“Pinchas son of Elazar the Koehein turned back My wrath… and I did not destroy Bnei Yisrael” (Bamidbar 25:11).

The Midrash discusses Pinchas’s deed: He saw an incident and he recalled the halachah so he took action. Twelve miracles were performed for him to help him succeed.

Often although our generation is so immodest we despair: “What can we do? After all we’re not Pinchas!”

However this is a misconception. The Torah emphasizes “And he rose from amidst the congregation” to indicate that Pinchas was “just” one of the masses a plain person who ended up saving Bnei Yisrael (Zichron Meir Rav Meir Robman).

My friend was in a hurry. “I have guests” she said apologetically “Gotta run.”

“Your in-laws?” I asked understanding her pressure.

“No” she seemed surprised at my assumption. “Every week we have a group of yeshiva guys over. They don’t have family here in Eretz Yisrael and they miss the taste of a home-cooked meal.”

I fell silent staring at her in amazement. “Sometimes we have couples or families too” she added misunderstanding my silence. “Families with no extended family here. They come occasionally like after birth or if they need a break…” I was still quiet staring at my friend as if seeing her for the first time ‑ seeing her for who she really was.

This was my high school friend an ordinary girl who was always scrambling to fill in her homework thirty seconds before the teacher walked in or urging us to go to the beach instead of studying for the history test. She wasn’t the valedictorian or the chesed head. Just an average girl from an average home who liked music and nosh and hated school especially algebra.

This brief exchange was a real eye-opener for me. I realized that all those ‘special people out there’ the ones who cooked sheva brachos for needy kallahs or opened their homes to straying youth or arranged gemachim were really regular people. People with normal challenges ups and downs. They’re just like everyone else and yet they aren’t.

Not at all.

“How did you start this?” I pressed my friend despite knowing she was in a hurry. How did a person suddenly open her home and table to company every Shabbos?

She shrugged. “People just show up. Sometimes they call in advance and sometimes they just knock on the door. I have no idea who gave them my address or phone number but it doesn’t really matter; they’re all welcome.”

“Where do you fit everyone? You have a house full of kids! And what about all the time it takes to prepare for such a large crowd?”

She seemed bemused at my bewilderment.

“Hashem provides” she said matter-of-factly. “He’s the One Who sends me guests and He’s the One Who helps me find the time to do the cooking and baking. And somehow there’s always just enough place to seat everybody at the table. Week after week. ”

“Who am I? What can I possibly do?” These are natural thoughts that erode our self-confidence. Although this misplaced modesty is often found among those who fear Hashem it’s faulty reasoning. We see that Pinchas first attempted to do his part and only then merited that twelve miracles were performed for him

The Torah describes in great detail Pinchas’s action although it seems unnecessary.  “And he took a spear in his hand.” The words “in his hand” seem superfluous. Would you assume he took the spear with his foot?  Hence we learn that from the moment he lifted the spear in his hand everything that occurred was a miracle.

(ibid.)

I thought about my friend long after she had left.  A person isn’t born to greatness.  The most normal day-to-day average Joe can be the one to bring salvation to an entire nation to halt a terrible plague.

And so can I.

In general I’m one of those people who perceives life as an arduous mountain climb.

I can’t do it! I’ll never make it!  Where will I get the energy the ability the inclination?

From Parshas Pinchas.

One day when you finally realize that the world needs you when you realize that you have to do it because there’s no one else around then you’ll do it.

And on that day you’ll see that you can.