At the end of last week’s Torah portion, Pinchas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, displayed his “zeal” for God by killing an Israelite man and a Midianite woman who were engaged in a public act of sexual idolatry:
When Pinchas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw this, he left the assembly and, taking a spear in his hand, he followed the Israelite into the chamber and stabbed both of them, the Israelite and the woman, through the belly. (Numbers 25:7-8)
Pinchas’ act is portrayed in the Torah as an act of salvation for the Israelites. As a result of his initiative, a plague afflicting the people is checked – and at the beginning of our portion, God tells Moses that Pinchas’ action has saved the Israelite nation entirely:
“Pinchas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron has turned back my wrath from the Israelites by displaying among them his passion for Me, so that I did not wipe out the Israelite people in My passion. Say, therefore, ‘I grant him My pact of peace. It shall be for him and his descendants after him a pact of priesthood for all time, because he took impassioned action for his God, thus making expiation for the Israelites.'” (Numbers 25:10-13)
It is important to note that Jewish commentators have long been troubled by Pinchas’ actions, as well as the suggestion that he seems to be rewarded by God for his zealousness. Many have suggested that God’s offer of a “pact of peace” (“Brit Shalom”) should not be regarded so much as Pinchas’ reward, but rather as a covenant that will require responsibility and moderation on the part of this future Israelite leader.
One of the most powerful commentaries on Pinchas’ act is written into the very fabric of Torah itself. The Masoretes – the 8th and 9th century rabbinic sages who codified the written Torah into the version we know today – instructed that the word “Shalom” in the term “Brit Shalom” should be written with a broken letter vav. As a result, every Torah scroll now bears this inner message: peace achieved through zealotry and violence is an incomplete peace – a “broken peace,” as it were.
For an era beset by growing violence committed in “the name of God,” this one small pen-stroke makes a profound statement indeed…
Shalom Rav 
During the civil rights movement in Chicago, youth organizers on Dr. King’s SCLC staff met with the gangs and asked them, because of their discipline and courage, to become peace marshals for the non-violent civil rights demonstrations, after going through nonviolence training first. Many did.
Although S.C.L.C efforts in Chicago are often characterized as a failure, the S.C.L.C. youth organizers, and the nonviolence trained gang members, were instrumental in negotiating Chicago’s first gang truce.
I like the thought of repairing the broken peace to repair the world.
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.
Brant,
I always liked the medresh about the broken Vav in shalom, broken wholeness, broken peace, the broken six. it is amazing that there arwe so many perspectives of Torah. Perspectives of the characters in the story and the perspective of obeservers/readers of the text.
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.
It just seems to me that this is another incident in the Torah of which the meaning for us remains obscure. The more we study, the more we know that we can’t understand everything in Torah, and I’m satisfied to acknowledge that I value it as part of our history without extracting a particular lesson.