This week’s parsha discusses G-d commanding the Jews to defeat the nation of Midian. The Midianites were the ones that caused a terrible deadly plague to take place in the Jewish camp and therefore G-d said they needed to be punished. As it says in this week’s parsha, “Moshe sent one thousand from each tribe to the army and Pinchas, the son of Elozor the Cohain, to the army.” (Bamidbar 31:6). Rashi asks why Pinchas is sent while Elozor, who was the Cohen Gadol (High Priest), is not. He answers that Pinchas began the job and therefore was told to finish the job. If a person starts something, he should be the one to finish it.

There’s a mind boggling Gemara that I once learned. The Torah teaches us that right before the Jews left Egypt, they were told to ask the Egyptians for gold and silver. During this time, Moshe ran to find the bones of Yosef HaTzaddik (Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Yaakov). Moshe found the bones and brought them up from Egypt and in the desert for forty years. The goal of this was to bury Yosef in Eretz Yisroel, the Promised Land. We know that Moshe was not able to fulfill this ultimate goal because he passed away before entering Israel. Therefore, the bones were brought across by Yehoshua (Joshua) and the children of Israel. The Gemara points out that the credit for carrying the bones from Egypt into Eretz Yisroel and burying Yosef does not go to Moshe. It went to the Children of Israel that buried Yosef. This makes absolutely no sense at all: Moshe began the whole mission in Egypt and supervised Yosef’s bones for forty years in the desert. Then, at the very end, for the final month of the long project, Moshe could not complete it. It was not even really his own fault: he was not allowed entry into Israel so he could not finish the job. Why is all of the credit is given to the Children of Israel that finished the job.

The reason is because once a person starts a job, they need to finish it. People get very motivated to start projects but after a short while, the motivation disappears, and so does the project. The great project that the person was so excited about suddenly is thrown on the back-burner for someone else to finish. Therefore, our Sages teaching us that a person does not get full credit and sometimes does not even get any credit if they start a job but do not complete it.

This is why Pinchas is sent to finish off the Midianites. He began the job by zealously killing Kosbi, a Midianite woman committing a sin that brought a plague on the Jews. Pinchas started the war against Midian, and therefore, it was only fitting that he would be the one that would continue it. Once a person starts a job, they need to continue it and finish it. This is the message Rashi is trying to teach us this week. Just as a person is very motivated when they start a new job, program, or project, they should remain motivated enough to finish it.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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