In this week's parsha, Parshas Pinchas, we see the after-effects of an amazing show of bravery. In the end of last week's parsha, Parshas Balak, Pinchas kills Zimri and Cozbi, a Jewish man and a Midyani woman who were publicly sinning. The passuk in Bamidbar 24:8 tells us that when Pinchas took his spear and killed these two people, the plague that had already killed twenty four thousand Jews stopped and the people were saved.
After this dramatic ending to Parshas Balak, the Torah in the beginning of Parshas Pinchas tells us the reward Pinchas and his children get. The passuk says that HaShem made a bris with Pinchas, and he and his descendants are given the gift of kehuna. The reason for this, HaShem says, is because Pinchas acted on his passionate feelings for HaShem and for that which HaShem is passionate about.
(יא) פִּֽינְחָ֨ס בֶּן־אֶלְעָזָ֜ר בֶּן־אַהֲרֹ֣ן הַכֹּהֵ֗ן הֵשִׁ֤יב אֶת־חֲמָתִי֙ מֵעַ֣ל בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל בְּקַנְא֥וֹ אֶת־קִנְאָתִ֖י בְּתוֹכָ֑ם וְלֹא־כִלִּ֥יתִי אֶת־בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל בְּקִנְאָתִֽי׃
As the passuk tells us, Pinchas saved the Jewish people by acting quickly. He didn't stop to think about how people would think of him or what people would say, he just did what he knew was right in order to fight for Kavod Shamayim. In doing so, he saved all of Klal Yisrael.
In today's world, one of the biggest challenges we face as Jews is a lack of the fiery passion that Pinchas had. We're content with our lives in galus, and we don't fight for geulah with every cell in our body. We allow ourselves to be bystanders, instead of helping each other and standing up for what's right. We go through our lives doing mitzvos without meaning, learning Torah without feeling. I heard an idea on Shiva Asar B'Tammuz from Rabbi Zev Prince that I think ties the idea of needing to feel passionate in our Judaism and the Three Weeks together nicely.
We know that there are five tragedies that happened on Shiva Asar B'Tammuz. Moshe broke the first set of luchos, the Korban Tamid stopped being offered, the walls of Yerushalayim were breached, Apostomos burnt a sefer Torah, and an idol was set up in the Bais HaMikdash. Rabbi Prince said that instead of viewing these events as 5 separate occurences, we should view them as a sequence that translates into a message for us that gives us what to work on during the time of Bein Hametzarim.
When our luchos, our foundations, are broken and begin to crumble, then our continuity in serving HaShem and working on ourselves in our Yiddishkeit gets interrupted. When that happens, our defenses are down and our walls that protect us can be easily breached by the yetzer harah and the outside world. This allows part of our personal Torah, our way of serving HaShem, to be burned away and fade out, ultimately leading to the defilement of the personal mikdash within ourselves when we allow avodah zara into our hearts by becoming enamored with the material world.
When, however, we have passion, and we can fight outwardly for what we believe in, our values and our convictions are much clearer in our minds. It's harder to get swept up in the physical world and in non-Jewish values, because to us they are so clearly a fallacy. If we are apathetic, and we go through life doing mitzvos by rote, and we fail to ignite the flame inside each and every one of us, then we have a very weak grasp on the foundations of our Yiddishkeit. However, if we have passion like Pinchas did, and we don't allow ourselves to be concerned with how others view us, we never start the sequence of the three weeks, because our luchos, our foundations, are strong.
The message of Parshas Pinchas speaks volumes about the dangers of being a bystander, and gives us what to work on during the three weeks. B'ezras HaShem, if we can emulate Pinchas and fight for what's right, we too can remove HaShem's anger from us and be zoche to have Tisha B'av as a Yom Tov this year and not as a day of mourning.