Parshath Pinchas (Numbers XXV,10-XXX,1)

A.

At the end of last week’s parasha we learnt that the bnei Yisra’él camped at a place called Shittim, where the brazen Mo’avi and Midyani women offered themselves as the “ultimate weapon” in Balaq’s arsenal to destroy Israel’s standards of decency and bring them down from their exalted status as the ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש (“kingdom of kohanim and holy nation;” Exodus XIX, 6). ותקראן לעם לזבחי אלהיהן ויאכל העם וישתחוו לאלהיהן (“And they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods;” Numbers XXV, 2).

Things went from bad to worse: והנה איש מבני ישראל בא ויקרב אל אחיו את המדינית וגו' (“And behold, a man of the bnei Yisra’él came and brought close to his brothers the Midyani woman....” ibid., 6), openly cavorting with the woman before Moshe and the rest of Israel. וירא פינחס בן אלעזר בן אהרן הכהן ויקם מתוך העדה ויקח רמח בידו: ויבא אחרי איש ישראל אל הקבה וידקר את שניהם וגו' (“And Pinchas ben El‘azar ben Aharon ha-kohen saw, and he arose from amidst the community and took a spear in his hand. And he came after the man of Israel to the tent, and he ran both of them through....” ibid., 7-8).

At the beginning of our parasha, G-d expresses His approval of Pinchas’ action: פינחס בן אלעזר בן אהרן הכהן השיב את חמתי מעל בני ישראל וגו' (“Pinchas ben El‘azar ben Aharon ha-Kohen returned My wrath (chamathi) from upon the bnei Yisra’él....” ibid., 11). So the verse is conventionally translated.

However, perhaps with a bit of research, we can can discern in the Divine choice of words to express His wrath (חמה, rather than one of the possible synonyms, אף, כעס, or רוגז) an allusion to a wider meaning.

B.

If we turn to the Talmud, we find: ת"ר בזמן שהחמה לוקה סימן רע לכל העולם כולו כו' (“The Rabbis taught: In a time when the sun (chamma) is afflicted, it is a sign of bad things for the entire world....” סוכה כ"ט.). The gmara goes on to quote a second baraitha which details four things which could bring about such a solar “affliction,” amongst them: נערה מאורסה שצעקה בעיר ואין מושיע לה (“A betrothed girl who cried out [at an assailant] in a city and had no rescuer”). The Maharsha explains that the reason this should lead to the sun’s “affliction” and trouble for everybody is that it indicates a fundamental societal ill; the poor girl’s cry for help, he says, was ברור לכל כשמש, “clear to everyone as the sun”, and yet no-one acted on it.

If we now return to the sad story in our parasha, the gentle reader will be forgiven for considering the comparison, at first glance, inapt: Kozbi bath Tzur was not exctly a blushing maiden defending her virtue from Zimri’s lecherous advances. To the contrary, she had volunteered for this mission, even begged her father to be allowed to go along, and had brazenly aroused and encouraged those advances. If there was a “victim” in the story at all, it was Zimri ben Salu, not Kozbi.

Which brings to mind another Talmudic passage.

C.

ואלו הן שמצילין אותן בנפשן, הרודף אחר חבירו להורגו, ואחר הזכר, ואחר נערה מאורסה וגו' (“And these are the ones whom one may rescue [from sin - Rashi] at the cost of their lives: One who chases after his fellow to kill him, or after a male [for an unnatural purpose], or after a betrothed girl....” סנהדרין ע"ג. במשנה). The subsequent discussion in the gmara makes clear that each of the cases in the above mishna is derivable from that of the na‘ara ha-m’urasa, the “betrothed maiden” (cf. Deuteronomy XXII, 22).

This casts matters in a different light. The mishna’s wording is very precise: The person who is being “rescued” at the cost of his life is the rodéf, the “pursuer,” who has so lost control of himself that he is about to commit a supernally, supremely heinous act, one which will so stain his neshama that he is actually better off dead; hence, one is allowed to save him from himself, at the cost of his life (ועיי' גם פי' הרע"ב וקול הרמ"ז על המשנה).

D.

Now, consider our case. What Zimri ben Salu was about to do, he was advertising in public. His intentions were as clear as a maiden’s cry for help in the city...

And it was Pinchas who responded, and thereby השיב את חמתי מעל בני ישראל. How was G-d’s wrath about to be made manifest? Aside from the plague which had already claimed the lives of 24,000 people who had succumbed to the blandishments of the Mo’avi and Midyani women and participated in their foul rites, the actions of Zimri, a nasi shévet, head of the tribe of Shim‘on, in public before all of Israel, were about to bring about a siman ra‘, an evil sign for the entire world, as G-d’s cheima led to the positioning of His chamma for affliction.

This, I believe, is the point of the allusion in our verse. This is what Pinchas prevented by his immediate action. Were it to be revealed that the societal character of the ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש, the holy nation whose very purpose was, and is, to be the standard bearers of Torah in the world, the living embodiment of its values, the very picture of what the Divine intention was in creating humanity, was so depraved as to permit and, tacitly, approve of Zimri’s conduct, there would be no hope for the rest of the world, either.

Such is the potential of a single individual in Israel to influence the course of the world, whether for bad (Zimri), or for good (Pinchas).