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The Passion of Pinchas and God's Prophetic People
A message for Shabbat Pinchas - July 7, 2006
July 7, 2007
Today is Shabbat Pinchas, when we read about this much respected figure in Torah history. Each of these Torah stories is like a jewel with many facets. There are multiple ways of looking at this story, multiple ways of receiving divine light through it. Today I would focus on one aspect of the story. . . . But first, let's read it together. (Read Number 25:1-18).
It would be exceedingly interesting to hand out this story to a representative sample of modern Americans and to ask people on a first impression basis if there is anything in the story that troubles them or upsets them. I think most people would name either the fact that Pinchas rose up and killed these two lovers, or that God ordered the Israelites to harass and smite the Midianites for what they had done.
Walter Danielson of San Diego sent a letter to the editor of the LA Times this week, expressing what this kind of opinion, which I would guess is the typical American reaction to a story like this. He was responding to a Times article about members of five religions who had met to discuss ways of promoting peace. Here is what he said:
Religion's dark side
July 5, 2007
Re "Leaders of 5 faiths decry violence in name of religion," June 30
The story regarding a meeting of five faiths to reconcile their differences merely points up the propensity of religious groups to ignore inhuman behavior in the name of religion and pontificate on the goodness of God. Their communique stated, "A blessing to all creation, religion is a constant reminder to humanity of the divine spark in every person." The statement goes on to decry how "horrific acts" are justified in the name of religion. When haven't horrible acts been justified in the name of religion?
Since the beginning of recorded time, evidence shows that religions have always performed horrible acts in the name of religion. Human sacrifices, animal sacrifices, wars, pillaging and ethnic cleansing are mostly events related to religious differences. Religions have always been a way for wily, hypocritical leaders using superstition to intimidate people and extort riches from them. The leaders of this five-faith group are no better.
It would not be hard to find people at any bus stop in Los Angeles, or on the line next to you at any supermarket, who would express similar opinions. Now, this is not going to be our topic for discussion today, but Mr Danielson's letter is factually worthless and in fact is more propaganda than anything else. Let's pass up the fact that he is reacting to a meeting of religious leaders seeking to promote peace -- something you would think he would celebrate. Beyond that he says that "religions have always performed horrible acts in the name of religion." Of course religions don't do anything of the sort -- it is people in the name of religion. And what really sinks his ship is this: In the past hundred years alone, far more people have been killed in the name of freedom, liberation, and equality than have been killed in all of recorded time in the name of religion. Just remember the Nazi era, the Communist revolution in the Former Soviet Union, the Chinese experience under Mao Tze Tung, and other wars of liberation, and it will become obvious that all religions are a picnic in the park compared to atheistic, or anti-religious philosophies of economic and social equality and liberation. So, if Mr Danielson were going to complain about anything, it should be about these things, and definitely not religion.
But this is not the focus of today's discussion. What is most telling here is what people do NOT get upset by. Could it not be that the most upsetting thing about this story is the oversexed idolatry that begins our story, and especially the chutzpah of Zimri and Cozbi. Right in the middle of God's judgment on the Israelites for their breaking of the first two commandments with the Midianites complete with orgies with their women, Zimri and Cozbi just waltz across the encampment to go into his tent and have at it. This probably does not upset us nowadays. Most of us are probably sympathetic with the young folks here. But when we are not bothered by Zimri's contemptuous action, we have to ask ourselves about our own values.
In fact the entire passage comes down to a matter of passion. Pinchas is celebrated in this story because of what he was passionate about--he was passionate about the honor of God -- he was zealous, or jealous, but really, best understood as passionate, about the honor of God, and about the things that mattered to God.
I am reminded of Paul (Sha'ul) the Apostle, in Acts 17:
"The brothers sent Sha'ul away at once to go down to the seacoast, while Sila and Timothy stayed behind. Sha'ul's escort went with him as far as Athens, then left with instructions for Sila and Timothy to come as quickly as they could. While Sha'ul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit within him was disturbed at the sight of the city full of idols."
