The deepest question in Parshat Pinchas is not simply why Pinchas acted. The deeper question is how he was permitted to act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How could Pinchas kill a human being created b\u2019tzelem Elokim<\/strong>, in the image of G-d? And even more: how could he kill a fellow Jew, Zimri, a prince of the tribe of Shimon, without the normal process of a court? There was no trial, no formal judgment, and no sentence carried out by Beit Din<\/strong>, a Jewish court. Yet This question touches one of the most dangerous areas of religious life. If Pinchas can kill \u201cfor the sake of G-d,\u201d what prevents every fanatic, every extremist, and every ideology convinced of its own righteousness from saying the same thing? History is full of people who committed terrible acts while claiming that they This means that the prohibition of murder is universal. It applies to all human beings. Long before Sinai, before the Jewish people received the Torah, Hashem already established that human life is sacred because every human being carries the Divine image. Murder is therefore not wrong only because society decides it But the Sages immediately surround this law with limits that make clear how exceptional and dangerous it is. If Zimri had separated from Cozbi, Pinchas would no longer have been permitted to kill him. If Pinchas had killed him afterward, Pinchas would have been liable as a murderer. If Pinchas had come to Beit Din and asked whether he should act, Beit Din would not have told him to do so. This is called halachah ve\u2019ein morin kein <\/strong>\u2014 it is a halachah, but it is not given as practical instruction when asked. Even more startling, if Zimri had turned around and killed Pinchas in self-defense, Zimri would not have been liable to death, because Pinchas would have been considered a rodef<\/strong>, someone pursuing him to kill him.\u2074<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is astonishing. The Torah gives a law, but the Sages almost close the door to using it. The Torah is not giving emotional people permission to become executioners. It is not telling religious people that anger becomes holy when they attach G-d\u2019s name to it. It is not saying that a sacred cause allows a person to bypass law. On the contrary: even in this one rare case, the permissibility exists only in the exact moment, in the exact circumstance, without instruction from Beit Din, and only if the person\u2019s intention is completely for Heaven. Now we can understand why Hashem Himself must speak after the act. Without Hashem\u2019s testimony, we would not know how to read what happened. From the outside, we see a man with a spear. From the outside, we see blood. From the outside, we see the danger of religious violence. Hashem reveals the inner truth: Pinchas did not act from hatred, ego, tribal anger, or love of violence. He did not erase Zimri\u2019s tzelem Elokim<\/strong>. He acted in a moment when the covenantal life of Israel was being torn apart in public and a plague But the difficulty becomes even greater when we consider the reward of Kehunah. A Kohen is not defined by the spear. A Kohen is defined by blessing. The Kohanim raise their hands and bless Israel, ending with the words, \u201cMay Hashem lift His face toward you and grant you peace.\u201d\u2077 The Mishnah describes the inner character of Aharon HaKohen: \u201cBe among the students of Aharon: love peace, pursue peace, love the creations, and bring them close to Torah.\u201d\u2078 Pinchas is the opposite of altruistic evil. Altruistic evil begins by erasing the person; Pinchas did not erase Zimri\u2019s humanity. Altruistic evil says that the end justifies the means; Pinchas acted only inside a Torahdefined exception, where one moment later the same act would be murder. Altruistic evil bypasses law; Pinchas\u2019 act existed only because of a precise Torah law. Altruistic evil spreads violence; Pinchas stopped a plague. Altruistic evil feeds ego; Pinchas risked everything and gained nothing naturally. Altruistic evil becomes a movement of rage; Pinchas receives brit shalom and Kehunah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the message for both Jews and Bnei Noach. For Jews, Pinchas teaches that holiness is real, covenant is real, and the public collapse of kedushah is not a small matter. Torah is not embarrassed by truth. But Torah also refuses to turn zealotry into a normal religious path. Jewish life is built through Torah, mitzvos, For Bnei Noach, Pinchas teaches something equally important. Moral order is real. The world is not ownerless. Human beings are created in the image of G-d. A society cannot survive if it worships power, desire, ideology, or violence. The Seven Laws demand rejection of idolatry, murder, theft, sexual immorality, cruelty, and injustice. But they also include dinim<\/strong>, courts of justice. That means law, not chaos; justice, not revenge; tzelem Elokim<\/strong>, not dehumanization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now the entire parsha opens in a new way. At first glance, Pinchas seems to be the proof that zealotry can be holy. But the more carefully we learn the Torah, Gemara, halachah, Chassidus, and the meaning of Kehunah, the opposite emerges: Pinchas is the proof that holy violence is almost never holy<\/strong>. If even Pinchas required a precise Torah law, a precise moment, no instruction from Beit Din, total purity of motive, Divine confirmation, brit shalom<\/strong>, and transformation into Kehunah, then no modern ideology can simply claim that its violence is sanctified by a higher cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The way of Aharon is to love peace, pursue peace, love the creations, and bring them close to Torah. This does not mean weakness. Aharon\u2019s peace is not sentimental surrender. It does not mean accepting Baal Peor, smiling at moral collapse, or pretending that all ideologies are holy. It means that the goal of truth must That is why Pinchas receives brit shalom.