Two Minute Torah Podcast

Pinhas 5768 by Rabbi Eli Garfinkel

Shalom, I'm Rabbi Eli Garfinkel of Temple Beth El in Somerset, New Jersey, and I welcome you to Two Minute Torah for Parashat Pinhas. At the end of last week's Torah portion, a man named Zimri ben Salu brings his Midianite girlfriend, a woman named Kozbi bat Tzur, into the community, right in front of Moses and the Ohel Mo'ed, the sacred Tent of Assembly. This is an act of unbelievable chutzpah, as the community at that moment is weeping in shame for getting involved with the sexual cult of Ba'al Peor.

A Kohen named Pinhas takes a spear and stabs both Zimri and Kozbi in the belly. His act of holy rage and zealotry stops the plague that God had sent to punish Israel for their sins.

At the beginning of this week's Torah portion, Pinhas, Moses rewards Pinhas with a Brit Shalom, a covenant of peace. Now to us moderns, it seems horrible that Pinhas would get a reward for assassinating Zimri and Kozbi, even if they committed a grievous sin in public.

The 19th century Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin, better known as the Netziv, taught that the Brit Shalom, covenant of peace, was not a reward for the assassination but rather a kind of therapy for Pinhas. Pinhas's had damaged his own soul by acting in such a zealous manner, and the Netziv teaches that God gave him the covenant of peace not to give him a pat on the back, but to fix his broken spirit.

The Jewish tradition teaches that it is never good to kill a fellow human being. It might be necessary, but it is never something worth celebrating. Former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir once said the following about Israel's enemies: “We do not hate you for killing our children. We hate you for forcing us to kill your children.”

And that's the end of Two Minute Torah for Parashat Pinhas. Shabbat Shalom.