Pinchas
How can we fully inhabit the present moment?
Reflection by Ariel Hendelman, the Or HaLev Team:
"This week’s Torah portion, Pinchas, contains two famous stories, the story of Pinchas’ zealous killing of Zimri and Cozbi and the story of the daughters of Zelophechad, who plea to Moses to change the laws of inheritance.
Often overlooked in this parsha is the occurance of a new Divine name – הָרוּחֹ֖ת לְכׇל־בָּשָׂ֑ר / Haruchot L’chol Basar / Breath of all Flesh. Uttered by Moses, this Divine name harkens back to the moment the first human, Adam, was created from the breath of the Infinite. God formed the human from the soil’s humus, the Torah tells us, blowing into their nostrils the breath of life; the human became a living being.
This word ruach does not only mean breath. It also connotes spirit and scent. There is an ethereal quality to ruach, juxtaposed by the more solid quality of the earth, the adamah, from which humans were first created.
We experience this Divine name over and over again in our meditation practice as both a spiritual challenge and a blessing. Where else do we see so clearly how our breath is the source of life - how it can serve as a stabilizing anchor that we can return to again and again to reaffirm our commitment to fully inhabiting the present moment? Where else can we witness so clearly how the breath is the embodied spirit of our practice - the channel through which life flows through us and by which we are connected to every other living being?
We might try this week, during Parshat Pinchas, to call on this Divine name, `Breath of all Flesh` as a kind of silent mantra. Whenever thoughts have pulled our attention this way or that, we can invoke it to help us make that beautiful return to the center of the present moment. Breath of all Flesh, past and present and future, breath of our ancestors and our descendants, please be with us this week as we dedicate our practice in service to You, that we might feel how close You truly are – as close as our next breath."