Stop and Think...
(Bamidbar 25:1-15)
Too often we hear of violence committed by 'frum' people, against non-frum Jews, and against non-Jews...especially Arabs. And too often we hear of calls for more of the same. Most of it is justified (no matter how deranged the attackers may be) in the name of Pinchas, the kanai (zealot) par excellence from the Torah. After all, Pinchas took the law into his own hands (according to most opinions), killing the Jewish Nasi Zimri and the Moabite princess Cozbi while they were mocking the entire congregation with their lewd behavior. And rather than suffering for his actions, he was rewarded! So we should all grab spears and go around impaling all the people we blame for our problems, right?
Wrong. It's not so simple.
I once knew a very wise man who was a Conservative Rabbi named Irwin Zimet z"l. The fact that he was not dati according to my way of thinking does not lessen my respect for him. Many years ago, in Temple Beth-El in Poughkeepsie, NY, he spoke about Pinchas and he made a very important point. When we read the story in shul, it stops in the middle! The Jews sin, the plague starts, the mockers come, Pinchas takes his action, the plague stops with 24,000 dead, and...
What? What happens next? According to Jewish law, Pinchas is a murderer! And you're just going to leave the story there?
Remember, the division into Parshiyot is not from the Torah, it was done by Chazal...and Rabbi Zimet said they had a reason to leave a cliffhanger ending here. They wanted us to THINK...for a whole week until the following Shabbat morning...did Pinchas really do right? Is it ever justifiable to take the law into your own hands, or in the end do you just make things worse?
And after we've pondered for a week, the answer comes...it depends on the motives of the person involved. Pinchas could have been feeling self-righteous anger and hatred towards the sinners. Or he could have been feeling personally offended since the main targets of the disrespect and mocking of the sinners was his father Elazar and his great-uncle Moshe. Any of those motives would have made him just another hoodlum. But Hashem, the Discerner of motives, said of Pinchas, "he was zealous in My zealousy"...his motives were absolutely pure. He saw evil, he saw Jews dying, and he said, "This isn't right. It has to be stopped." He made himself a pure conduit for Hashem's zealousy. And that is the only reason he was rewarded and not punished.
Only in the same circumstances can a person claim the protection of the Halachot of the kanai. Anything less and the person is a thug, at best a "naval bir'shut Hatorah, " a scumbag who yet doesn't break any Torah laws, and at worst a criminal at a lower level than the ones he attacks.
Most of the people who perpetrate, advocate, or defend such attacks today are, in my opinion, motivated by anger and hatred, not by the pure zealousy of Pinchas. (Some may have even more base or selfish motives.) When people like that take the law into their own hands, Hashem isn't happy and He only allows our situation to get worse.
And never forget, the lead sinner was a "frum" Prince of Israel. Once again, the evil starts from within out own community. Yes, there was a non-Jewish seducer involved, but it is WE who should know better and avoid the seduction.
So lets forget about attacking the non-Jews and non-dati Jews that we blame for all our problems, and once again turn our efforts to our own. For we know that if we set the right example there will never again be a need for acts of Pinchas.
Too often we hear of violence committed by 'frum' people, against non-frum Jews, and against non-Jews...especially Arabs. And too often we hear of calls for more of the same. Most of it is justified (no matter how deranged the attackers may be) in the name of Pinchas, the kanai (zealot) par excellence from the Torah. After all, Pinchas took the law into his own hands (according to most opinions), killing the Jewish Nasi Zimri and the Moabite princess Cozbi while they were mocking the entire congregation with their lewd behavior. And rather than suffering for his actions, he was rewarded! So we should all grab spears and go around impaling all the people we blame for our problems, right?
Wrong. It's not so simple.
I once knew a very wise man who was a Conservative Rabbi named Irwin Zimet z"l. The fact that he was not dati according to my way of thinking does not lessen my respect for him. Many years ago, in Temple Beth-El in Poughkeepsie, NY, he spoke about Pinchas and he made a very important point. When we read the story in shul, it stops in the middle! The Jews sin, the plague starts, the mockers come, Pinchas takes his action, the plague stops with 24,000 dead, and...
What? What happens next? According to Jewish law, Pinchas is a murderer! And you're just going to leave the story there?
Remember, the division into Parshiyot is not from the Torah, it was done by Chazal...and Rabbi Zimet said they had a reason to leave a cliffhanger ending here. They wanted us to THINK...for a whole week until the following Shabbat morning...did Pinchas really do right? Is it ever justifiable to take the law into your own hands, or in the end do you just make things worse?
And after we've pondered for a week, the answer comes...it depends on the motives of the person involved. Pinchas could have been feeling self-righteous anger and hatred towards the sinners. Or he could have been feeling personally offended since the main targets of the disrespect and mocking of the sinners was his father Elazar and his great-uncle Moshe. Any of those motives would have made him just another hoodlum. But Hashem, the Discerner of motives, said of Pinchas, "he was zealous in My zealousy"...his motives were absolutely pure. He saw evil, he saw Jews dying, and he said, "This isn't right. It has to be stopped." He made himself a pure conduit for Hashem's zealousy. And that is the only reason he was rewarded and not punished.
Only in the same circumstances can a person claim the protection of the Halachot of the kanai. Anything less and the person is a thug, at best a "naval bir'shut Hatorah, " a scumbag who yet doesn't break any Torah laws, and at worst a criminal at a lower level than the ones he attacks.
Most of the people who perpetrate, advocate, or defend such attacks today are, in my opinion, motivated by anger and hatred, not by the pure zealousy of Pinchas. (Some may have even more base or selfish motives.) When people like that take the law into their own hands, Hashem isn't happy and He only allows our situation to get worse.
And never forget, the lead sinner was a "frum" Prince of Israel. Once again, the evil starts from within out own community. Yes, there was a non-Jewish seducer involved, but it is WE who should know better and avoid the seduction.
So lets forget about attacking the non-Jews and non-dati Jews that we blame for all our problems, and once again turn our efforts to our own. For we know that if we set the right example there will never again be a need for acts of Pinchas.
posted by meturgeman | 1:27 AM
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