Pinchas: the meme of inheritance

Pinchas: the meme of inheritance

The issue in Pinchas is succession.  Pinchas, by his bold action has earned elevation to the priesthood. One might have thought that Pinchas' priestly designation came to him though his birth, as the grandson of  Aaron, through Elazar, the current High Priest. Rashi directs us to the talmud's explanation:. Pinchas had been born too early.  The priesthood had been conferred on the named individuals: Aaron and his 4 sons.  The children of those sons had not been named.  They were not anointed,  they were excluded. By virtue of his actions, Pinchas had earned the title of Priest ( many of his progeny were High Priests) for himself and his descendants. 

Earning the title changes the nature of the birthright. It is no longer purely hereditary, there is a way in through merit.  In our worldview, that is a good thing. Nevertheless, it seems to deviate from the intent of the process. 

Inheritance is  possession on the basis of genetic relatedness.  Biologically, this is inevitable, but is is also complex.  The traits that parents transmit to their children may have been hidden, and the emergence of these recessive traits may be viewed as undesirable.  The interactions between the inherited traits is complex and unpredictable, leading to surprising outcomes  (for better or worse).  The  inherited traits may work quite differently in the environment that the children find themselves in. 

Regardless... it is the  inevitable determinant of  99% ( the 1% is mutation) of the biological  material a child has to work with  ... and that works on her. 

The parsha  overtly deals with the inheritance of authority ( Pinchas as priest, Joshua as leader) and property ( the chieftains of the tribes [note: when we talk about the ancient heirs of the land occupied by the US, we call them "tribes"], the daughters of Zelophchod).  It also deals with the ritual celebration of the  annual holiday cycle, our heritage. 

The idea that property should be subject to inheritance has been questioned in the modern world.  The estate is the substance of wealth. Thomas Piketty  ( Capital in the Twenty-First Century )  argues that it should be subject to distribution over the population.  Arguments about the justice of inheritance ( as opposed to reversion to the state) had previously been raised by  Thorstein Veblen  .  The "death tax" is the state claiming "its share" of inherited wealth.  These modern ideas are not in the Torah equation.  The inheritance rules, transmitted from Gd to Moshe (and hence to the people) -  prompted by the question of the inheritance of the  daughters of Zelophchod - affirm the passage of property from decedent  to closest biological relative.  

The concept of inheritance is itself, a heritage - a (meta)meme ala Richard Dawkins  and The Selfish Gene.  It is a self-perpetuating idea that is transmitted through a population. It is a widely accepted idea of how things should be.   It has a life of its own. 

What might motivate this inheritance based system of wealth distribution and sequestration?  The occasional injection of merit  ( as in the case of Pinchas) means that some actions can yield rewards that outlive the actor. Some deeds are so great they can only be rewarded by legacy.  There is also the hope that the great  response of the champion has some heritable qualities, especially values,  that will be transmitted through the generations. These  values seem to mutate very fast and can soon become inappropriate. 

There is a hidden idea in the parsha's  explication of inheritance law.  Divine intervention is going to change.  It will no longer be as explicit.  Moshe will no longer be able to ask Gd a question and return with a (relatively) clear answer.  From now on, the system is on auto-pilot most of the time. Rule will be by committee - the mortal leader and the (interpretable and vague) Urim.  After a time, these will also be gone ( a nod to the Three weeks) and we will rely on our ...heritage and traditions