<\/strong> Not because killing is peace, but because Hashem revealed that this one act, in this one impossible moment, was not an act of death but the stopping of death; not the hatred of a sinner but the saving of a people; not the rejection of Aharon\u2019s path but the deepest and most hidden The final lesson is therefore not that we may weaken truth, nor that we may make peace with moral collapse. Torah does not ask Jews or Bnei Noach to pretend that evil is good or that confusion is compassion. But Torah also forbids us to erase the Divine image of another human being. It forbids anger to dress itself as religion. It forbids ideology to replace law. It forbids violence to become holy simply because our cause feels holy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n True service of G-d does not begin with destroying the other. It begins with removing ego before Hashem. Pinchas is a peleh<\/strong>, a wonder, because in a world where people so easily turn anger into religion, he teaches that real zeal for G-d must end not in rage, cruelty, or dehumanization, but in brit shalom<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The final word of Pinchas is not the spear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The final word is peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By\u00a0Rabbi Avriel Rabenou<\/strong>, MSc. MBA<\/p>\n\n\n\n * A farbrengen<\/strong> is an inspiring Chassidic gathering in which participants learn together, sing, reflect, and encourage one another toward spiritual growth and positive action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a9 Copyright, alle rechten voorbehouden. Als je dit artikel leuk vond, moedigen we je aan om het verder te verspreiden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Onze blogs kunnen tekst\/quotes\/verwijzingen\/links bevatten die auteursrechtelijk beschermd materiaal bevatten van Mechon-Mamre.org<\/a>, Aish.nl<\/a>, Sefaria.org<\/a>, Chabad.org<\/a>en\/of VraagNoah.org<\/a>die we gebruiken in overeenstemming met hun beleid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WHAT PINCHAS REALLY TEACHES US ABOUT ZEALOTRY The deepest question in Parshat Pinchas is not simply why Pinchas acted. The deeper question is how he was permitted to act. How could Pinchas kill a human being created b\u2019tzelem Elokim, in the image of G-d? And even more: how could he kill a fellow Jew, Zimri, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":24693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holidays-remembrance-days","category-parshot-of-the-rabbis"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Hashem rewards Pinchas with brit shalom<\/strong>, a covenant of peace, and with Kehunah<\/strong>, priesthood, for all generations.\u00b9<\/p>\n\n\n\n
acted for G-d, for justice, for liberation, for the oppressed, for the future, or for humanity.
If Parshat Pinchas is read superficially, it can become dangerous. But if it is read properly, it becomes the opposite: one of the Torah\u2019s strongest warnings against false \u201choly violence.\u201d
The Torah begins its description of mankind by teaching that man was created b\u2019tzelem Elokim<\/strong>. This is not said only about Jews. It is said about Adam, the father of all humanity. After the Flood, when Hashem speaks to Noach and his sons \u2014 the ancestors of all humanity \u2014 the Torah forbids murder and gives the reason: \u201cWhoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of G-d He made man.\u201d\u00b2<\/p>\n\n\n\n
is wrong. It is forbidden because human life belongs to G-d.
This is one of the foundations of the Seven Laws of Noach. A Ben Noach is forbidden to murder because every person \u2014 Jew or non-Jew \u2014 is created in the image of G-d. Therefore, even a sinner remains a human being. Even someone who has fallen terribly does not become an animal. Even someone who creates danger does not lose the seriousness of his life before Hashem. Pinchas\u2019 act cannot be understood as though Zimri lost his humanity. That would be a complete distortion of Torah.
The halachic background to Pinchas is the law of kana\u2019im pog\u2019in bo<\/strong>, meaning \u201czealots may strike him.\u201d This applies only in a very specific case: a Jewish man publicly sinning with a non-Jewish woman, in front of ten Jews, in a way that becomes a public rebellion against the holiness of Israel. In that narrow case, the
Torah recognizes that a zealot may strike him at that exact moment.\u00b3<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One moment later, the same act becomes murder. One question to Beit Din, and the act is not instructed. If the sinner defends himself, he is not liable.
This is not a celebration of violence. It is the Torah\u2019s warning about the danger of zealotry.
