Spiritual Strength Under Pressure

Torah Thoughts on Parshas Pinchas by Rabbi Eli Kohananoo

"לָכֵן אֱמֹר הִנְנִי נֹתֵן לוֹ אֶת בְּרִיתִי שָׁלוֹם" בְּמִדְבַּר כ''ה:י''ב

“Therefore say: ‘Behold, I give him my covenant of peace.”  BeMidbar 25:12

Parashas Pinchas begins by recapping Pinchas’s act of zealousness, which ended the terrible plague raging against Klal Yisrael. The Torah also emphasizes the eternal reward that Pinchas received for his act. 

Sforno, among others, interprets בְרִיתִי שָלוֹם as a covenant of peace with the malach hamaves, the angel of death, meaning that Pinchas would not be subject to death. Accordingly, Pinchas merited a spiritual level that raised him above typical human existence and raised himself into another sphere spiritually. Why did Pinchas merit this special invincibility to the malach hamaves? Even Moshe Rabbeinu did not enjoy that, despite his greater level. Clearly, there was something very exceptional about Pinchas’s act, which raised him, in this specific situation, above Moshe Rabbeinu’s level and earned him a special brachah to which Moshe Rabbeinu did not merit.

Let us examine the difference between the responses of Moshe Rabbeinu and Pinchas to the incident of Zimri. Rashi tells us that Moshe Rabbeinu also witnessed Zimri’s act, but he forgot the halachah that regarding one who takes a non-Jewish woman to live with her in public, a zealot may attack him to stop him. In contrast, about Pinchas the Torah says: “Pinchas saw.” Rashi explains that Pinchas saw, and he remembered the halachah regarding the proper response for a zealot. Moshe Rabbeinu, however, forgot that halachah. Could it be that such a technical difference in recalling a halachic detail could cause such a huge disparity, with Pinchas attaining eternal life and Moshe Rabbeinu losing out on this advantage?

Let us examine the wording of the Midrash carefully. The Midrash says that Zimri brought Kozbi before Moshe and asked if he was permitted to live with this Midianis. When Moshe Rabbeinu answered that it was forbidden, Zimri displayed his true intentions by answering: “If a Midianis is forbidden, how did you marry Tzipporah, who is also a Midianis?” Thereupon, the Midrash says that due to this confrontation, Moshe became weakened (נִתְרַשְׁלוּ יָדָיו) and forgot the halachah as to how to respond to Zimri. Apparently, the source of that forgetfulness was a certain weakness, a hisrashlus.

How did this “weakness” cause Moshe Rabbeinu’s lack of clarity in remembering the appropriate halachic response? Moshe Rabbeinu was very shaken by Zimri’s setup in asking him the halachic status of a Midianis when Moshe Rabbeinu’s wife, Tzipporah, was a Midianis as well. The commentaries note that there were many obvious distinctions between Moshe Rabbeinu’s relationship with Tzipporah and Zimri’s relationship with Kozbi, and had Moshe Rabbeinu remained strong and maintained his resolve and confidence in what he was doing right, or azus d’kedushah, he would have been able to maintain his clarity and not be affected by the comparison to Tzipporah.

The Midrash is telling us that the source of Moshe Rabbeinu’s hisrashlus, which led to his forgetting the halachah, was a lack of this azus d’kedushah — which would have allowed him to carry out וְהַבּוֹעֵל אֲרַמִית קַנָאִין פּוֹגְעִין בּוֹ – the response of a zealot.

With this in mind, we can gain a new depth of understanding regarding the resolve that was required in order for Pinchas to clearly apply the halachah of the license to interfere with this sinner, and be able to carry it out properly. Of course, doing so necessitated the obvious strength of character to kill in cold blood for the sake of Heaven, but it also required mesirus nefesh, as he was risking getting killed himself. 

Now we can appreciate that Pinchas was not rewarded for simply remembering the halachah and carrying it out, as would be expected of any ordinary Jew. Rather, Pinchas was given a tremendous test, one that demanded supernatural strength of spiritual character. A person’s natural inclination is to lose clarity when under such pressure not to appear as a hypocrite. Pinchas’s mesirus nefesh, fueled by azus d’kedushah, enabled him to rise above that tendency, and not to fall prey to the weakness that would have caused him to forget the halachah.

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Rabbi Eli Kohananoo graduated FYHS in 2002. He studied in Eretz Yisrael for over seven years, then continued in Kollel in Toronto for six more years. He is currently the Menahel of the Ohr HaEmet Sephardic Day School in Toronto and Rav of the Kollel Ohr Yosef 601 Minyan. He resides in Thornhill, Ontario, with his family.