While Canadians and Americans were
celebrating their country’s respective Independence Day and the added bonus of
the U.S. women’s soccer team winning the World Cup; a great irony began to take
shape in the Middle East and specifically in Gaza. Beginning on July 1st
in the New York Times and in various other news outlets including a Sunday
morning news show; a story appeared about Isis and Hamas. It wasn’t exactly
what you might have thought… a joint partnership bent on the destruction of
Israel. Ironically, Isis believes that Hamas is an illegitimate government for
Palestinians. According to ISIS policy makers and spokesman, Hamas is too
secular and they are not true believers in the Caliphate and returning
Jerusalem to the Caliphate. From Isis perspective, Hamas is too political, too
cynical since they only pretend to be Muslim Fundamentalist. ISIS believers
that Hamas’ sole reason for existence is to return Israel to the Palestinians
and not necessarily rule according to Sharia law. Even in the world of
extremism, some extremists are not extreme enough. During the Sunday news show that explored
ISIS’ rise, its popularity and even a version of extremism that overshadowed
Hamas; Tom Friedman commented that young men who were disenfranchised, young
men with bleak futures, young men who have never held a girl’s hand let alone
kissed a girl are promised power, a future and a bride all the while earning a
living. So, these young men move from
one form of extremism, extreme exclusion, to another form of extremism, extreme
inclusion. While they think they will achieve contentment and peace, ultimately
they will only achieve the dead end of an existence based in extremism, based
in Sharia law, and a medieval life.
This Shabbat we read from Parsha
Pinchas. The first few Psukim of the Parsha are a direct continuation of the
previous Shabbat Parsha Balak. There is no elapse of time in the narrative.
Balak concludes with a plague upon B’nai Yisroel for its worship of
Moabite/Midianite god, Baal Peor. Aaron’s son Pinchas zealously acts by killing
Zimri from the tribe of Shimon and Cozbi the Midianite woman. God tells Moshe
to reward Pinchas for his behavior by giving him the Brit Shalom, the Covenant
of Peace. This covenant is only for Pinchas and his descendants. Keeping in
mind that B’nai Yisroel has now concluded it 40 years of wandering in the wilderness
and are poised upon the eastern bank of the Jordan River; a new census is
taken. Just like we needed to know how many left Egypt, we now need to know how
many will enter into Eretz Canaan. After the census is taken Moshe must judge a
legal case concerning the laws of inheritance when a man has only daughters.
This brief narrative is about the “Daughters of Tzelophchad”. Following this
narrative, God commands Moshe to teach the new generation the laws for time
bound offerings including the Shabbat offering, the Rosh Chodesh offering, the
offerings for the Shelosh Regalim (Three Pilgrimage Festivals etc).
Isn't it odd, or perhaps even
disturbing, that Pinchas' zealousness, his subsequent spear throwing and
impaling his targets is rewarded with a Brit Shalom - a Covenant of Peace
and Brit Kehunat Olam - a covenant of an everlasting Priesthood?
(Num. 25:12). Through our modernist lens, I imagine that most people consider
or at least can understand why some may consider Pinchas act to be nothing more
than fanaticism or vigilantism. If we consider Pinchas' behavior to be no
different that some fanatic or vigilante; then have a difficult time in
understanding Hashem’s rewarding Pinchas. To offer Pinchas Peace and the
Priesthood becomes seems incomprehensible. The NeZiV (Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Berlin
Poland 1817-1893; the Rosh Yeshiva of the Volozhin Yeshiva) offers a
fascinating explanation that might be valuable in todays’ age of extremists recruiting
young people. The NeZiV explains that the Brit Shalom is a guarantee of peace
from an inner enemy from whatever lurked within Pinchas that caused him to kill
another human being without due process. "The Holy One Blessed He
blessed him [Pinchas] with the attribute of peace, that he should not be quick
tempered or angry. Since it was only natural that such a deed as Pinchas'
should leave in his heart an intense emotional unrest afterward, the Divine
blessing was designed to cope with this situation and promised peace and
tranquility of the soul." We can now begin to make some sense of these
covenants. Once Pinchas committed his first act of zealous defense of God's
glory, perhaps it becomes easier and easier to commit a second third of
forty-eight act of zealous defense of God's glory. At some point, from the
NeZiV's perspective, the zealot's soul becomes damaged, the zealot's emotions
are incapable of feelings, and the zealot's eyes become unseeing except through
the lens of their zealousness. The zealot by definition is an extremist and we
know that extremism in Judaism is frowned upon and halachically unacceptable
(see the laws of the Nazarite). Precisely because the zealot does not
know peace when he/she commits such an act, in Pinchas' case the only gift God
could give was that the tumult of his own soul should cease and he should be
whole, complete and at peace.
Just imagine if there was no way
for Isis to recruit vulnerable young men. What if there were no vulnerable
young men. Imagine if young men throughout the world had education, job
prospects, a future, didn’t feel disenfranchised or alienated and had been
kissed by a girl or at least held a girl’s hand. Yes Isis would still be able
to recruit a few, but that is exactly the point. There would only be a few.
Young men and young women for that matter, would be far less vulnerable to Isis
videos and recruiters. Without fresh recruits, Isis will eventually shrivel up
and die, as would Hamas. For the sake of the non-extremists, here’s hoping that
the souls of these young men, achieve a sense of peace and contentment sooner
rather than later.
Peace,
Rav Yitz
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