THE COVENANT OF PEACE

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning how to dance in the rain". 

Is life worth living? It all depends on the the one who is living. 

It is with this idea in mind that I,turn my attention to a most enigmatic biblical personality, Pinchas. 

Here is Pinchas faced with a very devastating moral delemna as he observes an Israelite having intimate relations with a Midianite woman, in front of the entire Jewish People. Pinchas observes this dastardly act and realize that no one is stepping  up to the plate and he jumps into the fray and acts with a most zealous fashion to rid the people of such a forbidden act and thrusts his spear and kills them both, savings so many Jewish lives who would have perished in a horrifying Makefah. 

  Hashem is so grateful for Pichas' action and as a reward הנני נותן לו בריתי שלום "I hereby give him My covenant of peace". 

   There are many questions, that are presented in face of the action that Pinchas took at such a crucial time in biblical history. At the outset it seems that what Pinchas did was not only justified, but reading how Hashem rewarded him, his act was truly praiseworthy. For with this zealot act he saved the Jewish people from being totally annihilated. It seems that G-D appreciated the action taken by Pinchas, for He rewards him with the Covenant of Peace and the Kehunah for everlasting time. 

    In fact there is an interesting Midrash that points out that the word בריתי שלום, the word שלום, is written as a vav katurah, a split vav, a sort of dissected letter Vav. Why did the Torah write it this was you may ask? The Midrash is trying to tell us, that indeed Pinchas action may have brought some kind of peace, but sorely it was a flawed peace. True there are times that a violent act may assuage a horrendous situation, but it often only brings about a flawed peace. True peace has to be negotiated initially and only when that does not work then we may need to solve the problem in a zealot fashion, as Pinchas did, and to be sure G-D rewarded him with the ברית שלום, a Bris of Shlamut. 

  In fact the Nesiv, warns us that any act of killing, even  for a proper cause can lead one down the path of violence in his future acts, and this cannot and must not be tolerated. One must never get used to violence. 

   Golds Meir said it well, "“We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children". 

    A sense of humanity seems to be lost when ,even for the most lifesaving reason requires us to act in a violent way. This was the message says the Netsiv, for G-D bestowing the blessing of peace on Pinchas, a message for man to remain gentle and peaceful,in his dealings with humanity. 

   הי יברך את עמו בשלום, May G-d not only Bless us with peace, but more so to live within ourselves in peace.