Parshat Pinchas

SAY, THEREFORE, "I WILL GRANT HIM MY PACT OF PEACE."

(Bamidbar 25:1)

 

I will grant him My pact of peace - The gift of peace as reward or as a "preventive treatment" against corruption of character.

Peace is an unsurpassed good because it includes al types of spiritual accomplishments and eternal happiness. That is why the priests' blessing to Israel ends with peace. No one achieves peace through his own efforts alone, but rather he requires help from heaven. That is why it is referred to as something given - it is the goodly gift which the Holy One blessed be He gives to those who fear Him. Pinhas won the attribute of peace thanks to his willingness to perform a great deed, a deed which was one of righteousness, as the Psalmist said, It was reckoned to him as righteousness (Tehillim106:31). We know that peace is the reward for righteousness, as it is written, For the work of righteousness shall be peace (Isaiah 32:17), and so it is said in Pirkei Avot: "He who increases righteousness increases peace."

(Rabbi Yitzhak Shemuel Regio on Bamidbar 25:12)

 

As reward for pacifying God's wrath and anger, He blessed him with the quality of peacefulness, i.e., that he not be strict or upset. This was necessary because the act committed by Pinhas, of killing someone, naturally leaves a strong emotional impression, but since it was performed for the sake of Heaven, he received the blessing that he always be calm and peaceful, and that this matter [of having killed] should not affect his heart.

(Ha-Amek Davar 25:12)

 

 

On the Holiness of Zealotry

Ronen Ahituv

Our parasha opens with the Holy One Blessed be He praising Pinhas ben Elazar HaKohen for his zealous act, in which - without being expressly ordered to do so - he killed the leader of the tribe of Shimon and the daughter of the leader of Midian. Many find the deed itself disconcerting and difficult to accept, and the great praise Pinchas received for it all the more so. A generation that has had to contend with actual cases of zealotry, such as the dastardly acts of Barukh Goldstein and Yigal Amir, finds praise for zealousness especially dangerous and uncalled for.

In publications such as Shabbat Shalom, we prefer to emphasize other stories from the Bible, the Talmud, and the midrashim, which limit the scope of zealotry or which even plainly condemn it. Despite our consternation, the words of our parasha stand unchanged and it is difficult to find in them any criticism of Pinchas's deed. Diabolically, peace itself is granted him in a pact with God!

True, midrashic interpretations abound, and it is possible to stand the story on its head through complicated reinterpretation. But despite all of that, at the end of the day we stand before the fact of Pinchas ben Elazar's good name and lower our eyes with discomfort.

Historically speaking, we may discover episodes of zealotry marking many of the great crossroads of our national existence. Some garnered praise, others garnered condemnation: It begins with Moses, who struck the Egyptian and mobilized the Levites to kill those who worshipped the calf. It passes on through Pinhas and Elijah; from the Maccabis to the Sicariim of the war of the destruction of Jerusalem and through Bar Kokhba's fighters; from the zealots of the Hebrew language to the zealots of the worker's brigade [Gedud Ha'Avodah]; from the people of the Mered Ha'Kadosh ["Holy Rebellion" of religious labor Zionism] and through those who built the Homa U'Migdal ["wall and watch-tower"] settlements. Zealots have influenced Jewish history in various and sundry ways, for the better and for the worse. There is no point to categorically dismissing them all, even though they did not always achieve their ends, and sometimes they brought about terrible tragedies. There is no denying it: zealousness is part of who we are.

I shall presently try to uncover the positive side of zealousness, its sparks of goodness and the holiness it bears within. I shall do this by considering the story of Pinhas in its wider context.

Our parasha appears in the second half of the book of Bamidbar, and deals with the events of the fortieth year of Israel's sojourn in the wilderness. After our having been told of the deaths of Aaron and Miriam in parashat Hukkat, our parasha goes on to order Moses' death. It seems that the deepest motif of the parasha is inheritance and the change of generations: the Israelites (excluding the Levites) inherit their land, Pinhas inherits the covenant of priesthood from his grandfather Aaron, the daughters of Zelafhad inherit their father's portion of the land, and Joshua inherits Moses' role as leader.

The issue of zealousness is especially urgent in the context of a generation of inheritors. A generation which depends upon traditions created by others and which continues them is especially prone to the dangers of banality. When you continue to behave as in previous years, holding tight to what the forefathers have created, a great yawn overcomes you, endangering the religious routine. It is hard to discern God's presence in the life of normative halakhah. It is difficult to feel the intimate touch of the Divine in the thicket of rules and standardized details. Experientially speaking, the halakhah threatens religious emotions.

