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D'VAR TORAH | 
Pinchas URJ: Thwarting Evil, Saving Lives
Elyse
Frishman
The narrative of Parashat Pinchas is disturbing: the grandson
of the High Priest Aaron slew two people, and was rewarded. Was he a zealot or
not? He took lives. Did he save lives?
From last week’s Parashat Balak, we read: “While Israel was staying at
Shittim, the menfolk profaned themselves by whoring with the Moabite women, who
invited the menfolk to the sacrifices for their god. Thus Israel attached itself
to Baal-peor, and the Eternal was incensed with Israel. The Eternal One said to
Moses, ‘Take all the ringleaders and have them publicly impaled before the
Eternal, so that the Eternal’s wrath may be turned away from Israel.’ So Moses
said to Israel’s officials, ‘Each of you slay those of his men who attached
themselves to Baal-peor.’ Just then one of the Israelite men came and brought a
Midianite woman over to his companions, in the sight of Moses and the whole
community who were weeping at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. When Phinehas
[Pinchas], son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, saw this, he left the
assembly and, taking a spear in his hand, he followed the Israelite into the
chamber and stabbed both of them, the Israelite and the woman, through the
belly. Then the plague against the Israelites was checked. Those who died in the
plague numbered twenty-four thousand,” (Numbers 25:1–9).
Parashat Pinchas begins: “The Eternal One spoke to Moses, saying,
‘Phinehas, son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from
the Israelites by displaying among them his passion for Me, so that I did not
wipe out the Israelite people in My passion. Say, therefore, “I grant him My
pact of friendship [ briti shalom ]. It shall be for him and his
descendants after him a pact of the priesthood for all time, because he took
impassioned action for his God, thus making expiation for the Israelites.” ’ ”
To recap: at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, as the Israelites gathered,
weeping over the plague inflicted upon them for their idolatrous treachery,
Pinchas witnessed an Israelite man and a Midianite woman entering “the chamber.”
This couple wantonly breached the sacred space forbidden to all but Moses and
Aaron. Demonstrating total disregard for the power of God, they committed an act
of supreme idolatry.
God had already struck the Israelites with plague. Should Pinchas have left
it for God to respond to the invaders of the Mishkan , as God did to
Nadab and Abihu when they entered the chamber unbidden? (Leviticus 10:2).
Rather, Pinchas recognized that God would consider the idolatrous action of that
couple to be one committed by the entire people; everyone was in grave danger,
and he took it upon himself to save them.
Often Pinchas gets a bad rap, labeled a zealot for his passion for God.
Zealots today murder Americans and Israelis in the name of their gods. We are
understandably wary. Yet, be careful of the degree to which one compares
biblical actions with contemporary ones without taking context into account. God
regularly punished the people with death; the Book of Numbers is replete with
plague, fire, serpents, and earthquake, all inflicted on the Israelites for
their faithlessness. The relationship between idolatrous rebellion and severe,
physical punishment is unequivocal. Following the plague that God inflicted,
twenty-four thousand people died; it should not be surprising that Pinchas
recognized that stabbing the couple would halt God’s killing. It did.
Today, we don’t experience God taking life punitively. Zealots are those who
murder while invoking God’s Name. We consider this idolatry.
Pinchas’s passion parallels God’s, and he acted not only for God, but also
for his people, saving them. Earlier, when Korach’s rebellion brought plague
upon the people, Pinchas’s grandfather Aaron walked amidst the Israelites until
they healed. Pinchas’s action halted the plague instantly.
Pinchas’s instinct and experience in the priestly service are reflected in
his character. Just as his offerings in the Mishkan expiated the sins of
the people, so slaying the heretics erased the guilt of the community. He was
rewarded with a “pact of friendship,” b’rit shalom —the inheritance of
the priesthood through his line, because his action demonstrated his commitment
beyond doubt.
The immoral Israelites did not repent until the plague struck. Before
punishment, they were . . . unconcerned . . . unaware? Once again, the
Israelites just didn’t seem to get it: God was going to punish them if they
didn’t have faith. What was wrong with the character of our people?
Maimonides taught in Laws Concerning Character Traits , “Those whose
bodies are sick taste the bitter as sweet and the sweet as bitter. . . Likewise,
people with sick souls crave and love the bad character traits and hate the good
way. They are careless about following it and it is very difficult for them,
depending upon the extent of their illness. . . . Of them it is said: ‘They
forsake the paths of righteousness to walk in the ways of darkness,’ “ (Proverbs
2:13). ( Ethical Writings of Maimonides , ed. Raymond L. Weiss with
Charles Butterworth [New York: Dover Publications, New York University, 1975],
p. 31).
