The zealous leader: Parshat Pinchas

Abstract

Zeal is both a problem and a solution in this week’s Torah reading. As the book of Numbers inches to a close, a significant number of Israelites began to unravel morally. Men fornicated with Moabite women and worshiped foreign gods. The stresses of desert life and wilderness leadership were taxing. The encampment was on the brink of losing its spiritual core. God was angry and told Moses to rid the camp of the wrongdoers. Then, in midconversation to resolve the problem, Moses was stunned by an act that rang of complete zealotry and anarchy: “Just then a certain Israelite man came and brought a Midianite woman over to his companions, in the sight of Moses and of the whole Israelite community who were weeping at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting” (Num. 25:6).