Sexual Purity: Rabbi Avraham

Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum lectures on sexual purity from this weeks Torah portion Pinchas.

“Pinchas son of Elazar son of Aaron the Priest turned away My wrath from upon the Children of Israel in his zealousness. Therefore say: I hereby give him My Covenant of Peace” (Numbers 25:11-12).

The opening verses of our parshah of PINCHAS follow immediately after the account of Pinchas’ heroic act given at the end of last week’s parshah, BALAK. The Prince of the tribe of Shimon was publicly flouting Moses’ authority by taking a Midianite princess for himself in front of his brothers, in front of Moses and in front of the whole Assembly of Israel. His claim was that if Moses could marry the daughter of the Priest of Midian, why should he not also be allowed to take a Midianite woman?