Over and again, bored with their food choices, their living conditions, their
mates, the Israelites rebelled. Over and again they were stricken with
snakebites, plague, even the earth swallowing them alive. What would it take for
them to learn? Consider the behaviors we all demonstrate: not being able to
admit when we’re wrong, acting aggressively when we should apologize, or
selfishly justifying wrongful behavior.
The narrative of Pinchas is about character and why we succeed or fail amidst
the influences around us. How did the people fall sway to their worst impulses
while Pinchas stayed true to his best? In Jewish terms, it was his passion for
God: his passion for the system of living that God had taught through Moses. He
wasn’t a zealot. He was attentive and strong, a priest who served others rather
than himself. He accurately perceived the radical danger facing everyone, and he
acted.
Maimonides taught: “Man is created in such a way that his character traits
and actions are influenced by his neighbors and friends, and he follows the
customs of the people of his country. Therefore, a man needs to associate with
the just and be with the wise continually in order to learn from their actions
and keep away from the wicked, who walk in darkness, so that he avoids learning
from their actions. That is what Solomon said: ‘He who walks with wise men will
become wise, but he who associates with fools will become evil,’ “ (Proverbs
13:20), (ibid. p. 46–7).
We choose to join sacred communities, and it is a choice that saves our
lives. We cannot easily overcome the profane “customs of our country” without an
alternative sacred model of living. We liberal Jews appreciate how we both gain
from and influence our diverse, larger world. Yet, without Judaism’s influence
on us, our souls would sicken. We would not recognize the path of righteousness.
In the time of Pinchas, idolatry—forsaking Judaism—threatened the destruction
of the people morally and physically. What about today? Do we imagine that we
are not a generation with the potential to self-destruct? In Torah,
catastrophe was rapid and so was its resolution. In our time evil is more
insidious, intensifying noxiously as it brews: the vast gulf between the wealthy
and the impoverished, global climate change, genocide, and so on. The Israelites
lived in a single community with no escape; we choose when to walk in or out of
our synagogues, when to accept or reject moral leadership. We can pretend to
ignore our crises with a click of the remote; Pinchas could not and did not.
“Those who walk among the wise will become wise, but those who associate with
fools will become evil.” What are the idolatries of our time that we fall sway
to? What in each of our characters leads us to be deluded? In modernity, each
individual Jew has the power to effect change. It is incumbent on each of us to
thwart wicked intention and save lives.
Rabbi Elyse Frishman is the spiritual leader of The Barnert
Temple in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. She is the editor of Mishkan T'filah,
A Reform Siddur.
DAVAR ACHER | 
Standing Up against Injustice and Transforming Tradition
Tamara
Cohn Eskenazi
Five sisters in Parashat Pinchas —Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and
Tirzah (also known as Zelophehad’s daughters)—challenge the tradition that
bestows their deceased father’s land to male relatives (Numbers 27:1–11). Boldly
approaching the leaders of the community they issue a demand: “Give us a holding
among our father’s kinsmen!” (27:4). When Moses brings “their case” (
mishpatan , literally, “their judgment”) to God, God supports their claim
and extends it as a law for all similar cases (27:8–11).
The story is important for several reasons: First, it establishes inheritance
rights for daughters when there are no sons, thus securing their social and
economic welfare. Second, it shows that a biblical law can emerge not only from
the top (from God to humankind), but also when persons identify a human need and
initiate a process to address it. God is responsive to human initiative. Third,
in so far as this law was initiated by five women, it establishes their teaching
or law as “Torah from Sinai,” a teaching that was created first and foremost by
daughters.
These three aspects make this story a revolutionary moment in the biblical
tradition. But the story goes further to model a constructive and necessary
approach to social problems. Introduced as “daughters”—typically, the least
powerful members of an ancient society—these five sisters do not passively abide
by inherited tradition but are ready to change it. They do not merely complain
as victimized persons but also offer—insist on—a solution. Furthermore, their
story begins as the personal dilemma of a single family, but it shows that
standing up against personal injustice, and doing so in a public and effective
way, has consequences that extend beyond the personal. In daring to resist
injustice to them, the five sisters also altered the circumstances of all other
women in a similar position.
Dr. Tamara Cohn Eskenazi is professor of Bible at Hebrew
Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion and editor of the award-winning
(National Jewish Book Award of the Year) volume, The Torah: A Women’s Commentary
(with Andrea Weiss [New York: URJ Press, 2008]). |
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