 says that Elijah will be back: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:” So Elijah probably isn’t done yet. If he were to do sixteen more miracles, then he would have twenty four to Elisha’s sixteen and the ratio would come out right.

If Elisha only got two thirds or Elijah’s spirit, why did he do twice as many miracles as Elijah? Most people credit Elijah with eight miracles and Elisha with sixteen for a total of twenty four miracles performed by the two of them. So Elisha performed two thirds of the twenty four miracles.

The “spirit is willing” saying comes from Matthew 26:41: “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

The mention of Balaam in Rev 2:14 in connection with the Church of Pergamos is very interesting. Pergamos means “bad marriage” and for this and other reasons the Church of Pergamos is often considered to be a type of the state-controlled church instituted by Constantine and his successors who basically tried to merge Christianity with paganism. The idea is that there will be a spiritual equivalent of Balaam in the end times that will try to impede the entry of Israel into the spiritual promised land but will ultimately end up helping the process. Balaam is a strange character who seems to have some connection with Yehovah, but who is ultimately driven by greed and is allied with Israel’s pagan neighbors. So he is a strange mixture of belief and paganism, something like the Church of Pergamos.

Nehemiah, Really enjoyed listening to the Torah Pearls episode. Quite different aspects. Makes me strive for more. This was the 1ST of your studies, since, finding, finally, your website. Thank you. Our prayers go out for you all and Michael Rood……. Clyde in Green Valley, Arizona

Yes, I believe Moshe had a moment of weakness at the M’rivat-Kadesh but it was serious since he promoted himself to be the giver of water and thereby failed to honor our God Jehovah’s name.

Maybe following the example of Zimri was the reason why the numbers of the tribe of Shim’on was so diminished in the census (compared to the first one).

Leaders need to be real careful not to be bad examples and lead people astray.

A question: Korach’s sons were allowed entry into the promised land. Were they born after the Exodus?

What tribe elijah from

What eye-opening revelations between the three of y’all! I listen to these repeatedly and never stop comin’ away with new insights for action, Todah raba! The urim and thummin, which you, Nehemia, refer to as “light and truth,” is this what we read of in Psalm 43:3 “Send out Your light and your truth.” ?

In this Torah portion you discuss Phinehas killing Zimri, a Simeonite, and the massive reduction of the population of the tribe of Simeon in the wilderness, during the time between the two censuses. It has been proposed that these events are not unrelated. The Milesians, who were probably a big piece of the tribe of Simeon, shows up in Ireland about this time with their queen, Scota, waving a banner adorned with Moses’ bronze serpent. Probably not a coincidence.

Me too!

How about the broken vav?

The first verse of chapter 26 says that Yehovah spoke to Mosheh and Eleazor the son of Aaron. So my question is did he actually speak to them or was it a vision?

Shabbat shalom from South Africa Pretoria. Coming out of a Christian church and discovering the anciant roots was such a blessing but also a devestating lonely experience. I sometimes had the Broom tree experience like Eliyahu?. Losing lots of our friends and familyConfusing with different translations…. discovering Nehiamswall and listening to the Torah and Prophet Pearls add so much joy and growth in me and my husband’s lifes. I want to thank JHUH for both you and ‘Keith for be available to help gentiles who came to love and adore YHUH and His Torah. Oh… Oh… how He bless us through you. You both are ike family to us now. Will love to meet you in the future. Love and blessings Deidré

At ~45:12 (I think), we learn that Nehemia’s father dispensed wisdom by quoting Yeshua (Matt. 26, Mark 14) ! Hilarious!

Nehemia, @ 1h1m seems to absolutely nail the double portion/Elijah matter but does he quite realise what he just said? There are two priests Elijah and Elisha, both descendants of Jacob, analogous to two brothers. The inheritance must be divided in three, then one receives a single, the other a double portion. Now this makes perfect sense, surely? Maybe Nehemia knows exactly what he said but is leaving it to us to connect.

