Pinchas: Pinchas Saves the Day

Rescuing a Friend in Debt

Jake had borrowed large sums of money from several people, a fact he wasn’t exactly shouting from the rooftops. Lacking a steady income and generally avoiding anything resembling work, he found himself in a bit of a financial pickle. His creditors, unimpressed by his charm and well-rehearsed excuses, were done waiting and demanded their money.

But Jake had a secret weapon: his friends. They rallied to his side, negotiating with the lenders and somehow convincing them—probably out of sheer exhaustion—to give Jake more time. After all, who could say no to a group of people who could talk the hind leg off a donkey?

The days passed. The extension expired. Once again, the creditors came knocking. And once again, Jake’s friends intervened, securing yet another “gracious” postponement.

Time marched on, and once more the deadline loomed. Jake’s friends were out of excuses. “Well, you know Jake... he’s just having a rough time right now…” wasn’t going to cut it this time.

Fortunately for Jake, he had one friend who was particularly close. This friend was no stranger to financial gymnastics. He understood that now was the moment to face the lenders head-on.

"You're absolutely right," he said, his voice all business. "Jake owes you money. I get it. But the problem is, Jake doesn’t have any. Now, I’m willing to offer you a sum—let’s say 50% of what he owes. It’s better than nothing, and let’s face it, if you don’t take it, you might just end up with nothing at all. And that would be a real shame, wouldn't it?"

The lenders grumbled, exchanged wary glances, and after a few long, agonizing moments, reluctantly agreed. They signed away the rest of Jake’s debt with the grimace of someone making an appointment for a colonoscopy.

So, who really helped Jake? The friends who endlessly delayed the repayment? They only kicked the problem down the road. It was his closest friend—who faced the situation head-on and found a real solution—who wiped away Jake’s debts clean.

Moses and Pinchas

After the sin of the Golden Calf, Moses stood before God, pleading for the people. Moved by Moses’ intercession, God agreed: the punishment would not come all at once but would be spread out over generations. "But on the day I make an accounting," God warned, "I will bring their sin to account against them" (Exod. 32:34).

In the same way, when the Israelites erred after the sin of the spies, Moses’ prayers once again delayed the reckoning, and their punishment was spread out over forty years of wandering in the desert.

But then, at the height of another crisis, when the people strayed again—this time, in the sin of idolatry with the Moabite women—something shifted. Pinchas did not merely delay the inevitable. He took action. He saw a nation in peril, its very soul at risk. Zimri, a prince of the tribe of Shimon, openly took a Midianite princess, defying everything Israel stood for. The people wept in despair, powerless to stop the tragedy unfolding before them.

Pinchas, however, took a stand. With resolve and zeal, he struck down Zimri, halting the plague that threatened to destroy the people. "Pinchas... was the one who zealously took up My cause among the Israelites and turned My anger away from them, so that I did not destroy them" (Num. 25:11).

Moses, with his prayers, was like the friends in the story; he just delayed the inevitable. But Pinchas, with his decisive action, was like Jake’s best friend. He succeeded in completely annulling the Divine decree against Israel.

(Adapted from Mishlei Yaakov pp. 363-364)