Pinchas was a fanatic. As anyone
raised in western society will tell you, fanatics are bad, and the only
thing worse than a fanatic is a
religious fanatic. We have been raised on the axiomatic, nearly religious certainty
that religious fanaticism is the root of all evil, the underlying cause of
every conflict around the globe. And yet, the biblical account of Pinchas’
response to Zimri and Kozbi sends us
some confusing messages.
Zimri and Kozbi, each a member
of their respective societies’ elite, make a very public display of their
defiance of religious and social dictates. In what may be called the
archetypical act of religious fanaticism, Pinchas takes the law into his own
hands and commits a double murder, yet he is rewarded with eternal priesthood as well as the “covenant of
peace”. If ever there was an ironic
award, this is it - or so it would seem.
Zimri and Kozbi do not seem all
that strange to us. We, too, live in a
time and place in which boundaries are constantly re-examined, redefined, and
often discarded. Religion is under
siege, in retreat. Popular culture exhorts us to “just imagine” a time when
there is no religion – such a time, we are assured, will be utopian. Without
religion there will be no more war, peace will break out all over.
This axiom is self -evident,
despite the abundance of evidence to the contrary, namely, the entire “body of
work” of the 20th Century, when arguably more people were killed
than in any previous century – perhaps more than throughout all of history
combined (some have put the number at
262 million victims), yet most of these lives were not taken in the name of
religion. Socialism, communism, National Socialism (also known as Nazism), the
most infamous among recent history’s murderous movements, all had strong roots
in atheism and paganism and were, for the most part, ideologically opposed
to religion. Nonetheless, we tend not to let the facts
interfere with our preconceived notion that it is religion that creates strife
and is the real casus belli. Modern thinkers prefer to simply disregard other
“minor” factors, such as greed, jealousy, hatred and tribalism.
Looking at the bigger picture,
it would be more accurate to say that what lies at the dark heart of war is the human desire to control others – economically,
politically, socially and sexually .
This is where religion can be
the solution and not the problem: Religion creates boundaries. Religion makes
value judgments. Right and wrong have
objective meaning. Religion not only makes these judgments, but expects that
mankind live up to these values. Both compliance and sin are significant and conscious choices; the optimistic view of Judaism is that man
has the greatness to practice self-control. Without this expectation, Judaism
would be an absurdity.
Judaism has great expectations
of man. Man is in the image of God, and has the capacity for godliness, for
greatness. However, unlike the pagan
view of greatness, Judaism teaches that real victory is in the battle with
one’s own desire to control others and to satisfy egotistical desires.
The self-restraint that lies at
the core of Jewish values is what Bil’am saw as he observed the Israelite camp from afar. He saw
boundaries, the respect for privacy that was the basis of community. He saw
religious and social demarcations that served as the basis for unity.
Instinctively, he understood that a People with such self-control could not be
cursed. Their essential character was deserving of blessing, and was a source
of blessing for others.
When Bil’am raised his
eyes and saw Israel dwelling at peace by tribes, the spirit of the Almighty was
upon him...‘How good are your tents , your tabernacles, Israel...(Bamidbar
24:2-5)
Rashi: He saw each tribe
encamped individually without mixing in with the others, and saw that the
openings of their tents did not face one another so that one would not peek
into another’s tent. The spirit of the Almighty was upon him, and his heart did
not allow him to curse them.
Zimri and Kozbi left little room
for misinterpretation: theirs was an act
calculated to break the religious, cultural, moral, social and personal
boundaries that kept the nation together. Pinchas understood the threat they
posed, foresaw the devolution of society that would result from dismantling all
the boundaries. He knew haow a world without boundaries would look: like an
endless battlefield for individual power. Pinchas was, indeed, a fanatic- for
peace. For his fanatical defense of the boundaries with which peace is
maintained, God rewarded him with what he most desired: “And therefore I give
him My covenant of peace.” (Bamidbar 25:12)
Pinchas is also no stranger to
us : Like him, we are often faced with the challenge posed by moral relativism that threatens to tear
down the boundaries and dilute the values upon which our lives are predicated.
Like Pinchas, we, too, must fight in order to achieve peace. At times, the
battle is an internal struggle for self-control and self restraint; at times we
must face up to external threats. May God bless us with the wisdom, vision and
strength of Pinchas, and bring to fruition the Priestly Blessing of peace in
our private and public lives.
For a more in-depth analysis see http://arikahn.blogspot.co.il/2009/07/parshat-pinchas.html
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