Rabbi Mati Kirschenbaum
Alfred Hitchcock, when asked how to draw the viewers’ attention, replied: “A film should start with an earthquake and be followed by rising tension”. This week’s Parashat Pinchas continues the story which draws our attention by continuously building tension. Please imagine that you’re watching a film based on it. Its first minutes show the Israelites as they commit harlotry with Moabite women. In the next scene the Moabite women convince the Israelites to offer sacrifices to Moabite deities. In the next frames we see the outbreak of a plague sent by the Eternal as a punishment for their transgressions. Right after that Moses orders the elders of Israel to punish the Israelites who were committing harlotry and idolatry. Moses’s words fall on deaf ears – we see how a richly dressed Israelite – Zimri – brings to his tent a Midianite woman – Cozbi. Moses and Israel’s elders watch helplessly as this happens. When Zimri disappears in the tent, we see the Israelites mourning their dead – the plague is still raging. Suddenly we see a young priest – Pinchas – leaving the assembly of the elders. Our screenplay (the Torah) describes what happens next in the first words of our parasha:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”When 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 man into the chamber and stabbed both of them, the Israelite man and the woman, through the belly. Then the plague against the Israelites was checked. Those who died of the plague numbered twenty-four thousand. [The Eternal] spoke to Moses, saying: “Pinchas, son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the Israelites by displaying among them his [jealousy] for Me, so that I did not wipe out the Israelite people in My [jealousy][1]. Say, therefore, ‘I grant him My [covenant of peace]. It shall be for him and his descendants after him a [covenant] of priesthood for all time, because he took impassioned action for his God, thus making expiation for the Israelites” (Nb 25:10-13)[/perfectpullquote]
Murder as a way of getting out of a difficult situation may not bother us in movies. However, we certainly wouldn’t want to solve our problems this way in real life. No wonder that the story of Pinchas raises our opposition. We object especially to the Eternal’s reaction to Pinchas’s actions. The image of the Eternal rewarding violent behavior is incompatible with the theology of modern Progressive Judaism.
That’s why at first glance it’s difficult for us to find a contemporary message in Parashat Pinchas. Rabbinic literature doesn’t help us find an answer to this question. It contains a lot of statements glorifying Pinchas’s actions. In tractate Sanhedrin of the Babylonian Talmud we read that the Eternal helped Pinchas commit this murder in six ways! Reading these interpretations strengthens a sense of strangeness which we feel while reading about the Eternal making a “covenant of peace” with Pinchas.
Help comes from the way in which the words “covenant of peace” are written in the Torah scroll. In the word shalom (peace) in the letter waw, usually written with an unbroken vertical line, there is a gap. Our tradition teaches us that the way in which words – or even letters – are written in the Torah can help us decipher their meaning. The breach in the word “peace” seems to suggest that the peace secured by Pinchas was incomplete, it was defective. The Masoretes – the Medieval codifiers of the Torah text – found a way to accurately convey its words along with their critical commentary.
What’s important is that the Masoretic critique did not refer to the phrase “he displayed his jealousy”, which describes the zealous religiousness of Pinchas and his opposition to Israelite idolatry. Their visual commentary referred to brit shalom, “the covenant of peace”, the reward for Pinchas’s spontaneous actions. The Masoretes were worried by the Torah’s approval of enforcing justice “because that’s what God wants”, without any reference to previously existing legislation. They were afraid that praising such behavior could lead to anarchy and the downfall of authorities, to a disruption of shalom, “peace”. The broken off word “peace” was a Masoretic critique of people who undertake actions convinced that they are connected to God by a special covenant which justifies their goals and methods. Therefore the Masoretes were criticizing manifestations of religious fundamentalism. I am willing to risk the thesis that in the phrase brit shalom the Masoretes would put an emphasis on fulfilling the commandments stemming from the brit, the covenant between Israel and God. They would be convinced that a faithful fulfillment of commandments, and not the zealotry of fanatics, would bring shalom to the people of Israel.
I think that contemporary Progressive Judaism interprets brit shalom more broadly than the Masoretes did. Our understanding of the covenant – brit – between the people of Israel and God entails the duty to not only keep the commandments, but also to actively work to secure peace in our society and the Jewish community. Due to the growing polarization of views in our country such actions require cooperation with people with whose point of view we absolutely disagree. Such interactions are not always pleasant and they can make us want to surround ourselves with a closed group of people with a similar worldview. In such company we can enjoy peace with a sense of moral superiority.
The Haftarah to Parashat Pinchas (1 Kings 18:46-19:21) warns us that this kind of isolation will not bring peace neither to ourselves nor to others. It describes prophet Elijah who – after having four hundred of Baal’s prophets killed – must leave Israel to escape from the revenge of his worshipers. After a long journey he finds shelter in a cave on Mount Sinai. At this point Elijah feels so alienated that he loses his will to live. The Eternal reacts by ordering him to get out of the cave. There the prophet sees a strong wind, a great fire and an earthquake, but he’s not able to experience God’s presence in any of them. The Eternal reveals Himself to Elijah as a quiet whisper. This experience teaches him that the Eternal doesn’t always reveal Himself in a spectacular way which appeals to the masses. Often His voice is a whisper, whose message we can convey to others only with great difficulty. With this awareness Elijah goes back to Israel. There he finds an assistant, Elisha, who helps him fulfill his mission.
Elijah’s story warns us that violence generates violence, even if it seems to us that we are fighting for a just cause. Moreover, today’s Haftarah makes us realize that the alternative to growing fundamentalism is not searching for niches in which we can isolate ourselves from the world. Our challenge is to seek peaceful changes in a world of growing social, political and environmental tensions. This is no easy task in a world full of Pinchases convinced of their right to use force. But we cannot lose hope that through our actions we’ll be able to help others hear the quiet whisper of the Eternal, a voice encouraging us to open ourselves to others. In the time preceding Tisha B’Av I encourage you to listen closely to the internal voice. Who knows, maybe you will also hear the quiet voice of the Eternal?
Shabbat Shalom!
Translated from Polish by: Marzena Szymańska-Błotnicka
- Translation according to the Polish version [translator’s comment]. ↑
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