No Cuddles with Cozbi (Pinchas #2)

The Torah in this week’s parsha (Pinchas) seems to go out of its way, after the conclusion of the story of Pinchas, to go back and name the man and the woman who were slain by Pinchas for their immoral behavior. Zimri, we are told by Rashi, deserves to be named because “Wherever it gives the genealogy of a good man in his praise, it gives the genealogy of a bad man mentioned in the same story to disparage him” (Midrash Tanchuma, Pinchas 2).

But what of “Cozbi bat Zur, the tribal head of an ancestral house in Midian”? So few women are mentioned by name in the Torah, one must wonder why she merits to have her name included. Most commentators stress that this is significant because she was a princess, and this informs us that the Midianites were even willing to push their princesses into lascivious behavior.

Cozbi is actually an interesting name. Perhaps, that there is more to know about her through her name, at least through the name used for her in the parsha, since the sages note that “Her name was not Cozbi, but Shvileni. Why was she called Cozbi? Because she was false to her father”

Jewish tradition loves word play, so what happens when one begins playing with the name Cozbi - כזבי Isn’t it interesting how similar, especially in script, the word כזבי is to the word כלבי C’lavi, like my heart. Cozbi came and made overtures at the Israelite men, offering them intimacy without heart. It was therefore more interesting when I realized that the central part of Cozbi’s name is zav, a word that refers to a state of ritual impurity arising from abnormal male discharge.

When I first started this line of thought, my brain was seen the zayin vais and thinking zev, wolf (which is really zayin-aleph-vais). That was Cozbi, a “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” a shockingly beautiful woman who came to lead men on with no involvement of her heart.