By Marco Del Monte
The Torah is not a text to be read, but an experience to be lived. Not an ancient reading, but a reading within ourselves. Every parashah is a mirror, every word a heartbeat of the Jewish soul. And today, the Torah shows us Pinchas, who raises a spear and in return receives from G-d an eternal covenant of peace. An instrument of war for peace? A paradox. An instrument that pierces and separates becomes a sign of union and Shalom? To understand the text, we must not read it, but LISTEN to it. Only if we listen with the ear of the soul does the Torah, TODAY, tell us of our deepest conscience: true peace is born when we struggle with ourselves for truth, for purity, for unity with Hashem within us.
Yaakov wrestling with Esau's angel is the struggle between instincts: he emerges with the blessing of the name "Yisrael", that is, "Yiashar-E-l", he who is upright before G-d (E-L). Phinehas's spear is not a bloodthirsty weapon, but the symbol of an inner act: the courage to strike, with precision, the point where evil exists within the human heart. Zimri and Cozbi, who provocatively question Moses halachically before sinning publicly, are not merely transgressive historical figures, but represent the masks that the yetzer hara wears inside each of us when desire disguises itself as idealism, and disconnection as inner truth. Phinehas does not kill two people: he pierces inner chaos. And he does so with a spear called *romach* – רמח. *Romach* has the numerical value of 248, like the limbs of man, like the 248 positive mitzvot, like the 248 words of the Shema Yisrael. A spear made not of metal, but of Spirit that becomes a "Human Being". A weapon that does not destroy, but makes the body an instrument of Holiness. This is why Hashem seals that act with a *Berit Shalom* – a covenant of peace, because when body and soul unite in truth, peace is no longer far off. Every day, when a Jew closes their eyes and recites: "Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad", they repeat Phinehas's gesture. Without raising a hand. But with their whole body, with all their 248 limbs. The Shema is a spiritual and material structure: one word for every part of our being, because it is not enough to declare Hashem's unity. We must live it, embody it, and become a living "Shema" ourselves. Hence the command is not "speak", but "Shema" – listen. Listen with the heart, with the skin, with silence. Because the soul knows the truth before the mind does. The true Shema is not spoken: it is listened to from within, like an eternal echo coming from Abraham, whose name, not coincidentally, has a gematria of 248. In the *Ben Ish Chai* (Vayera 1), we read a precious teaching. The verse *"Lemachar yihyeh ha-ot hazé"* – "Tomorrow there shall be this sign" – contains within the letters of *machar* (anagrammatised) the words spear (רמח) and womb (רחם). The spear... and the womb. The weapon... and the source of life. An act that cuts away evil, while at the same time preparing space to conceive good. It is not enough to strike at sin: we must generate a future. The Shema not only shatters dark forces, but is also the spiritual womb from which *machar*, the redeemed tomorrow, is born. The chachamim teach that Keriat Shema (particularly the one before falling asleep) destroys myriad negative entities by bringing them back to this world as rectified souls (the *kavvanah* of the Shema *al hamittah* is linked to the concepts of sword and womb, though I will not explain it now). Some siddurim show a diagram called *Tikun HaNefesh*, where the Names of Hashem make up the parts of the human body. The human being is not only the image of God (*Betzelem Elokim* has a value of 248). He is a living letter of His Name. If we were to write the Tetragrammaton vertically, we would see a structure similar to a human being: The Yud, the Head; the Hey, the arms; the Vav, the torso; the final Hey, the legs. Every time we say the Shema, these letters light up inside us. Every word is a fire. Every organ reawakens. And if fear, confusion, or loneliness sometimes strike? The Gemara teaches us that: "whoever is seized by sudden fear should recite the Shema." Because the Shema is more than a tefillah: it is a spiritual shield that awakens angels who protect and save – not by chance is it also written, in part, on the mezuzah. It is the voice that reminds us who we are, even when everything seems dark. Throughout history, when a child was kidnapped, far from the people and the Torah, a whisper was enough: "Shema Yisrael..." — and the soul answered. The Shema is not forgotten. It is engraved in the body and blood, in the memory of the bones. Phinehas is the angel Elijah the Prophet, the prophet who learned to recognize Hashem in the thin, silent voice (*Kol Demamah Dakkah* – Kings 1). He who is present at every *brit milah* (see also Zipporah with her son's brit and the saving of Moses from the serpent's death), lives among us, teaches the chachamim, is encountered in the songs of Havdalah at the beginning of the week, and will be the one to announce the coming of Mashiach – when? When we learn to LISTEN. Shabbat Shalom and Happy Listening!
Translated from the Italian with Google Gemini. The Italian text is the original.