A few years ago, Ami Eshed, the police chief of Tel Aviv, resigned from his position, saying he was forced out for political reasons because he refused to use violence against protestors. He said:

“I could have easily used disproportionate force and filled Ichilov’s hospital emergency room at the end of every demonstration in Tel Aviv. We could have cleared the Ayalon Highway within minutes at the terrible cost of cracking heads and breaking bones and at the cost of breaking the pact between police and the citizenry. For the first time in my three decades of service, I was met with the bizarre reality in which calm and order were not the desired goal, but rather the contrary was the case.”

Pinchas: The Zealot as Hero

In last week’s parsha, Pinchas, Moses’s grand-nephew, acted with “disproportionate force” when he saw the Israelites whoring with the daughters of Moab and sacrificing to their god (Baal Peor). God told Moses to impale all the chiefs of Israel so that his divine wrath would subside. Moses instead instructed the judges to kill only those actively worshipping foreign gods. But before this could happen, an Israelite man brought a Midianite woman into the camp in full view of Moses and the people, who stood weeping, paralysed in grief.

“When Pinchas, son of Elazar son of Aaron the priest, saw this, he arose from the assembly and took a spear in his hand, and followed the Israelite into the chamber and stabbed both of them, the Israelite and the woman, through her belly. Then the plague against the Israelites was checked” (Numbers 25:7–8).

In this week’s parsha, God responds with praise:

“Pinchas son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest turned away My wrath from the Israelites by acting zealously for My zealotry in their midst… Therefore say: ‘I hereby grant him My Covenant of Peace… a covenant of Eternal Priesthood’” (Numbers 25:11–13).

We later learn the man was Zimri, a Simeonite chieftain, and the woman Cozbi, daughter of a Midianite leader. God further commands hostility toward the Midianites:

“They have been foes to you through their wiles…” (Numbers 25:18).

This episode is ironic. Moses himself married Tziporah, daughter of Yitro, a Midianite priest who affirmed the God of Israel. Yet now, at the threshold of entering Canaan, a new leadership ideology emerges—one that elevates zealotry, fears the “other,” rewards and........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)