The Torah/Pinchas

thumb|right|200px|Moab Leads Israel into Sin (illustration from the 1728 Figures de la Bible) Questions Here are a few of the questions that the Rabbis raised about this Torah reading: Why does the Torah detail Pinchas’s ancestry (in Numbers 25:11)?Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 82b. What special circumstances justified Pinchas’s taking justice into his own hands?Mishnah Sanhedrin 9:6; Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 81a–82b. Why another census?Midrash Tanchuma Pinchas 4. Why did the tribe of Simeon lose so many people between the two censuses?Numbers 1 & 26. What happened to Korah’s children (referred to in Numbers 26:11)?Babylonian Talmud Megillah 14a, Sanhedrin 110a–b. Who was Serah bat Asher (referred to in Numbers 26:46)?Genesis 46:17; Babylonian Talmud Sotah 13a; Genesis Rabbah 94:9; Zohar 3:167b. Why (as Numbers 26:62 reports) didn’t the Levites get an inheritance of land?Babylonian Talmud Bava Batra 122a. What was it about the case of Zelophehad’s daughters that puzzled Moses?Babylonian Talmud Bava Batra 119a. Who was Zelophehad?Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 96b–97a. Why does the designation of Joshua follow the incident of the daughters of Zelophehad?Numbers Rabbah 21:14. What was it about Joshua that qualified him to succeed Moses?Numbers Rabbah 21:14. On which Festival did the priests sacrifice the most animals?Numbers 28:9–29:38. Why does the Torah (in Numbers 29:12–34) require the Israelites to sacrifice 70 bulls on Sukkot and one bull on Shemini Atzeret?Babylonian Talmud Sukkah 55b; Numbers Rabbah 21:24. Why did the number of sacrifices on Sukkot decrease every day?Numbers Rabbah 21:25. Notes