By Paul Silverman

This week's parsha is Parshat Pinchas, and morals of leadership and status abound. Here's a summary of the parsha for more reading.

The parsha begins by filling us in on some of the details of last week's parsha (see Matank's vehement analysis), and tells us the names and identities of the people killed for their adultery: The name of the Israelite man who was killed, who was slain with the Midianite woman was Zimri the son of Salu, the chieftain of the Simeonite paternal house. And the name of the Midianite woman who was slain was Cozbi the daughter of Zur, a national leader of a paternal house in Midian (25:14-15).

While this information relates more to last week's parsha, it is included in this week's seemingly for its relevance to this week's theme of leadership and status. This week's parsha goes out of its way to tell us that Zimri was a prince (or cheiftain). Despite his high status, he was still held accountable and killed for his actions.

Furthermore, who is the one to kill him but Pinchas. Pinchas, who will become a kohein and a prominent figure later in the Torah, is at this point just one among the many, just another son of an Idol worshipper. Pinchas is even scorned by some of the tribes for killing a prince of the Israeites, saying that he had no right to do so.

The lesson here seems clear. In Judaism, leadership is not determined by status or reputation. Instead, it is those who prove their leadership capabilities and personally invest themselves in just and meaningful work who earn a reputation as a leader.

This parsha continues on this theme as we learn about the daughters of Zelophehad who make a formal request to Moses for their father's land due to the fact that he had no sons to inherit his property. This is the first time that the question of women

inheriting land is brought up and it causes much commotion and questioning. Moses needs to go up the mountain and confer with Hashem before making a verdict that indeed, because they have no brothers, they will inherit the land, and the inheritance laws are amended to include women who don't have brothers.

The daughters of Zelophehad are also seen as heroic. Their honor, while certainly not from spontaneous violence, was instead in the form of their formal request to Moses to alter the laws and practices of the Israelites. They revered and respected the law and Hashem, which granted them their land, and therefore, some amount of power.

While I take issue with what is seen as honorable in these two situations, and the gendered implications of these qualities (Pinchas for his spontaneous violence, and the daughters of Zelophehad for their respect, reverence and subservience), the message is strong. If we are to be leaders, we must earn it. Our power should not come from a title or a reputation, but from our actions. No one is deserved leadership but those who choose to lead.

This is a very valuable message as we are at machaneh. It is not the tafkid of rosh or mazkirut or madrich or madatz that give us the power to be leaders. Instead, it is the actions that we take. All members of the community, from amel to camp committee have the ability to act and lead their community, and their leadership should be honored and respected. Furthermore, we should not wait for those in leadership positions to take the initiative. Instead, we should always be thinking about the ways that we can act justly and live more intentionally as individuals and as communities.