This is important for all humankind. A person may not learn from Pinchas that private violence can be holy. The Noachide path includes dinim,<\/strong> the obligation to establish courts of justice. That means law, not chaos; justice, not revenge; due process, not private rage. Precisely because murder is forbidden to all humanity,
and precisely because every person is created in the image of G-d, no individual may turn himself into judge, court, and executioner.\u2075<\/p>\n\n\n\n
was consuming the people. His act stopped death; it did not spread death. Therefore his reward is called brit shalom<\/strong> \u2014 a covenant of peace.\u2076<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the essence of Kehunah. Aharon does not begin with distance, but with love. He does not begin by breaking people, but by drawing them near. Moshe Rabbeinu represents Torah as emet<\/strong>, absolute Divine truth; Aharon represents the way truth becomes shalom \u2014 the way Divine truth enters human life as blessing, closeness, healing, and return.\u2079
This makes Pinchas\u2019 Kehunah deeply paradoxical. If his act were merely strict truth \u2014 \u201cZimri sinned and must therefore die\u201d \u2014 it would not naturally lead to Kehunah. Moreover, halachah states that a Kohen who has killed may not perform Birkat Kohanim<\/strong>, because hands that have taken life cannot simply become
hands of blessing.\u00b9\u2070 If so, how can Pinchas, who killed, become the bearer of Kehunah for all generations?
The answer is that Hashem revealed that Pinchas\u2019 act, though externally appearing to contradict Kehunah, was inwardly rooted in the deepest dimension of Kehunah. It was not violence dressed up as truth. It was peace fighting for the possibility of life. Not passive peace. Not peace that tolerates destruction. But shalom<\/strong> in its deepest sense: the restoration of life to its Divine order.
Pinchas did not act because he opposed peace. He acted because peace itself was being destroyed.
This is why the Torah emphasizes that Pinchas was \u201cthe son of Elazar, the son of Aharon HaKohen.\u201d It is not merely genealogy. It answers the accusation: how could a grandson of Aharon, the lover and pursuer of peace, do such a thing? The answer is that only because he was truly a grandson of Aharon could his zeal be
transformed into brit shalom.<\/strong>
Chassidus deepens this point. The Sages teach that one who sees Pinchas in a dream will have a peleh<\/strong>, a wonder, performed for him. The question is obvious: why speak of one \u201cwonder\u201d when many miracles happened to Pinchas? The answer is that the point is not the number of miracles, but the quality of Pinchas himself. A nes, a miracle, may mean an event that rises above nature. A peleh<\/strong>, a wonder, is deeper: something Divine that is beyond the ordinary order, yet enters the world.\u00b9\u00b9
Pinchas is connected with peleh because his entire Divine service was wondrous. Some people rise above themselves in an exceptional moment. Pinchas was more than that. His very being was given over to Hashem\u2019s will. His self-nullification was not only one heroic episode; it was his identity. This also explains
why his Kehunah is itself a peleh. Kehunah is normally inherited, not earned through a single act. Yet Pinchas received Kehunah through his action, and that Kehunah became an inheritance for his descendants. Something above the normal order entered the normal chain of generations.\u00b9\u00b2
In other words, Pinchas did not become a Kohen because killing belongs to Kehunah. He became a Kohen because Hashem revealed that beneath the external act was not bloodshed, but total bittul <\/strong>\u2014 total selfnullification to the Divine will. The spear was external. The inner reality was peace.
This distinction is essential for understanding the danger of religious and ideological violence. The most dangerous evil is not always selfish evil. Often, people do terrible things while believing that they are serving a higher cause. They say they act for G-d, for justice, for the oppressed, for history, for liberation, for the future, or for humanity. This is altruistic evil<\/strong>: evil committed in the name of good, violence justified by an allegedly sacred purpose, cruelty performed with moral certainty.\u00b9\u00b3
Altruistic evil is so dangerous because it disables conscience. A person doing selfish evil may still know, somewhere inside, that he is acting for himself. But a person committing altruistic evil feels righteous. He feels pure. He feels that his cause is too important to be limited by ordinary morality. Once that happens, tzelem Elokim<\/strong> is easily erased. The opponent becomes not a person, but an obstacle; not a soul, but a symbol; not a fellow human being, but an embodiment of evil. At that point, violence no longer feels like
violence. It feels like service.
This can happen in religious extremism, political extremism, nationalism, revolutionary movements, and even movements that speak the language of compassion. The moment an ideology says, \u201cOur cause is so righteous that we may destroy people without law, without due process, and without seeing their Divine image,\u201d it is not Pinchas. It is altruistic evil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beit Din, Shabbos, kashrus, taharas hamishpachah, tzedakah, ahavas Yisrael, and the peaceful blessing of Aharon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
always be life, closeness, healing, and return to Hashem. Truth without peace can become harshness; peace without truth can become surrender. Kehunah is the Divine art of making truth enter the world as blessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
expression of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n