Matos Masei 2021
Isaac’s Parsha Corner · 2021
Matos concludes the story of Midyan. “And G-d said unto Moshe, ‘Avenge the vengeance of the Jews from the Midyanites. Take from your midst men for the army, a thousand from each tribe.’ And Moshe sent them, a thousand from each tribe for the army along with Pinchas son of Elazar the Kohen for the army and the holy vessels and the horns in his hand. And they attacked Midyan, as G-d had commanded Moshe so to do, and they killed all the males. And they killed the five Midyanite Kings and also Bilam (was killed) by the sword. .”(Num 31:1-8) “Behold they (the women of Midyan) were the actors in the plot against the Children of Israel that was orchestrated by Bilam to create strife against G-d in the matter of Peor.”(Num 31:16) The war, if you could call it that, was absolute and total. What Midyan had done was unforgivable and resulted in the total annihilation of their people! Unfortunately we don’t have a record in the Chumash of any national wrongdoing! We know that the elders of Midyan advised Bilam on the matter of the attempted curses. But we also know that was a failure. In fact the curses became blessings! The five Kings were named by the Midrash for paying Bilam’s consulting fee for the daughters of Moab. The one actual incident which involved a Midyanite woman was with Kazbi the daughter of the king of Midyan. However that event was resolved by Pinchas and his spear! Rashi attempts to answer this difficulty saying as follows, “The Moabites were forgiven because they were fearful lest the Jews take their land.” The Midyanites were just haters of G-d and of his people. Midyan was a sort of blood brother to Amalek. The problem with this analysis is that Midyan was situated on the east bank adjacent to Moab so they had plenty to fear just like Moab. The Ramban explains that G-d wanted to give Moshe a sense of the upcoming battles in mainland Canaan wherein the populations were similarly wiped out entirely. It is a strange explanation and probably wasn’t meant to be taken literally. The Midrash Lekach Tov suggests that it’s worse to cause spiritual harm than to cause physical harm. The Midyanites were punished extra severely on account of their causing the Jewish people’s descent from holiness through sexual depravity down to idol worship. The explanation ignores the culpability of the Jews. They weren’t coerced to either sleep with daughters of Moab or Midyan and they were not coerced into idol worship.
Pinchas’ was involved at the beginning and at the end of the war with Midyan. As G-d’s personal emissary and zealot he killed Zimri and Kazbi in a very public and explicit manor. According to Rashi, quoting the Midrash, Pinchas was called on to lead the war against Midyan because he started it by killing Kazbi and therefore he should finish it. There is some dispute as to what his role was in the war, Ramban states that he acted as the “Mashuach Milchama”, the “anointed one for war”. Prior to his act of Zealotry his role was somewhat unclear. Rashi and others claim that somehow Pinchas missed the first calling to the priesthood. Instead he received his ordination directly from G-d as a result of his zealotry. I suggest that Pinchas received the covenant of peace because a Priest who kills someone normally becomes disqualified to the priesthood. “Kohen sheharag et hanefesh lo yisa et capav” A priest who kills a person shall not raise his hands to bless the people. Instead he became the Anointed Priest of War. It was a fitting role for Pinchas the Zealot, the Priest of war. The entire war against the Midyanite people is now looked upon as a war of Zealotry. The warriors were chosen directly by G-d via a lottery. They were led by a zealot in a war on behalf of G-d and in His honor.
Dedicated to the memory of Joel Shulman A’H