A teaching from Rabbi Geoff worth sharing: The current “matzav” (situation) in Israel and the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories): As Prime Minister Menachem Begin was about to go to Camp David to meet with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, the story is told of his consultation with a rabbinic authority. He was directed to the Torah’s telling of Jacob’s approaching Esau after years of animosity, fear and estrangement. I would direct today’s Israeli leadership to the story of Pinchas in the Book of Numbers. Pinchas channeled his fervent commitment to God into a murderous fanaticism, killing an Israelite man cavorting with a Midianite woman. Apparently, the plague that evidenced God’s displeasure with the wandering and unfaithful Israelites abated, and Pinchas was rewarded with a “covenant of peace” and the priesthood. Upon a superficial reading, it would seem that Torah lends its support and approval to Pinchas and such behavior. He’s a hero to some for his zealousness for God, for boldly stepping up and doing something. But our tradition is much more wise and insightful to leave it at that. There are conventions in the hand-written Torah scroll that indicate something much different than approval and reward. One letter of Pinchas’s name is written deliberately smaller than the rest, and the word “shalom” has a letter broken rather than a continuous line. The scribes are telling us: “Something is terribly amiss.” In his rage and militant fanaticism, Pinchas is diminished. And the “peace” gained through violence is inherently imperfect. The covenantal relationship with God/liness is “deferred,” not yet merited. (“Rav Yehudah said, in the name of Shmuel: Only when he is whole, not when he is lacking.”) The teaching is about violence transformed; we are challenged to transcend the violence in our souls, to become whole, to become worthy of a “covenant of peace.” Both Pinchas, as the “Pinchas tendency” in all of us, must be rooted out before he/we can be well, whole, complete, “shalem”…and have “shalom” with one’s self and with others. The late Israeli psychologist and Torah commentator Pinchas Peli (z”l) noted that God’s “covenant of peace” for Pinchas was not so much “reward” as something offered by way of healing and protection. A cure, perhaps, for militant rage and vengeance. Ken y’hi ratzon! May it be so.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 11:12:14 +0000
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