Is the Zeal of Pinchas to be Emulated?
STUDENT
SUMMARIES OF SICHOT OF THE ROSHEI YESHIVA
Parashat PINCHAS
SICHA OF
HARAV YEHUDA AMITAL ZTL
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Is the
Zeal of Pinchas to be Emulated?
Translated by Kaeren
Fish
Pinchas
son of Elazar son of Aharon, the kohen, turned back My anger from Bnei Yisrael,
in his zeal for My sake among them, so that I did not destroy Bnei Yisrael in My
zeal. Therefore say, Behold, I give him My covenant of peace. (Bamidbar
25:11-12)
There are people who by nature are zealous. Such
people are zealous about everything, in every sphere. There are people like this
who are immersed in some type of extremism, and when they move over to a
different ideology, they become just as extreme in that view.
Some maintain that Pinchas had this sort of zeal in
his personality. As Rashi explains:
The
tribes scorned him, saying, Look at this one, whose mothers father used to
fatten calves for idolatry and he has killed a price of a tribe of Israel!
Therefore the text traces his lineage back to Aharon. (Based on Sanhedrin
82)
The text traces Pinchass lineage back to Aharon
the same Aharon who, as we know, was a lover of peace and pursuer of peace (Avot
1:12). The Torah wants to tell us that Pinchas had not inherited his trait of
zeal from Yitro, but rather from Aharon himself. Yitro was a figure who was
altogether extreme: There was not a single form of idolatry which he had not
practiced (Mekhilta, Yitro). Yitro jumped from one religion to
the next, diving into each with enthusiasm and extremism. Aharon, in contrast,
was a personality who was altogether at peace, a personality altogether devoid
of extremism. Nevertheless, it is precisely this sort of personality that
sometimes arrives at an extremism that flows from truth, from spontaneous zeal
for God.
Rambam writes:
One who
is zealous is not permitted to harm [a Jew who lies with a gentile], except as
the action is being performed, like Zimri, as it is written, [the man of
Israel] and the woman, through her belly (Bamidbar 25:8). But if he had
already separated himself, one does not kill him. And if one kills him, he
himself is to be killed. And if one who is zealous comes to the court to ask
permission to kill him, he is not given permission even as the action is being
performed. (Hilkhot Issurei Biah 12:5)
An act of zeal can only take place as the action is
being performed, and it can only emerge from true spontaneity (not after
seeking permission or clarifying legal issues), out of true zeal for God.
In our generation the problem is that people are
generally apathetic; nothing shakes their equilibrium. They view others
desecrating Shabbat in public, and feel no twinge in their heart. Once I was in
the United States and I saw a Christian priest on television, talking about the
Mother, the Son
etc. I was completely shaken by this kind of talk. I couldnt
listen to it. The people sitting in the room, though observant Jews, continued
drinking their coffee, sensing nothing.
People become apathetic and nothing shocks them. We
must feel zeal in certain areas. This does not mean that our zeal need
necessarily be demonstrated outwardly sometimes outward demonstrations only
bring harm; one must know, from a halakhic point of view, when rebuke is
necessary, when it is permissible, and when it is forbidden. However, all of
that is only on the outside. Inside ourselves, we dare not remain apathetic. We
must be zealous for God.