Channelling Zealotry (Pinchus)

Every few years, the world seems to grow angry. Protests and fighting seem to increase. It would seem that now is the perfect time for the world to examine the parsha of Pinchas, which begins with a declaration straight from God that Pinchus’ actions, detailed at the end of the previous parsha, were righteous.  One might sum Pinchas up by saying: Once there was a man named Pinchas who slew two people and received the praise of God because he did so out of zealotry to defend God’s honor and the rightfulness of the Children of Israel. In this day and age, however, perhaps that narrative should include a line that says: Don’t try this at home!

Upon first reading the narrative of Pinchas, one comes away with a belief that Pinchas’s action, which was to throw a spear at Zimri and Cosbi in an act of acute immoral behavior, was accepted by all as praiseworthy. However, as noted by numerous commentators, the very fact that God had to “step forward,” so to speak, and pronounce Pinchas’ actions as right and proper is an indication that many people believed that he was culpable for murder, that he did wrong by slaying a prince (Zimri).  Certainly, Pinchas immediately explained his actions, and certainly there were many people who supported him and understood why he did what he did. The fact that God spoke up for him is a reminder of how precarious it is for anyone to assume that their actions are righteous, that their zealotry is pure. Only by God specifying that it was indeed true that Pinchas had intent only for God’s honor are we assured of this fact.

We live in an era without overt Divine intervention – meaning in ways such as Hashem speaking to us. We can only make assumptions of understanding how Hashem runs the world, and therefore we cannot even hope to be accurate by announcing that any particular behaviour is the reason for current situations. We many want to be like Pinchus, but we do not have the clarity of righteousness that Pinchus had. Therefore, we have to be careful in how we manage the zealotry of our anger. Of course, as members of a modern society we would never think of literally killing another person. Instead, we destroy them with words, with posts that cut apart their lives.

Pinchas was unique in that he was able to harness his zealotry, his fiery passion, to focus completely on God and honoring God. The honest truth is that most of the time people speak in righteous indignation, about any subject, there is a piece of them, maybe even a very, very small piece, that is speaking up for their own honor. Perhaps the small voice is to be recognized by the crowd of like-minded thinkers, or perhaps it is to be acknowledged for the cleverness of the remark or the astuteness of the observation, or perhaps even just to help shape the world into the way in which the speaker truly believes it is meant to be. But it is rare that the goal is be a continuation of God’s will, as was Pinchas’.

This does not mean that we should hide our beliefs or not stand up for what is right. There is actually an incredible juxtaposition in how to handle different situations when one reads forward in the parsha and comes to the narrative of the daughters of Tzlephchad. As the rules were being laid out for the division of the Land of Israel, somewhat based on the numbers accounted for in a new census, the daughters of Tzlephchad stepped forward and stated that as they had no brothers, they should, by right, inherit the portion that would have been their dead fathers. Moshe took their case to Hashem, who agreed with the five sisters. It is a segue into the laws of inheritance, but it also shows that sometimes passion that is harnessed into rational discussion can bring about change through more structured channels.

The daughters of Tzelaphchad presented a “landmark” case, shifting the laws of inheritance. One could say they took a chance of being rejected. One could argue that orderly channels are often clogged and unavailable. These points are true, in the modern world, and so what we must aim for is to find a middle ground. Hashem gave humankind the Torah, and He set the Jewish people with the task of being a light unto the nations. It is up to us to maintain those laws, to build a Torah society – but to do this we must learn to refrain from tainted zealotry and to include passionate righteousness in our quest to bring holiness to the world.