This week, Canada celebrated Canada Day (formerly known as Dominion Day) and the United State celebrated Independence Day. Both countries are the embodiment of the “New World”, a world built upon laws, democracy and based upon a dream that the future is genuinely brighter and more hopeful than the “Old World’s” paralyzing history and restrictive social mores. Both countries offer a possibility, an opportunity and that one ought to be judged by the “content of character”, not by skin colour, country of origin, wealth, or family connections. Both countries have always made it clear that no person is above the law: Not the poorest, not the wealthiest, not the meekest, not the most powerful. So as my children celebrate both Canada Day and Independence Day; I feel compelled to remind them that what they should keep in mind when they celebrate is that more than any form of government more than any form of a society’s basic principle of organization; Democracy is the holiest form of government and, besides Torah, Democracy is one of the holiest organizing principles of a society. Like Torah, in Democracy the Law is sacred, the law is Holy, and no king no leader is above the Law. Like Torah, Democracy and Law work best when it avoids fundamentalism/extremism of the left and right; but rather sticks to the middle (Deut. 28:14).
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 behaviour 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 Shalosh Regalim (Three Pilgrimage Festivals etc).
Isn't it odd, or perhaps even disturbing, that Pinchas' zealousness, his subsequent spear throwing and impaling his targets appears 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, many readers will perceive Pinchas’ act to be nothing more than fanaticism or vigilantism. It appears as if vigilantism is rewarded. 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 today's’ 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 defence of God's glory, perhaps it becomes easier and easier to commit the second, third or forty-eighth act of zealous defence 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.
Yes, Pinchas saved a community from further pain and suffering by hurling that spear at Zimri and Omri. Yes, Pinchas murdered that Prince of the tribe of Shimon and that Princess Midian. The Covenant isn’t so much a reward but rather it is a salve or a balm for the tumult within Pinchas’ soul. Now, Pinchas and his descendants could ill afford to ever act as vigilantes, Pinchas and his descendants could ill afford to take on a such a fundamentalist attitude because Pinchas has now been thrust into a position of leadership and rather than embracing the fundamentalist and tumultuous aspect of soul, he must rather embrace the calm, loving demeanor of his grandfather, Aaron, who chased after Justice and loved Amcha.
Peace,
Rav Yitz
No comments:
Post a Comment