Pinehas: We have to go to war in order to keep the peace

By Rabbi Alan Yuter
Posted Wednesday, August 2, 2006 • Modified Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Pinehas was a hot-blooded, passionate priest. He believed that wrong had no rights. The ethic of Israel was compromised by the copulation, in public, of the Israelite and Midianite elite. In Torah, intermarriage is a sin, public fornication is a sin, and in the Canaanite context, a moral danger to the Israelite ethos. In Near Eastern paganism, the "holy marriage of the gods" was celebrated by the copulation of the king and the female priestess. Professor Ze'ev Falk hypothesized that the exclusion of females from Israelite cult was a response to the immorality of the pagan environment. In modern context, the heroes of Hollywood are allowed a free-living license that is not permitted to and too expensive for most Americans.

In Torah tradition, adultery is a more grievous wrong than theft. But on TV, adultery is called "fooling around," taking the act to be less than serious or sinful, but theft is a breach of trust. In ancient Egypt, the gods and the Pharaohs were allowed a license denied to the masses. And affluent Orthodox philanderers have been known to purify their reputation with well-aimed philanthropy. Magnates know where to find prostitutes, fraud on the highest level is justified because the ill-gotten gains often find themselves in the redeeming accounts of kosher coffers. And rabbis, whose salaries are paid from this largesse, find their moral outrage silenced or channeled to really serious sins, like social dancing, talking during prayers, and coming to the synagogue without a coat or jacket.

Consider Jericho. Its walls fell with the sound of the trumpet. There is no miracle here, but there is here good physics and better theology. In the city wall lived a prostitute, whose name, Rahab, means "wide." Her open door opened to the outside of the wall so that this woman, on the tolerated margins of society, could service her clients neatly, discretely, and furtively. This woman who, as the narrative relates, was without husband, does not tattle on her clients because she is a professional. Unlike her clients, she does live by a professional code and work ethic. It is her exploitation that ironically laid the groundwork for the falling of the Jericho walls. By tolerating a humanly constructed social decay, a booming brothel at the city border, Jericho's moral decay undermined its self-imposed physical decay. By hollowing the city wall, Jericho undermined with its immorality its own security. The trumpets of God announced that a city wall that is weakened with immorality cannot withstand the scrutiny of the morally scrupulous.

Anticipating the immorality of Jericho, Pinehas stops God's anger by stopping public immorality. Ancient Israel's religious ethic took sins of sex seriously. As now, most Israelites were unhappy with the immoral and sacrilegious copulation, but did, said, and expressed nothing. To preserve Israel's preservative moral fiber, Pinehas killed the offenders of public morality and, for a reward, was given a "Covenant of Peace," what has come to be known as "Berit Shalom."

I am not suggesting that the Jewish community now engage in a jihad against adulterers. The ancient rabbis were troubled by the vigilante precedent that Pinehas had sent. But the core message, that the religious conscience ought not to be silenced by the tyranny of convention, remains.

There is a gross immorality today in the Middle East. Israel begs for peace with its neighbors. Even nations now at official, but cold peace, object when Israel defends itself against attack. Withdrawing from Gaza was mistaken by some as an act of weakness. The Olmert administration acted with foresight and courage. A Jewish state defines itself with a permanent Jewish majority, which cannot be destroyed at the polls anymore than on the battlefield. Gazan Palestinians argue that they will not negotiate peace with Israel. Indeed, this government happily—foolishly—declares that it is at war with the "Zionist entity." Hence, it has the moral right to lob lethal projectiles into Israel and to kidnap its citizens. And they wonder why Israel insists on the right of self-defensive.

Like the Israeli War of Independence, Israel fought when attacked and won. The Arabs call this the Naqba, which was brought on by misplaced hubris. And now the Iranian supported Hizbolleh have kidnapped Israelis in Lebanon and Olmert proclaims that Lebanon will be degraded 20 years if its kidnapped soldiers are not returned. Given Russia's response to Chechnya and America's response to 9/11, the world that stood silent during WW II must realize that in order to enjoy a covenant of peace, the wrongs committed in the name of false religion, a religion that wants to take down the West as it took down the Twin Towers, must be met with uncompromising, resolute and overwhelming force.

Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik wrote that Jewish blood is not cheap. The Midianite assault used adultery to accomplish idolatry. The Islamists who pray to the "beneficent and merciful, irRahman irRahim, give no mercy and therefore will be shown no mercy.
King Solomon taught that there is a time for war and a time for peace. The way to peace here, sadly, in this imperfect world, is war. And it is a war we dare not lose.

B'nai Israel Congregation  • 27 Lloyd Street • Baltimore, MD 21202 • 410-732-5454 • Fax 410-732-4850