Pinchas

From Violence to Nonviolence

Rabbi Laura Duhan Kaplan

While serving as a security guard at the mishkan (sanctuary), Pinchas murderously defends its sacred boundaries. God seems to respond to the violence by giving Pinchas a promotion: a special brit shalom and brit kehunat olam - a covenant of peace and an eternal covenant of priesthood. How can we, with a peacetime sense of Jewish ethics, understand God's response?

Staying within the peshat (the simple narrative) of the story, perhaps God worried that Pinchas was doing his policing job a little too well. Perhaps God was saying, "Okay, Pinchas, you're not really suited for security guard. How about we try priest?"

Moving to the level of derash (the moral of the story), perhaps the answer lies in a play on words. The name Pinchas can also be read as pen chas - lest you become angry. Perhaps the important message is not the fate of the character Pinchas, but the teaching that whenever we become angry, we need to remind ourselves of some of the basics of our Jewish covenant: we should be priests of peace in the world.

Finally, on the level of sode (hints to the Divine nature), perhaps the covenant of peace/priesthood was a reminder of the priests' role as a channel for the priestly blessing. The priestly blessing says, yisah HaShem panav elecha v'yasem licha shalom - May God lift the Divine face towards you and place upon you peace. Perhaps the face of God is the face of peace. When we allow ourselves to see this true face, we turn from violence to nonviolence.

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