Pinchas

Pinchas – Paul Forgasz

Previously the headmaster of a large Jewish secondary school in Melbourne, Paul Forgasz now lectures in Jewish history at Monash University, where he also teaches about Jewish education as well as school leadership. Paul has been a regular presenter at Limmud in Australia since its inception and has taught in a variety of Jewish adult education settings. He recently led two intensive study tours of Jewish medieval Spain.

The parasha opens with an announcement that God granted a “covenant of peace” to Pinchas, the grandson of Aaron the priest, and also elected his descendants to inherit the priesthood for all time. The Torah tells us that this was a reward for the zeal that Pinchas displayed when he killed Zimri, son of a prominent Israelite chieftain, and Cozbi, daughter of a Midianite tribal head. At the end of the previous week’s parasha we read that Zimri publicly paraded Cozbi in the Israelite camp, presumably with the intention of having forbidden sexual relations with her. In a spontaneous act of religious zeal, Pinchas stepped forth and speared them both to death.

When I teach this story to my students it never fails to provoke strong reactions. How, they ask, can the Torah praise Pinchas for his behaviour? Surely he should have been condemned rather than rewarded for killing Zimri and Cozbi. On the other hand, I ask them, if we invoke Nachmanides’ principle ofma’aseh avot siman l’vanim (that what our ancestors did is a good model for the children to follow) should we perhaps look upon Pinchas as a religious hero?

Interestingly, the Jewish tradition is itself divided over Pinchas’ behaviour. Samuel, the great early third century Talmudic sage, praises Pinchas for his zeal since he intervened to prevent a public desecration of God’s commandment. In the nineteenth century, Samson Raphael Hirsch, the precursor of present day Modern Orthodoxy, wrote in his Torah commentary that Pinchas’ act was “a question of saving the soul of the nation for faithfulness to God and His law.” On the other hand, Rav, the third century rabbinic counterpart of Samuel, is troubled by Pinchas’ fanaticism and criticises him for taking the law into his own hands. In a similar vein, the Jerusalem Talmud suggests that the Israelite elders were prepared to excommunicate Pinchas for his actions, bothered by his apparent circumvention of Moses’ authority and acting without communal consent. They desisted only when God intervened and proclaimed that Pinchas was deserving of the covenant of priesthood because he had acted zealously for God. Naphtali Zvi Yehudah Berlin, a contemporary of Hirsch, offers a particularly insightful observation. According to him, Pinchas being granted a “covenant of peace” should not be regarded as a reward for his zealous behaviour, but a cure to help him overcome the self destructive force of his religious zeal.    

As modern readers of the Torah we are left to ponder whether the behaviour of Pinchas should be applauded or deplored. Ephraim Yitzchaki of Bar Ilan University writes that “zealousness is a negative trait, but when motivated for the sake of heaven it can be channelled into positive directions” In Pinchas he sees someone who proved publicly that his zealousness was indeed “on behalf of the Lord.” However, I must admit to a concern about those who look to Pinchas as an admirable model for one who is zealous to perform the word of God. More because of where this can lead. For example, I find it disturbing that in his magisterial code of Jewish law, the Mishne Torah, Maimonides drew on the specific example of Pinchas to justify a zealot killing a fellow Jew if he finds him in the act of having sex with a gentile woman. Closer to our own time, the former Sephardi Chief Rabbi, Eliahu Bakshi Doron, compared Zimri to Reform Jews and praised Pinchas for his behaviour. In an Israel Radio interview he said that Pinchas’ act was “about the salvation of the people Israel, as when a doctor operates and cuts.” The problem with such rhetoric is that it creates a climate in which it becomes possible for a Yigal Amir to claim that he was doing God’s work when he assassinated Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin.  

The challenge for us, writes Rabbi Jonathan Kraus in a commentary on Parashat Pinchas, is to “find the courage, wisdom, humility and self control to know when our religious obligation is to take up arms on God’s behalf and when our responsibility is to use our arms to reach out or restrain on God’s behalf.”