Zealousness sends us back from the halakhic life to the life of religious experience. The zealot does not act as one obeying a command, out of a sense of normative duty. Rather, he acts from a deep feeling of identification with the value that, to his mind, has been denigrated. That is why if a zealot "comes to ask [the court for a decision regarding his planned deed, he is not to be instructed" (Sanhedrin 82a). Zealousness is not a matter of halakhic legislation, but rather an outburst of action spurred by recognition of an emergency. The zealot does not settle for observing the halakhah while hoping that God will steer history towards correction of the problem; he seeks direct contact with the reasons underlying the halakhah, and with its foundations, assuming personal responsibility for them. He reads the verse, It is a time to act for the Lord, your Torah has been disobeyed (Tehillim 19:126, and see Berakhot 54a) as addressed to him personally, in both manners that it may be read: "I must act personally for the Lord when I see the Torah being hurt" and "I must disobey the Torah [halakhah] in order to act for the Lord."

That is why zealousness became important in the generation of Joshua and Pinhas. It came to proclaim that even though a generation had passed since the Torah was given amidst fire and thunder, the holy flame continues to burn in the hearts of the new young leadership.

Of course, zealous action is fraught with dangers. The zealot is driven by powerful emotions and may occasionally lose clarity of thought and a critical perspective. Emotions and intuitions are bad counselors; they tend to lie frequently. As a result, there have been many catastrophes brought about by zealous acts. Another danger stems from the role of manipulators, who cynically exploit the religious fervor of the zealots for their own illegitimate ends.

The difficulty of properly directing zealousness derives from the very definition of its mission - by nature, zealousness does not respect limits. The above discussion showed that the zealot is not bound by the limits of the halakhah, all the less so by other kinds of limits. This leaves the zealot without any objective criterion by which to judge and criticize his own actions. The zealot requires heavenly assistance and divine grace to help him understand his path and act properly. Zealotry appears when the zealots believe that they have indeed been granted knowledge from Above. Their frequent failures prove to us - retrospectively - that they are not always right, and that sometimes they act blindly.

Despite all of these dangers and pitfalls, we must admit to the value of the zealot's religious fervor, of the way he lives an unmediated religious life. He who fears zealousness and disposes of it entirely is apt to find himself trapped in a chilly religious life consisting of meaningless halakhic discipline and fraught with severe motivational problems. Few are those who manage to navigate successfully between these two dangers and grasp the stick at both ends.

This discussion has no practical educational conclusions. I tried to point to the charm of zealot's experience and its vital power, while not disregarding its great dangers. It seems that we lack a magical formula that would allow us to properly determine the limits of zealotry and neutralize its dangers ahead of time. This does not imply that we must uproot it entirely. A complete avoidance of risk through a blanket opposition to zealousness invites its own danger - danger of the loss of religious vitality. There seems to be no solution which promises a rose garden; God only knows!

If only we could be infused with Pinhas's fervor without ceding careful and painstaking reflection, as is the manner of the halakhah, of which it is said, Behold, My word is like fire - declares the Lord! (Jeremiah 23:29).

Dr. Ronen Ahituv lives in Mitzpeh Netufa and teaches at Bar Ilan University, at the Oranim College, and at the Jordan Valley Regional College.

 

 

Five events occurred to our ancestors on the 17^th of Tammuz and five on the 9^th of Ab - on the 17^th of Tammuz the tablets were smashed and the regular tammid offering was cancelled and the city was invaded and Apostomos burnt the Torah and stood an idol in the sanctuary.

(Mishna, Taanit 4:1)

 

When Moshe saw how they had sinned by making the calf, he said: How can I give them the tablets? I will be obligating them to observe serious mitzvot and I will be condemning them to death by divine power, for it is inscribed upon them, You shall have no other gods before Me. He turned to go back. Seventy elders saw him, and ran after him; he held the top of the tablet, and they held the top of the tablet. Moshe was stronger than all of them, as is written (Devarim 34): And in all the strong hand and in all the great, awe-inspiring acts that Moshe did before the eyes of all Israel.

(Avot De'Rabbi Natan 2:3)

 

All of the types of holiness, [that of] the Land of Israel, Jerusalem and the Temple, they are but details and branches of the Torah, and they are sanctified through the Torah's holiness...Do not imagine, God forbid, that the Temple and the Tabernacle are intrinsically holy objects! God dwells among His sons, and if they, to a man, have transgressed the Covenant (Hosea 6:7), all holiness is removed from them, and they become like profane vessels "intruders came and desecrated it." Titus entered the Holy of Holies with a prostitute and was not harmed (Gittin 56b) because its holiness had been removed. More than that - the Tablets - the writing of God - are not holy in themselves, but only for your sake when you observe that which is written in them...no created thing is holy in itself, but only in that Israel observes the Torah.

