[Avodah] kohen in war / pinchas & kehuna

[Michael Poppers]

In Avodah Digest V25#265, RDR responded to RET:
>> Note that Pinchas was not a kohen when he killed zimri. <<
> This is a machlokes.  See Zevahim 102a (citing Seder Olam), Rashi ad.
loc. s.v. "ben bnah". <
and R'Micha responded:
> If he was not originally included (see RDR's recent post, or my survey of
"berisi shalom" from last week)... <
How does considering Pin'chas a (to quote from that sugya in Maseches
Z'vachim) "mashuach milchamah" (which presumably occurred *after* he killed
Zimri, given the comment of RaShY mentioned by RDR) constitute any
contradiction to RET's "note" (which comes from the same sugya -- see
101b)?  True, one could be a kohen [hedyot] w/out being a kohen
gadol/"mashuach milchamah" -- for a possible resolution, see RCBrovender's
comments (quoting RaMBaM Hilchos Talmud Torah 3:1) towards the end of
http://www.yhol.org.il/parsha/5760/pinchas60.htm .

RET had asked:
> why Pinchas was not
included in the original establishment of the kohanim just as his
grandfather, father and uncles were <
You mean why, aside from it being a g'zeiras hakasuv (as noted, e.g., in
http://www.ou.org/torah/tt/5760/pinchas60/aliya.htm [first-aliyah
section])?

R'Micha also replied:
> Perhaps he was simply too young.
 <
As per http://www.revach.net/article.php?id=490, an answer given by the
MaHaRaL.  For further thoughts/other answers, see
http://www.neryaakov.org/torah.php?action=show_article&id=137&page=2 ,
http://www.torahsearch.com/page.cfm/1538 , and
http://www.torah.org.il/learning/perceptions/5758/pinchas.html .

All the best from
--Michael Poppers via RIM pager
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