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We are coming up on the first yahrtzeit of an Israeli scholar, political figure, and provocative columnist by the name of Meron Benveniste, z”l. In 1967, after the Six-Day War, Benveniste was serving as a special assistant to the mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek.
On the day after the cease fire, Kollek asked Benveniste to go into the Arab Quarter of the Old City and tell the local Arab residents that they were welcome to stay without fear of any reprisals or persecution. In accordance with those instructions, Benveniste set out for the Arab Quarter. As he was walking from house to house introducing himself, an elderly Arab man rushed out to greet him and gave him a present-- a partially burnt column of a Torah scroll. The man explained that back in 1948 he had seen his fellow Arab neighbors burning a Torah scroll that they had taken from a synagogue that had been ransacked in the Jewish Quarter. This man had stopped them and thereby preserved the Torah scroll before it could be fully burnt. Now years later he was presenting it to Benveniste as a gift in hopes of a better future and better relations between Jews and Arabs. Benvensite gratefully accepted the burnt fragment and later gave it to my friend as a wedding gift. It stands in a frame at the entrance to my friend’s house and underneath the frame is a caption that reads:
“Torah Scroll (early 19th century) Synagogue, Jewish Quarter, Jerusalem Desecrated, 1948 Fragments preserved and returned by an Arab resident, June 1967.”
The column of the Torah scroll that this Arab resident had saved from the embers of fire was our portion, parashat Pinchas.
Murder?
Background: Parashat Pinchas tells of the story of Pinchas’ response to the Israelites’ idol worship. A lot of them were worshipping Baal-Peor, and Hashem got really angry and said that all the leaders of each tribe should be killed as punishment. This made the Jews really upset, and they were crying a lot. Just then, a Jew named Zimri took a Midianite woman named Cozbi and went to worship Baal-Peor with her. Pinchas took a spear and went up to Zimri and Cozbi and stabbed them both through the stomach. In response, Hashem told Moshe that Pinchas calmed Hashem’s anger against the Jews. Therefore, Hashem wanted to give Pinchas a “brit shalom,” or covenant of peace. We don’t know what that means exactly. Here are some opinions:
Rashi: This was a covenant of peace, or a recognition of the fact that Pinchas had done something good for Hashem. The brit shalom was a way for Hashem to show gratitude to Pinchas.
Seforno: Brit shalom means protection from the angel of death, for we know that Pinchas lived way longer than everyone else. We know this because in the beginning of the Book of Shmuel, Pinchas is one of the kohanim in Shiloh. Yehoshua had died long before this time, which means that Pinchas lived an unusually long time.
Chizkuni: Brit shalom means that Pinchas didn’t have to worry that Zimri and Cozbi’s relatives would come and avenge their deaths (back then if someone killed another person, the dead person’s relatives were allowed to come and kill the killer.)
Netziv: As a reward for calming Hashem’s anger, Hashem blessed Pinchas that he would feel calm and peaceful for the rest of his life. Often after a person commits a crime they get more angry and agitated. Hashem blessed Pinchas that this wouldn’t happen to him and he would remain a calm person. Questions:
On a scale from 1-10 (1=criminal, 10=praiseworthy) how would you describe Pinchas’ actions according to each of these opinions?
If you had to explain this story to someone today who wasn’t familiar with it, how would you tell the story? Would you justify Pinchas’ actions?