The question I want to put before us all today is this: what disturbs your spirit? Are you bothered by the kinds of things that bother God? Especially, are you concerned with God's honor? When people show contempt for God and his ways, do you just sit there like most of the Israelite encampment did, because like them you are already co-opted, or do you rise up and do something and say something decisive and radical like Pinchas did? When the poor are being mistreated, when corruption is being tolerated, when God is being despised by people in your world, do you just sit there?
I am inviting us all today to examine our passions -- what gets you annoyed? Are we more bothered because people do not flatter us than we are by the way God and his ways are treated like a joke, or, as in Walter Danielson's case, treated like a blight and a disease?
Abraham J. Klausner 1915-2007
(Photos courtesy LA Times/Jerusalem Post)
This past week, the Times carried the obituary of a rabbi who exemplifies the passion of Pinchas -- passion for the things of God in a world where God and his ways are often despised. Rabbi Abraham Klausner was a thirty year old chaplain with the US Army who helped liberate Dachau in 1945. When he discovered the deplorable conditions Jews were living in after the liberation, with nowhere to go, no clothes for their backs, none of the normal dignities of life, and when he discovered how these supremely displaced persons were anxious to find any loved ones who had survived, he took it upon himself to contact the authorities, to press for reform in the living conditions of camp survivors, and to publish multiple books with the names of survivors of every camp, that family members might perhaps be reunited. Read his story here.
Ironically, the Superintendent at Arlington Cemetery has refused to let Rabbi Klausner be buried there, because he doesn't fulfill certain tight conditions for burial, despite his distinguished war-time service. However, Superintendent Metzler will allow his ashes to be inurned in the Columbarium at Arlington, something unacceptable for religious Jews, and painfully inappropriate for a man who devoted himself to redressing the obscenity of Hitler's crematoria. Read about the burial dispute here.
This is the kind of injustice we should rise up and protest. In fact, one of our UMJC Rabbis wrote this letter to the Superintendent, if not to reverse the injustice, at least to address it.
Dear Sir,
As one who follows proudly in the position once occupied by your well-respected father, you are no doubt zealous to protect the dignity of your position. This being the case, I believe you ill-serve his memory and your position through your adamant refusal on policy grounds to bury Rabbi Abraham Klausner at Arlington.
As a Rabbi, and also because of his unique relationship with Jews who lived and died in the shadow of Hitler's crematoria, your suggestion that the Rabbi's ashes be inurned in the Columbarium at Arlington has the unintended result of marking you as insensitive and unresponsive to a man of honor whose life was the very image of sensitivity to those without the power to speak for themselves.
In Jewish life, there is no good deed more meritorious than one done for the dead, who above all others, can never repay the doer of the deed. You have the opportunity to not only do right by Rabbi Klausner, but also to the name of your own father and the position you and he share, through publicly repudiating your earlier decision.
To fail to so act leaves a stain on you, your father, and Arlington which I know you would not knowingly leave indelible.
I have a favorite quotation from Ahad Ha'am, a Jewish thinker of about a century ago. Here is what he said, which relates so closely the kind of passion Pinchas and Rabbi Klausner exhibited:
"The Prophet is essentially a one-sided man.
A certain moral idea fills his whole being, masters his every feeling and sensation, engrosses his whole attention.
He can only see the world through the mirror of his idea; he desires nothing, strives for nothing except to make every phase of life around him an embodiment of that idea in its perfect form. . . .
His gaze is always fixed on what ought to be . . . never on what can be. . . .
Prophecy is the hallmark of the Hebrew national spirit."
(Ahad Ha'am, Prophetic Zionist thinker and essayist)
We need more prophets among us -- more people like Pinchas, who care about the things that matter to God -- people who will take action and say something when everyone else just sits there.
What about you? What about me? What about us?
Let me know your thoughts on our blog.
