Parashat HaShavua 5785: Pinchas

(1) While Israel was staying at Shittim, the menfolk profaned themselves through sexual promiscuity with the Moabite women, (2) who invited the menfolk to the sacrifices for their god. The menfolk partook of them and worshiped that god.

(6) Just then a certain Israelite man came and brought a Midianite woman over to his companions, in the sight of Moses and of the whole Israelite community who were weeping at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.

(3) Moab was alarmed because that people was so numerous. Moab dreaded the Israelites, (4) and Moab said to the elders of Midian, “Now this horde will lick clean all that is about us as an ox licks up the grass of the field.” Balak son of Zippor, who was king of Moab at that time, (5) sent messengers to Balaam son of Beor in Pethor, which is by the Euphrates, in the land of his kinsfolk, to invite him, saying, “There is a people that came out of Egypt; it hides the earth from view, and it is settled next to me. (6) Come then, put a curse upon this people for me, since they are too numerous for me; perhaps I can thus defeat them and drive them out of the land. For I know that whomever you bless is blessed indeed, and whomever you curse is cursed.” (7) The elders of Moab and the elders of Midian, versed in divination, set out. They came to Balaam and gave him Balak’s message.

(7) When Pinchas, son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, saw this, he left the assembly and, taking a spear in his hand, (8) he followed the Israelite man into the chamber and stabbed both of them, the Israelite man and the woman, through the belly. Then the plague against the Israelites was checked.

(14) The name of the Israelite man who was killed, the one who was killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri son of Salu, chieftain of the house of Shimon. (15) The name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Kozbi daughter of Zur; head of an ancestral house in Midian.

(17) “Harass the Midianites and attack them— (18) for they harassed you with their schemes by which they seduced you—because of the matter of Peor and because of the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a leader of Midian, their sister, who was killed on the day of the plague because of the matter of Peor.”

(4) Rabbi Shimon says; From where is it derived that one who causes a person to sin is worse than one who kills [a person]? It is because one who kills, kills in this world, but he has a share in the World to Come, but one who causes him to sin kills him in this world and in the World to Come. Two nations greeted Israel with the sword, and two with a transgression. The Egyptians and the Edomites greeted them with the sword – “The enemy said: I will pursue, I will overtake…I will draw my sword” (Exodus 15:9); “Edom said to him: You will not pass through me, lest I come out toward you with the sword” (Numbers 20:18). And two did so with transgression, the Amonites and the Moavites. Regarding those who greeted them with the sword, it is written: “You shall not despise an Edomite…you shall not despise an Egyptian” (Deuteronomy 23:8). However, regarding those who greeted them with transgression to cause Israel to sin: “An Amonite or a Moavite shall not enter…even the tenth generation…” (Deuteronomy 23:4).

צרור — This grammatical form is similar to זכור and שמור: it expresses the idea of continuous present action — You must [constantly] show enmity toward them.

צרור את המדינים, “Harass the Midianites!” On the one hand, the word צרור is in the singular mode, whereas the word following i.e. והכיתם is in the plural mode. This is a hint to Moses that seeing he will give the necessary orders and select the soldiers that campaign will be credited to him, although, naturally it would require quite a few people to wage the actual war. The reason why Moses, personally, should not go with those soldiers is the fact that he had been raised and given refuge in Midian and the hand that had been fed by the Midianites should not now turn and bite that hand.

Similarly, "Kozbi, the daughter of a prince of Midian, their sister." Now was she their (Midian's) sister? Was [Tzur, her father] not "the head of the peoples of a father's house in Midian"? Why, then, "their sister'? — Because she risked her life for her people, they called her by this name.

(3) AND IN THE MATTER OF COZBI. Furthermore, they intend to harm you because of what happened to Cozbi their sister.

BY THEIR WILES. Be-nikhlehem (by their wiles) means by their evil thoughts. Be-nikhlehem is related to the word va-yitnakkelu (they conspired) in they conspired against him (Gen. 37:18).

(17) The man said, “They have gone from here, for I heard them say: Let us go to Dothan.” So Joseph followed his brothers and found them at Dothan. (18) They saw him from afar, and before he came close to them they conspired to kill him.

(1) בנכליהם אשר נכלו לכם, “by their trickery they practiced against you.” This verse is proof that it was the elders of Midian who advised their Moabite partners to trick the Israelites into being promiscuous with their daughters.

Although Cosbi was not literally the daughter of the highest ranking Midianite, “their sister,” as stated in our verse, seeing that three verses previously she had been described as of lower rank, i.e. the daughter of Tzor, one of the princes of Midian, but not the highest one, the fact that she sacrificed her life for what she perceived as her highest patriotic duty, was the reason that she was accorded a higher rank here, as equivalent to being a leader of her nation.

ועל דבר כזבי בת נשיא מדין, “and because of the affair of Cozbi daughter of a Midianite prince.” The Torah could have written: “daughter of Tzur” as it had done in verse 15. In this verse the Torah wanted to place the emphasis on the word “Midianite,” seeing that it was the advice of the elders of Midian to send one of their princesses to lure the Israelites to commit harlotry with her.