A zealot’s justice is not justice.
Pinchas does not pursue peace. Peace requires justice and truth.
The story of Pinchas is an uncomfortable one.
At the end of last week’s portion, this “righteous” man takes up a spear and murders two people. The Torah describes this violence in entirely positive terms.
On the surface, God praises Pinchas’ actions. He “turned away” from other Israelite’s actions and expressed zeal. More than that, God uses Pinchas’ violence as a reason to avoid doing the same.
I don’t like it one bit.
And yet, it is here in the Torah. So what do we do with it?
This week’s portion, named for our perpetrator, includes this line, which drew my attention. It appears immediately following God’s praise:
לָכֵ֖ן אֱמֹ֑ר הִנְנִ֨י נֹתֵ֥ן ל֛וֹ אֶת־בְּרִיתִ֖י שָׁלֽוֹם׃
Therefore, I say, ‘behold, I grant him [Pinchas] my covenant of shalom.
Why might God create this covenant of peace and wholeness with someone who had just acted violently?
The commentators suggest that this line refers to the family of the people Pinchas killed. Such that they would not seek vengeance.
That is not the lesson I want to take away from this story.
There is a big distinction between thoughts and actions.
We are not our thoughts.
We experience our thoughts and can direct them, but usually not at the same time. If you’ve ever done any meditation, this becomes imminently clear:
Thoughts, ideas, concerns, and imagined scenarios all begin to appear in your mind like bubbles from a bubble machine. They pour out of you.
It can feel overwhelming.
Especially if those thoughts are angry or violent in nature, which is a normal part of human imagination. Those thoughts are a part of our brains and therefore a part of us, but they are not us. We are separate from those thoughts.
Pinchas didn’t make this distinction. He had a thought and acted. Poorly and, despite what the Torah says, shamefully.
That moment before our thoughts become actions is essential. It is at that moment that we have a choice.
An internal covenant of peace.
Pinchas is Aaron’s grandson. We are encouraged to be like him, a rodef shalom, a seeker of peace.
Instead of choosing violence, Pinchas could have chosen many better paths to deal with what was happening within him. He could have sought internal peace, by letting his thoughts go. He could have found someone to talk to.
Every choice would have been better than murder.
But peace is not enough.
Peace is easier said than done.
In Tractate Derekh Eretz Zuta, a minor tractate of rabbinic teaching, speaks on this subject a few times.
Should people strive with you, whether it be in the House of Study or at a social gathering, make peace with them, so that when you leave them they may speak well of you, as was spoken of Pinchas the son of Eleazar.
Unbelievably, it uses Pinchas as an example here. Is this text suggesting that we should violently respond to conflict? It continues:
And so used R. Eleazar Ha-Ḳappar to say: Love peace and hate dissension. Great is peace, for even if [Israel] were to practise idolatry but maintained peace among themselves, the Divine Presence, as it were, would be unable to do them harm…
A house in which is dissension will ultimately be destroyed. A Synagogue [in which is dissension] will ultimately be turned into a place of idolatry. If two scholars reside in the same city who have set up separate Courts of Law and dissension occurs between them, they will ultimately die [prematurely]. Abba Saul said: Dissension between separate Courts of Law is the ruination of the world.
The theme is clear, seek peace at every turn. Do not let conflict remain.
So how could God praise Pinchas at this moment? It cannot possibly be that God wishes us to choose violence as a response to our problems.
Drawing on the commentators above, we understand that the family of the murdered people was not going to experience justice. God has to come and create a “covenant of peace” as a way of resolving this thematic problem in the text.
God has to save Pinchas from retribution.
Tractate Derekh Eretz Zuta has more to say on that subject too:
Rabban Simeon b. Gamaliel used to say:
By three things does the world endure: justice, truth and peace.R. Muna said: The three are one, because if justice is done, truth has been effected and peace brought about. And all three are mentioned in one verse, as it is stated: “Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates,” (Zechariyah 8:16).
Wherever justice is done peace is to be found.
A zealot’s justice is not justice.
The kind of peace described in the Torah is the peace of a zealot. Only Pinchas’ view had validity, so he was “justified in murder.” God has to come and clean up his mess.
“It was Aaron’s grandson, the pursuer of peace? Where did it go wrong?”
This is what I imagine God must have thought. So God cleans it all up in a neat little way and Pinchas gets a covenant of peace at the end.
Peace requires justice and truth.
That is not found here. Not in this story.
Pinchas does not live up to the quality of his grandfather.
We do not learn lessons from his example, only what not to do.
What can we do?
We can make good choices.
As we walk through the world, regardless of what thoughts might appear, we can choose our actions.
Let us choose justice.
Let us choose kindness.
Let us choose truth.
Let us choose peace.
So, did you just ignore the first six verses where God told Moses to put to death all the Israelites who fell into idolatry with the Midianites women (see v. 1–6)? Zimri showed real impudence to just fornicate with the princess Cozbi right in the middle of everyone who was weeping for those put to death.
You really should redo this post and not put your own personal feelings into it. When you look at the timing of these events Aaron and Miriam had just died; the Israelites tested God's patience at the waters of Meribah; and right before the plague Balaam was barely just hired to proclaim curses upon Israel! So seeing that Israel couldn't be directly cursed and punished by God, Balaam used a ruse to tempt the Israelite men away from God by causing them to sin through seduction of the Midianite women.