(י) וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר יהוה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֥ה לֵּאמֹֽר׃(יא) פִּֽינְחָ֨ס בֶּן־אֶלְעָזָ֜ר בֶּן־אַהֲרֹ֣ן הַכֹּהֵ֗ן הֵשִׁ֤יב אֶת־חֲמָתִי֙ מֵעַ֣ל בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל בְּקַנְא֥וֹ אֶת־קִנְאָתִ֖י בְּתוֹכָ֑ם וְלֹא־כִלִּ֥יתִי אֶת־בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל בְּקִנְאָתִֽי׃(יב) לָכֵ֖ן אֱמֹ֑ר הִנְנִ֨י נֹתֵ֥ן ל֛וֹ אֶת־בְּרִיתִ֖י שָׁלֽוֹם׃
(10) The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,(11) “Phinehas, son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the Israelites by displaying among them his passion for Me, so that I did not wipe out the Israelite people in My passion.(12) Say, therefore, ‘I grant him My pact of friendship.
Is the Torah romanticizing or encouraging violence when it highlights the acts of Pinchas? Does it seem incongruous that Hashem is granting him His covenant of peace after he has publicly launched a spear into Zimri and Cozbi?
I think the Torah is addressing this question when it calls Pinchas פִּֽינְחָ֨ס בֶּן־אֶלְעָזָ֜ר בֶּן־אַהֲרֹ֣ן הַכֹּהֵ֗ן, counting his two most direct descendants, but not venturing farther back. Pinchas represents a new direction for the family of Levi ben Yaakov. Like his great great grandfather Levi, Pinchas is fiercely protective of his family's kedusha. He acts when the situation demands it. But he has moved in a different direction.
Centuries earlier, Levi and Shimon, appalled by the rape of their sister Dinah, had channeled their moral outrage into a massacre. Their indignation had been understandable, but their response lacked proportion. Decades later, speaking on his deathbed, Yaakov made it clear that to protect the family's honor, Shimon and Levi needed to temper their passions:
(ה) שִׁמְע֥וֹן וְלֵוִ֖י אַחִ֑ים כְּלֵ֥י חָמָ֖ס מְכֵרֹתֵיהֶֽם׃(ו) בְּסֹדָם֙ אַל־תָּבֹ֣א נַפְשִׁ֔י בִּקְהָלָ֖ם אַל־תֵּחַ֣ד כְּבֹדִ֑י כִּ֤י בְאַפָּם֙ הָ֣רְגוּ אִ֔ישׁ וּבִרְצֹנָ֖ם עִקְּרוּ־שֽׁוֹר׃
(5) Simeon and Levi are a pair; Their weapons are tools of lawlessness.(6) Let not my person be included in their council, Let not my being be counted in their assembly. For when angry they slay men, And when pleased they maim oxen.
Levi and his descendants do not lose their strong moral compass, and this is displayed to us through Moshe. The first time we meet him outside his reed basket, he is defending an oppressed Israelite slave; his streak of championing the powerless continues again and again until the Egyptian cavalry are at the bottom of the Red Sea.
But in our story, why was Pinchas the member of Shevet Levi who acted first?
Where was Moshe when Zimri turned Israel's values upside down?
R' Shimshon Raphael Hirsch notes that yes, Moshe's opposition to injustice led him to overpower bullies and protect the values he cherished. But he was also a reserved, modest man, not looking to start a revolution:
ויפן כה וכה – הוא הביט לכל הכיוונים, כדי להיות בטוח שאין איש רואהו, ושיש ביכולתו להעז לעשות את המעשה. ראיה לכך שלא היה מעז אילו מצא עדים למעשהו, היא הערתו בפסוק יד: "אכן נודע הדבר".
צד זה באופיו של משה הוא בעל חשיבות מכרעת.... רחוק הוא מאותה העזה לוהטת ומדבקת, הדרושה למי שעתיד להנהיג המון רב, ולזרז אותם הלאה לפעולה המסוכנת, לשבור את כבלי הברזל מעליהם, ולהאבק על דרכם לחירות מעולו של העריץ. אדם שתחילה "פונה כה וכה לראות כי אין איש", לא יעלה על דעתו אף בחלום הלילה להיות למושיעם ומנהיגם של עמו. היה חסר אצלו לגמרי היסוד של הרצון להעשות גיבור היסטורי.
צד זה באופיו של משה הוא בעל חשיבות מכרעת.... רחוק הוא מאותה העזה לוהטת ומדבקת, הדרושה למי שעתיד להנהיג המון רב, ולזרז אותם הלאה לפעולה המסוכנת, לשבור את כבלי הברזל מעליהם, ולהאבק על דרכם לחירות מעולו של העריץ. אדם שתחילה "פונה כה וכה לראות כי אין איש", לא יעלה על דעתו אף בחלום הלילה להיות למושיעם ומנהיגם של עמו. היה חסר אצלו לגמרי היסוד של הרצון להעשות גיבור היסטורי.
He looked this way and that way...- He looked in every direction to be certain that no one saw him, and to confirm that he was daring enough to do this action. Proof that he would not have dared if there had been witnesses to his act is his comment in pasuk 14: 'Surely this thing has become known.' This side of Moshe's character is of critical importance.... That burning, contagious sense of daring, required of someone who will ultimately lead large masses, to impel them forward toward dangerous action, to break the iron chains from upon them, to fight off their yoke on a path toward freedom,--this was all foreign to him. An individual whose first instinct is to turn this way and that way to confirm that 'there is no man,' would never conceive, not even in a dream at night, of becoming the savior and leader of his nation. He completely lacked the the fundamental desire to become a historic hero."
What made Moshe an incomparable leader was the fact that he had never sought to be one.
But when Zimri took Cozbi in plain sight, defying Moshe's attempts to restore dignity and sanctity to the congregation, an immediate and resonant public response was called for. And to extend R' Hirsch's comment, even now, 40 years after Moshe began to shed his inherent reticence and lead B'nei Yisrael out of Egypt, he was not the master of public displays.
Instead Pinchas emerged from the crowd, impelled by his natural Levite instincts, but tempered by the lessons of time. Pinchas was a precision bomber, grabbing a weapon as soon as it was necessary, effortlessly neutralizing Zimri and Cozbi's brazenness, but allowing no collateral damage.
Pinchas earns the brit shalom because he understood that sometimes peace is achieved through violence, but this bloodshed is never glorious, and should always be confined. And because he was willing to risk his own innocence and his own purity to bring atonement for thousands of others, פנחס בן אלעזר בן אהרון הכהן was most deserving of eternal כהונה:
(יג) וְהָ֤יְתָה לּוֹ֙ וּלְזַרְע֣וֹ אַחֲרָ֔יו בְּרִ֖ית כְּהֻנַּ֣ת עוֹלָ֑ם תַּ֗חַת אֲשֶׁ֤ר קִנֵּא֙ לֵֽאלֹהָ֔יו וַיְכַפֵּ֖ר עַל־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
(13) It shall be for him and his descendants after him a pact of priesthood for all time, because he took impassioned action for his God, thus making expiation for the Israelites.’”