TEMPER THIS

Extremism is bad, can we agree on this?

Doing something terrible or catastrophic from a place of pure anger or passion, we might be able to agree – this ain’t fly?!

Perhaps this is an obvious starting place and yet Pinchas is a guy found in this week’s parsha who follows his murderous impulse and kills; putting a spear through two people in one go.

Anyone who has glanced upon our Jewish ethical tradition will know there are plenty of sources to oppose murderous behaviour in Jewish law: one of the ten commandments is not to kill, Rabbi Akiva says that the whole Torah is to ‘love your neighbour as ourselves’, the book of Proverbs teaches us that all its ways are ways of peace [3:17].

So, what to do with Pinchas? There are two parts that might assist us in balancing the motifs of this story out – the first is the story of the daughters of Zelophehad, also found in this week’s Parsha, these brave souls oppose the law of Moses and God and make a case the laws of inheritance to be changed. The exact context is not crucial but the outcome is Moses petitions God with their challenge and the law is changed, a ruling in favour of the children of Zelophehad.

The significant lesson is that no thought or law is infallible, there is always room for deliberation and challenge.

We might also be able to return to the story of Pinchas and find redemption here too. The rabbis of our Talmud (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 82a; Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin 9:7) tacitly condemned outright Pinchas’s actions but he might nevertheless have a role to play in his own character redemption: there is value in maintaining your conviction and acting on instinct. We must never condone violence but Pinchas nevertheless represents standing up for what you believe in, without apology.

No thought, no ideology, no Torah is perfect beyond reproof or critique, we would do well to bear this in mind as anger bubbles up and we seek to reject alternative viewpoints. And too at the opposite end of the spectrum, we must be people who do find strength to stand against that which is morally indefensible in the world before us. Finding the balance between these two places is the journey of our lifetime, Pinchas asks us to face the challenge head-on.

Shabbat shalom x