I also believe that it was expected more from the leaders, and maybe this stirred Pinchas to action.

Thank you so much for this postings and giving me the chance to listen via internet. May you all be blessed. I try not to miss the Torah Pearls

kind regards all the way from South Africa

Ah, so that would mean there is an error in Strong’s reading of the Masoretic text at that verse (2 Kings2:9) ?

From Strongs:
portion h6310 פֶּה peh

QBible, among several others that I found using your spelling, shows it to be “Piy” as you explained, but still translates it as “mouth” or “portion”, in the context of:

[ piy (Hebrew #6310) shªnayim (Hebrew #8147)]

variously rendered as “second portion”, “a portion again”, “both portions”, and of course “double portion”.

Interestingly, I found zero interpretations of that as “twice as much anointing as you”. Every interpretation I saw treated it as “your anointing as an inheritance, as if to your firstborn”. Sometimes referenced is Deut 21:17 , which is said to use the same Hebrew words “piy sh’nayim”, wherein “piy” is considered a form of “peh”.

To make it worse, Brown-Driver-Briggs lists the “two-thirds of a shekel” as an alternate definition (but under “peh”), and says it only occurs once in the entire TaNaKh, at 1 Sam 13:21 . Ugh.

All very confusing to me, but I really want to understand.

Are “piy” and “peh” two forms from the same root?

Do you think there is merit to “[when you die] give me your annointing as an inheritance, as if to your firstborn” ? If not, can you direct me to some online resource(s) where I can resolve the differences?

Thanks for replying, by the way. I look forward to even more info from you on this, and I will be looking forward to more Torah Pearls.

It’s not peh, it’s piy (pronounced pee). The weight they found is says PYM on it.

Would love for you to post or email me a copy of Nehemiah’s charts on the sacrifices!

Amien! I so look forward to this trialog every week!Thank you for your donations to Torah pearls !!!!It is good ground to sow in!!!Thanks for sharing all your knowledge…! 🙂

http://www.blbclassic.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H6310&t=KJV

I really love listening to the Torah Pearls. Not only do I enjoy the attitude of respect and friendship exhibited between Keith, Nehemia, and Jono, and the insights brought forward on the scripture, but your good-natured banter often gives me a laugh as well.

In the discussion of portion “Pinchas”, at one point Nehemia made reference to 2 Kings 2:9, which is usually translated with Elisha’s request to Elijah: “give me a double portion of your spirit”. Nehemia explained that the Hebrew word translated as “portion” is the work “peh” (“pi” , perhaps ??), and that an archaeological find had identified that word as a measure of “a third” (of a talent, I believe). His conclusion was that Elisha’s request was for “two thirds of your annointing/spirit”.

I have only begun to try to study Hebrew word meanings, and largely as a result of listening to the Truth2U podcasts of Torah Pearls, so I do not claim to be any kind of expert at this. However, with the exception of references to Heinrich Ewald’s casual comments in a footnote to his “History of Israel”, I have not found any other source (besides Nehemia’s comment) indicating that “peh” means anything other than “mouth” or “mouthful” (and thus, the “double mouthful” or “double portion” translation and the generally accepted “give me your annointing as if I was inheriting it as your first-born son” interpretation.

It seemed that Nehemia was saying that the Hebrew was considered unclear until the archaeological discovery of the measuring device, but I did not uncover any other reference to a confusion. Every reference I found to the Hebrew described “peh” as literally meaning “mouth” or “mouthful”. (such as: http://www.blbclassic.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H6310&t=KJV )

Can you elaborate further on why you believe the 2 Kings 2:9 passage was not a request for Elijah’s annointing as a spiritual inheritance?

Thank you in advance for your comments.

Hi. I am Oswald from Goa, in India. Just recently started listening to Torah Pearls. Simply brilliant. Especially, the explanation on Urim & Thumim. Always wanted to know what they meant. YAHOVAH continue to bless the three of you and your families.

interesting about the double portion…so how many peas in a pod?