Bamidbar 25: Peace in our Time

After the brief interlude to the story of Balaam and Balak, the story returns to the Israelite camp. Chaos reigns again, as the people are consumed by the orgiastic worship if the Moabite god Baal-Peor. Moshe and the elders (again) have fallen on their faces unable to respond. A grandson of Aaron takes things into his own hands, literally. Pinchas takes a spear and impales a prince of the tribe of Shimon and a princess of Moab mid-coitus. The people snap out of their trance and calm is restored to the camp following a massive plague. In return for his heroic vigilantism, God promises Pinchas “his Covenant of Shalom” (verse 12). What exactly is the Covenant of Shalom? Rashi believes this is simply God being grateful to Pinchas and offering him a friendly “shalom” greeting. This is a nice gesture, but why is it called a covenant of peace? Ibn Ezra focuses on the word Shalom as peace. He believes that God is promising Pinchas that he will continue to have peace and should not fear retribution from Zimri’s family even though Zimri was a prince. This opinion brings in a whole layer of political connections and legal fairness. It implies that Pinchas- still a grandson of the high priest, should have to worry about the political implications of killing a corrupt prince. The halakhic category of rodef permits stopping—if necessary, even killing—someone who is actively pursuing another person in a way that will lead to loss of life. In the Pinchas episode, Zimri’s public act is understood by Chazal as placing the entire community in mortal danger by provoking divine wrath, making him a rodef not of an individual but of the nation. Pinchas’s intervention, therefore, is not framed as vigilante violence but as an emergency act to halt an ongoing threat. Chizkuni explains that Pinchas not only did not have to worry about Zimri’s family, but he also didn’t have to worry about his own heritage as a priest. Because it was forbidden for a priest to come in contact with a dead body, Pinchas was concerned he would lose his priestly status. God promised him that he would not. Sfrono expands even further. The covenant of peace is not just for safety from Zimri’s family, but a general peace with the angel of death. God promises Pinchas a long life with some sources showing that he lived as much as 300 years through the ages of the Judges. Malbim extends this even further. He brings the midrashic opinion that Pinchas was actually the prophet Elijah. Both characters have a similar zeal for God that causes them to act in extra-legal manner. Because the Midrash also holds that Elijah never died, Pinchas is given eternal life. The Rav explains that God is trying to teach an important lesson. The Covenant of Shalom means a promise of peace. This is ironic. Pinchas was responsible for a violent act of murder to stop a religious rebellion. Such an act is the exact opposite of peaceful! God’s message is that sometimes peaceful means cannot be achieved by pacifism and crying at the doorway like Moshe and the other leaders. The example the Rav gives is Nevelle Chamberlain’s infamous attempt to pacify Hitler. Sometimes to achieve peace, one must be willing to go to war for one’s beliefs. This is an important and topical conflict that many people feel to this day. One wants to be anti-war, but to what extent does that belief go when there are other nations and people out there who are the exact opposite.