Parshas Pinchos Shabbos Times Erev Shabbos Shabbos Day Candle Lighting 4:58pm Latest time for Shema 10:00am Shkiya 5:16pm Shabbos Ends 6:02pm Avos Ubonim at Home Avos Ubonim 7:05-7:50pm Join us on Zoom at 7:50pm for this week's RAFFLE Short Vort on the Parsha Rashi explains that after Pinchos killed Zimri, the Jewish people began to shame him by recalling the fact that his maternal grandfather (Yisro) had been an idolater. Therefore, the Torah specifically emphasizes his paternal descent from Aharon HaKohen. If the people knew of the law that zealots may kill one publicly engaged in such an act, why did they insult him? If they were unfamiliar with the law and viewed him as a cold-blooded murderer, of what benefit was it to Pinchos to point out his paternal lineage, and in what way did it change the reality that one of his grandfathers had served as a priest for idol-worship and that in their minds, he had needlessly killed the leader of a tribe? Rav Meir Shapiro explains that the value of a mitzvah is measured by the degree to which its performance runs counter to one's natural inclinations and therefore represents a more difficult test of his devotion to Hashem. It is for this reason that the Akeidah is considered to be a test for Avrohom more than for Yitzchok. The central attribute of Avrohom's Divine service was chesed - kindness, while that of Yitzchok was gevurah - strength. The willingness to personally sacrifice one's own son to Hashem is difficult for any father, but its challenge was significantly more for one whose entire life was devoted to the trait of kindness, and it is for this reason that it is considered to be a unique test for Avrohom. The Jews attempted to minimize the greatness of Pinchos' act not by insinuating that he was a cold-blooded killer, but by hinting that it had come easy to him as a result of his being descended from an idolater who was accustomed to cruelly killing animals as part of his idol worship. The Torah therefore emphasizes that this act was indeed performed with great personal difficulty and internal resistance, as his natural instincts came not from his allegedly merciless maternal grandfather, but rather from his paternal grandfather Aharon HaKohen - a man whose entire life was dedicated to the love and pursuit of peace.