<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><span style="font-size: 22px;" class="">“Pinhas… has turned back Chamasi, my wrath, from the people of Israel.” (Num.25:11)<br class="">Pinhas has proven his unusual power to turn back God’s wrath from Israel through a very courageous, <br class="">difficult and controversial act. The Vilna Gaon brilliantly observes that in the word chamasi (my wrath), <br class="">the two outside letters ches and yud read chai — life — while the inside letters mem and sav read meit — death. <br class=""> <br class="">The hidden meaning is that by Pinchos facing squarely what has taken place on the outside, he has miraculously <br class="">turned back the wrath of the Almighty. In doing so, he has removed death (meis) from the inside, replacing it with life (chai).</span><br class=""><br class=""><span style="font-size: 21px;" class=""><br class="">Why do we pray with a set text? An opinion recorded in the Talmud states that prayers correspond to the daily<br class="">sacrifices offered in the Temple which are mentioned in this coming week's portion of Pinchas. (Numbers 28:4) <br class="">It has been argued that this opinion may be the conceptual base for our standardized prayer. <br class="">Since sacrifices had detailed structure, so too do our prayers have a set text.</span><div class=""><span style="font-size: 21px;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div class=""><br style="font-family: ArialMT;" class=""><strong style="font-family: ArialMT;" class=""><em class="">If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence.<br class="">If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel.</em></strong></div></body></html>