This week’s Perashah is Fineḥas, and it speaks of honor for truth. Fineḥas acted with honor when he vindicated the name of our master Moshe, ʿalaw haShalom. We also read of how the daughters of Ṣelophḥad honored their tribe by defending their tribal inheritance. The act of these righteous women established a legal precedent in Israel: that no inheritance should be lost due to the absence of male heirs. The Eternal—yithbarakh—praised their deed.
In our own days, many Sepharadim are bowing their heads and severing themselves from the heritage of their ancestors, lacking the courage to honor their parents before oppressive political authority. By undergoing conversion solely to satisfy a political formality imposed by the Israeli bureaucracy—in opposition to halakhah—they forfeit their inheritance. A giyur severs one’s familial bonds to take on a new spiritual lineage. It is a grave shame that so many Sepharadim now scorn their relatives who died ʿal Qiddush Hashem during the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions.
Sociological and anthropological studies have shown that countless Jews secretly kept the faith through the generations. How then can a descendant of those martyrs cast aside the blood of their ancestors simply because someone tells them they lack “Jewish documents” to prove their identity? The Torah includes a miṣwah with a promise:
“Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be lengthened.”
Our Hakhamim teach that this promise refers both to life in this world and in the World to Come.
The examples of Fineḥas and the daughters of Ṣelophḥad stand as eternal lessons in perseverance and the defense of our Sepharadi inheritance. May we draw strength from their deeds—and never abandon the memory or honor of our forebears.