...None of the holy places are founded in religion... [As for] Mount Sinai, the place of religion, as soon as the Divine Presence left it - the sheep and cattle climbed up it (Shemot 19:13)!

(Meshekh Hokhmah Shemot 32:19;12: 21)

 

Our Rabbi Moses exemplified this when he broke the tablets as soon as he saw the people transgress the commandment make no idol or image for yourself. We must understand that the expression idol or any image applies not only to the golden calf made by Israel, but to every natural existent: Nation, land, homeland, flag, army, idea, a personality, and so forth, whenever they are treated as being holy.

(Y. Leibowitz: Sheva Shanim shel Sihot al Parashiyot HaShavu'a, pg. 401)

 

 

 

Readers Respond

(A response to Amos Bardea's article, "The Relationship Between the Firstborn and the Chosen," from the parashat Korah issue)

Something is missing for me in Amos Bardea's article, "The Relationship Between the Firstborn and the Chosen."

Rachel and Leah may be added to the list of siblings for whom the firstborn and the chosen are switched; more importantly Miriam should be added. Here is an addendum, taken from my article (slightly edited) entitled, "Na'amah: Brother and Sister, and That Which is Between Them," from Korot MiBereishit (Ruti Ravitzki, editor), Sifrei Hemed & Yediot Aharonot, 1999, pg. 90.

The story of Miriam, Aaron, and Moses serves as the exception that proves the rule. Only one passage in Scripture lists all three of them as the leaders of their generation: For I raised you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, and I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam before you (Micah 6:4). The Torah's narrative points to precisely the opposite order of names. Miriam looked after the infant Moses, participating in his rescue (Shemot 2). However, even there she suffers from a lack of status; she is not referred to by name, but merely as his sister. Since Aaron was only three years old at the time (Shemot 6:20), it is reasonable to assume that she was the firstborn to her parents, even if she is occasionally entirely missing from the standard male genealogies (Shemot 6:20), and other times she is listed last (I Chronicles 5:29) as sister to Aaron and Moses (Bamidbar 26:59). When she assumes a secondary role in the Exodus from Egypt - during the singing of the Song of the Sea - she is called Miriam the Prophetess, sister of Aaron (Shemot 15:20), related to the elder brother, who is also called a prophet (Shemot 7:1) in the sense of being Moses' assistant in the execution of his redemptive mission. This unusual situation between a sister and her brothers - she is the elder sibling and she demands status equal to theirs - leads, in the context of a patriarchal society, to open conflict: She questions Moses' unique status, mobilizing the help of her other brother, Aaron (Bamidbar 12:1-2). God immediately responds: He summons the three according to the traditional order, reversing the order of their births. And the Lord spoke suddenly to Moses and to Aaron and to Miriam: Come out the three of you to the Tent of Meeting! (verse 4). Miriam is punished and Moses makes it clear - by means of his prayer for her recovery - that the younger brother is to extend his protection to his sister, and not the reverse. This completes the reversal within this unusual family, making Micah's formulation - Moses, Aaron, and Miriam - sound like the closing speech of the chorus in a Greek tragedy, after the deviant hero has paid the price for his hubris and the social order has been re-established. It is interesting to note that the Sages had Miriam giving birth to Hur (paralleling Aaron's marriage to Elisheva, also of the noble tribe of Judah). In this way we are indirectly presented with an additional reference to the three leaders when they gain victory over Amalek: And Joshua did as Moses told him, to fight Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur ascended the hill top...but Moses' hands were heavy... and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one to each side of him (Shemot 16:10,12). It seems to me that according to the Sages, Hur here represents his mother Miriam in a dramatic scene which collects together the leaders of the Exodus with the leader of the entry into the Land.

Leah Shakdiel, Yeruham

 

Dr. Amos Bardea, author of the article, replies

Indeed, Leah's comments open up a discussion which is interesting in its own right; what is the status of the firstborn daughter, both in Egyptian as well as in Israelite culture? The plain meaning of the text has it that the plague of the firstborn only affected the males and the replacement of the ritual function of the firstborn with the Levites also only involved males. It seems to be true that in a patriarchal society a first born male enjoyed an elevated status in the family not given to first born daughters, and there is no room to expand upon that here. In my article I tried to display the tension between the chosen son and the firstborn son as it is seen in Scripture. Scripture, and especially the book of Bereishit, tends to present characters as contrasting members of pairs. Moses and Aaron form a definite pair even if an important additional character is waiting in the wings. Within that pair, Moses is the chosen one, Father of the prophets and prophetesses (it is interesting that all of the other prophets followed Moses chronologically, making Moses the first of he prophets, excepting his sister Miriam, who preceded him).

 

 

 

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