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We learned in Parsha Balak that Bila’am’s scheme to seduce Jewish men to avodah zora by way of immorality (co-habitation) resulted in a plague which killed 24,000 Jewish men until Pinchas’ act brought the plague to a halt. However, Bamidbar, Perek 25, posuk 4 and 5 read;
And Hashem, said to Moshe: Take all of the chiefs of the people, and hang them up unto the Hashem in the face of the sun, that (there) may turn away the fierce anger of Hashem from Israel. And Moshe said unto the judges of Israel: Slay you every one his men that have joined themselves unto the Ba’al Peor.
Rabbi Chaim Zev Malinowitz spoke out in Shul what was, for this author, a Chiddush which shed more light than previously on the significance and magnitude of Pinchas’ act of slaying Zimri and Kozbi as they co-habited.
Rabbi Malinowitz asked how it could be that the B’nai Yisrael, through 200 plus years in Mitzriyim and throughout their wandering in Bamidbar until now, maintained a derech which precluded illicit co-habitation. How could the Am have gone so fundamentally wrong on the eve of entry into Eretz Yisrael? He brought a Mishna indicating that Hashem brought a stream of water from Sodom to Shittim where the B’nai Yisrael were encamped and suggested that the ingesting the water apparently brought about a test of B’nai Yisrael which many failed.
Rabbi Malinowitz cited Rashi on Perek 25, posuk 4 and 5, particularly posuk 5:
Rashi on posuk 4
Take all of the chiefs of the people — that they shall judge the worshippers of Peor
And hang them up — the worshippers…
Rashi on posuk 5
Slay you everyone his men — Everyone of the judges of Israel killed 2 (offenders);
and the judges of Israel (numbered eighty-eight thousand, as it is stated in Sanhedrin (folio 38).
If we do the math, if 88,000 judges each hung and killed 2 sinners, that’s 176,000 of the Am Yisrael who died by hanging. Now add to that the 24,000 who died in the plague and we see that the Chait of the Ba’al Peor took the lives of 1/3 of B’nai Yisrael before Pinchas’ impailment of Zimri and Kosbi as they co-habited brought an end to the death.
Rabbi Malinowitz also added, citing sections of Tanach, that, for example, Yehoshua noted decades after the Jews entered Eretz Yisrael that the B’nai Ysrael are still suffering for the sin of the Ba’al Peor and that full tikkun for the chait will only come in times of Moshiach. He indicates that Hashem did an abundant favor for B’nai Yisrael in permitting them to enter Eretz Yisrael in wake of the chait.
This author reasons further that, just as only 20% of B’nai Yisrael were up to the test of taking the Korban Pesach, slaughtering it and applying the da’am to their doorposts, so too 1/3 of the new generation in Bamidbar failed a crucial test just before entry into Eretz Ysrael.
And yet we learn from Midrashim on Parsha Pinchas that there was much dispute in The Camp as to Pinchas’ action in slaying Zimri and Kozbi. There were those who wanted Pinchas killed for killing another Jew; quoted by Rabbi Artscroll (Stone Chumash page 876, Sefer Bamidbar, Perek 25, posuk 11);
“This grandson of someone who fattened calves to be sacrificed to idols” had the gall to kill a prince in Israel! [Pinchas’ father was married to a daughter of Yitro, a former Midianite Priest, who was called Putiel…]
To repeat a quote from the Lubavitcher Rebbe as noted in last week’s Parsha HaShevua (Studies in the Weekly Parsha, by Yehuda Nachshoni, Parsha Balak, page 1113);
“He impailed the woman through the belly”; “He aimed his spear between their male and female members, proving that he did not kill them in vain.” Why would we think that he had killed them in vain? Rather, the Torah here alludes to the law that a zealot has free reign only while the act is in progress.
Thus Hashem conveyed the Kahuna, and eternal life upon upon Pinchas in recognition of the justness and Kiddush Hashem of his action.
May we be zocha in this coming year that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole, that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard and kidnapped captive Gilad Shalit and the other MIAs be liberated and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashen and that we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
Good Shabbos!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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