Parshat: Pinchas

Parshat: Pinchas Numbers 25:10-30:01

In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations. You shall observe it as a day when the horn is sounded. You shall present a burnt offering of pleasing odor to the Eternal: one bull of the herd, one ram, and seven yearling lambs, without blemish.

– Numbers 29:1-2

The verse in our Torah portion, Pinchas, comes amidst the full calendar of “sacred occasions” of the Jewish people. In this case, it is describing what we will come to understand as Rosh HaShanah (though it is never named that in the Torah). We can glean from this portion that it is important to mark time, to make “sacred occasions” special through specific acts that we don’t do at other times. Here we are told that this one is marked by sounding the horn – the shofar. Whenever you hear a shofar sounded, you know that something special is happening. Over the course of this Shabbat, our nation will celebrate the 250^th anniversary of its founding, and many special elements will “proclaim” this sacred occasion – the fireworks, marching bands and flags as well as the recitation of the sacred words that proclaimed our independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident…”

-Rabbi Craig Axler