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Parshas Pinchas - The Esoteric & Torah          20 Tammuz 5784

07/25/2024 10:28:09 PM

Jul25

From time to time, my wife calls me out about my bekius (vast general knowledge) of 1970’s television. Growing up in a house that had a television in almost every room, I transferred those high grades from school to my T.V. report card. There was one show that I never really got into, as it was slightly before my time, predominantly in 1960’s and that was ‘The Twilight Zone’ -  a strange mix of horror, science-fiction, drama, comedy, and superstition. Serling, the creator, introduced each episode, shown in black and white. Every episode always concluded with a mega surprise ending. This past Thursday, continuing throughout Friday, a major computer systems outage caused worldwide airline cancellations, impacted bank closures, created delays and cancellations of public transportation services, disrupted TV channels and multiple business operations throughout the world. This massive technical glitch has, as of this writing one week later, still not fully recovered.   

 Everyone has been affected by this enormous systems outage in some way, albeit some more directly than others.  By far, the most challenging inconvenience was the widespread cancellation of air travel.  My wife and I flew from San Diego to Florida for the weekend. We had a return flight on Delta airlines (the most affected airline). Our itinerary took us from Fort Lauderdale back to San Diego with a stopover in Houston. We were delayed in taking off, causing us to have a narrow window to go from one gate to the next. We were forced to change from concourse E to C, requiring us to take the Sky Train. As we reached the platform, I noticed a digital read-out of the time showing how many minutes it would be until the train was scheduled to arrive. Now, for those who have recently read my articles, you may recall the idea of counting time, specifically ‘seconds’. I couldn’t believe my eyes when the read-out was not in minutes, but lo and behold in seconds: “The train will arrive in 120 seconds”. I was so amazed I quickly took out my phone to take a picture of the flashing readout seconds of the train’s arrival. I wanted to use this as a support to my mishigas of seconds and counting. At that moment, for the first time in my life I experienced a ‘Twilight Zone’ phenomenon. I felt something was happening that was not only out of the ordinary, but it was also some weird, esoteric situation which was literally unfolding in front of my eyes. As my camera focused on the words indicating the time the train would be arriving, the view finder was watching the screen flutter at a rapid pace, not allowing itself to be read. Wondering if there could be something wrong with my phone camera, I proceeded to tap the button on my phone to take the picture….and then it happened. The phone did not take the picture. I tried several times, but each time I tried to take the picture the words fluttered. The camera was denied access to take that which the camera was viewing. I felt my phone was obsessed, that it had been seized by a higher power or force, denying me the ability to take a picture. Nothing happened; nothing showed up after I clicked. Now, I must plead that before anyone decides to send me somewhere, I am reaching out to you to find a single reason, a tiny clue to lead to the cause of what had happened to my phone. Of course, I reasoned it might be some kind of security issue, but I do not know why that would be. I have no explanation. This is something I just cannot believe really happened!  

Now, we, of all people, know that miracles happen - sometimes right in front of our own eyes. Perhaps we are familiar with the standard miracles we read about such as what happened in Egypt as well as other happenings throughout our illustrious past. Nevertheless, I think there is something that doesn’t get major billing. In fact, it is only mentioned three times in the Torah, and one of these times will be read this week.  

In this week’s Parshas Pinchas the Torah states in Bamidbar 27:21: "ולפני אלעזר הכהן יעמד ושעל לו במשפט האורים לפני ה', על פיו יצאו ועל פיו יבאו הוא וכל בני ישראל אתו וכל העדה" “Let him stand before Elazar the priest, who shall seek the decision of the Urim before God on his behalf. By this word [Yehoshua] along with all the Israelites and the entire community shall come and go.” As previously mentioned,  there are only three places in the Torah where the Urim V’Tumim are mentioned: here and previously in Shmos 28:30 and in Vayikra 8:8. Upon further scrutiny, only in the first two places does it say Urim V’Tumim and here in our Parsha it only says Urim, omitting the word Tumim. Why is that? The item ‘Urim V’Tumim’ is not really defined; rather it is explained as to what it was and how it functioned.  

What Were the Urim V’Tumim? An OU article in Shmos explains that the Torah does not specify exactly what the Urim V’Tumim were. Indeed, more intriguing still, it does not even mention a command to make them; the only instruction concerning them is the one mentioned in our verse to place them in the Choshen. Of further interest is that the Torah refers to them as “the Urim and the Tumim”, apparently denoting a prior known entity, even though this is the first time they are being mentioned. Rashi states that the Urim V’Tumim was a small scroll of parchment with Hashem’s Ineffable Name (Shem Hameforash) written on it. The Rambam does not specify what the Urim V’Tumim were. However, in Hilchos Beis Habechirah, he writes that they were still worn during the time of the Second Beis Hamikdash. The Rambam explains that even though the Gemara lists them among the items that were absent during that era,  meaning that they did not perform their prophetic function; however, they still needed to be worn, otherwise the Kohen Gadol would be lacking the required number of special garments needed to perform the avodah. There are certain commentators who understand that the Rambam concurs that the Urim V’Tumim were Hashem’s names written on parchment, and moreover maintains that their presence within the folds of the Choshen was critical to its status as one of the priestly garments. However, other commentators explain that the Urim V’Tumim were, in fact, the Miluim stones themselves, not an additional item that was added to the Choshen. The name Urim V’Tumim, according to this approach, does not indicate a separate entity, but rather an additional quality of the stones – of transmitting prophetic messages.

Rabbeinu B’Chaya explains the word Urim as applied here is preceded by the word ‘Mishpat’ and is not followed by the word Tumim. The Urim were the primary names and through their powers the letters would light up in front of the Kohen’s eyes so he would know the future outcome of a situation. The Tumim’s purpose was only to join the letters together until the heart of the Kohein was complete and pure. Therefore, the primary need was only to have the Urim. The Tumim was not needed because it was to solidify something in the present and not something for the future. It was the Tumim/the decision to show the Jewish people that the splendor of Moshe was transmitted to Yehoshua, and they should now follow his every direction.

As we internationally began the Bein HaMitzarim commonly referred to as “The Three Weeks” this past Tuesday, we hope and pray to experience the final redemption in our day and receive the messages once again through the esoteric experience of the Urim V’Tumim!

 

Ah Gutten Shabbos

Rabbi Avraham Bogopulsky

Thu, November 7 2024 6 Cheshvan 5785