Miller's Musings Parshas Pinchos: Spearheading the Attack

  בס''ד  

A zealot is an epithet for a person that can certainly evoke negative connotations.  Zeal used incorrectly can have devastating effects, a fact we have witnessed only too clearly in recent history.  Yet in our Parsha, Pinchos is handsomely rewarded for his feat of derring-do, slaying the Jewish leader, Zimri, found with a Midianite. The accolades show us that Pinchos’s act was indeed a correct one.  But could he have not chosen a more gentle approach?  Perhaps waiting until the time was right to set Zimri back on the path?  Surely there was a chance of the sinner seeing the error of his ways once the passion had subsided and he could properly consider his terrible indiscretion?    

Context is incredibly important when judging any situation.  Without it, it is entirely impossible to understand a person’s actions or to in any way appraise their deeds.  When Zimri, the Jewish prince, committed his sin it was not at a point when he may not have realised the evil in his actions.  It was whilst witnessing the death by supernatural plague of twenty four thousand people!  So many lives extinguished so suddenly, the direct consequence of their involvement with the Midianite women and participation in their idol worship.  If despite this, a leader amongst the nation was unable to extricate himself from such behaviour, then there was no way back and no other option but to put an end to this atrocity in the most ferocious and forthright manner possible.  If, as the Michtav M’Eliyohu understands it, Zimri was so entrenched in this immorality that he could overlook all that was going on around him, his obstinacy and intractability would persist no matter how much anyone would try to show him his grave error of judgement. 

There is no question that the example of Zimri is an extreme one.  To persist in this way after so clear a sign of it being manifestly wrong, indicates just how stiff-necked and obdurate Zimri must have been once fixated on this sin.  Yet to simply look down with disdain upon Zimri, would be to neglect to admit to our own failings in this very area.  There are surely beliefs embedded within us that we cling to no matter how clear the arguments against them may be.  Are there not behaviours that we exhibit that we find any justification to continue, despite them blatantly being improper?  We all have this obstinacy at times, an unwillingness to change in the face of irrefutable evidence for needing to do so and it requires profound introspection to be aware of our own self-deception.  We must always allow our eyes to be opened by the truth and our views to be changed by our search for integrity in all we do and believe. 

*May Shabbos inspire us to change and change for the better*

לעילוי נשמת לאה בת אברהם 

לעילוי נשמת שרה יעל בת גרשון

לרפואת אלימלך יהושע אהרון בן דבורה רבקה