Some other perspectives on this Pinchas story are also interesting. The perspective of Zimri and Cosbi are interesting to look at. Zimri was a prince of the tribe of Shimon…. commentary says that he was one who guarded himself from sin, a leader, not an ordinary fornicator and that when he saw Cosbi, he could not resist, not just because he was a typical weak man who only follows his urges, but that he tried to resist his urges and could not becase he recognized Cosbi ( a priness of Midian, kind of an Earth Mother) as his soul mate (I think this comes this is coming from the Ari). Their act was meant as a tikun to fix the sin of Adam and Chava. The commentary goes on to say that they are gilguls of Dina and Shechem, replaying the failed soul mate encounter in Genesis (at the haand of Shimon). The third time this gilul plays out and is successful is with Rabbi Akiba and his wife / soul mate, the daughter of Rufus Turnus, governor of palestine.

So from the perspective of Zimri, his action could be construed as right action. If Zimri had seen Pinchas coming, he could have defended himself. So some commentrators have said that from zimri’s perspective, he action was right but it was not the right time (Akiba was at the right time). The lesson being that timing is important; being right is not enough, action needs to be at the right time.

Shoshana Cooper gave a shir on this parsha about the feminist nature of Cosbi, butr I didn’t take good enough notes. She had references to the number of feminine pronouns in the story. I wish I could recall the drash.

The perspective of Pinchas is also interesting. In one sense, by being a Kohen, he essentially disqualified himself from being a priest, from ever becomig moved up to High priest, by killing someone. So he was not thinking of himself at all when he killed Zimri and Cosbi.

Another perspective (from the Ari) is that when Pinchas killed Zimri and Cosbi, he too died for an instant and received the souls of Nadav and Avihu, who tried and failed to come close to God, to also fix the sin of Adam and Chava. The soul of Pnchas/ Nadav/ Avihu, and the covenant of peace, was later reincarnated into the soul of Eliahu Hanovi.

So tyhe point , I guess, is that tyhere are so many perspectives to a difficult situation…… and we face our own challenges and difficult choices, we would do well to look at the perspectives of the others involved as well as the perspective of observers, and to understand that our own passion/emotion/oppinion is one perspective and not THE perspective.

But Pinhas did go too far, since it’s been my experience with Midianite women that they can make you do some cuh-razy stuff. Shabbat Shalom, and keep away from bad girls with idols.