Posted on July 3, 2026 by Rabbi Noah Diamondstein
Dear friends,
All of us hope to make an impact while we are here. The scope of one’s aspirations certainly differs from person to person–not everyone wants to change the whole world or become a great leader, but at the same time I imagine none of us is hoping for a poorly attended funeral when the time inevitably comes. It is a natural and I think an inherently positive human impulse to hope that what we do matters, and act accordingly so that we leave behind a legacy worth honoring and remembering. Parashat Pinchas, our Torah portion this Shabbat, speaks to two different kinds of legacies.
The first is the personal legacy of Pinchas himself. The specifics of how Pinchas earned his legacy are gruesome, involving a double homicide that stopped a ravenous plague caused by Israelite disloyalty to God through being sexually tempted into worship of a foreign God, Baal-Peor. Pinchas is not, and I should hope obviously not, a genuine role model for us in the current day–we aren’t going around stabbing Jews that marry out of our faith community, for example. The way the Torah speaks of him, though, is what I seek to highlight here. The Torah says of Pinchas at the beginning of our parashah: “Say, therefore, ‘I grant him My pact of friendship. It shall be for him and his descendants after him a pact of priesthood for all time, because he took impassioned action for his God, thus making expiation for the Israelites.’” (Num 27:12-13) Pinchas’ is the example of individual legacy–how we are remembered as a person, the reputation of one’s family name. This is the type of legacy built up by one’s own personal accomplishments and accolades–achievements that remain with a person long after they perish and often become blessings hopefully conferred to their descendants. When we name a new baby for a beloved ancestor, this type of legacy is what we are hoping to pass on.
The second is the Daughters of Zelophechad. Zelophechad passed away in the wilderness, but had no sons to take up his inheritance. His daughters saw the possibility that their father’s inheritance would pass out of their family simply because they were not sons as an injustice, and brought the case to Moshe, who in turn brought it before God. God saw the righteousness of their case, and passed down the injunction that if a person had no sons, his daughters would become the inheritors of their estate. The legacy of the Daughters of Zelophechad is a legacy of societal change. If we work hard for a cause that is just, we can make lasting change that benefits everyone. Further, the Daughters were not only changemakers in their own day but also models for Jewish women and their allies in future generations the Daughters could scarcely even have imagined. So many amazing Jewish leaders–women, men, and Jews of nonbinary gender–have cited their example of moral courage and egalitarian advocacy as a model for contemporary generations.
As we encounter Parashat Pinchas yet again, I encourage you to meditate on the legacy you hope to leave behind. How can you act as an upstander yourself, and how can you make yourself a part of our collective work for the kind of society in which we all hope to live? May we all bravely pursue the cause of justice and equality, and may we all live in a way that, by our current sensibilities, would earn us that pact of God’s friendship.
Shabbat Shalom,
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Rabbi Noah Diamondstein
For more information on how you can leave a legacy gift to Temple Beth-El to strengthen our community’s future, contact our Legacy Circle. Consider Temple Beth-El when making your estate plans and beneficiary designations.