Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Pinchas Numbers 25:10-30:1

By Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel - “And the name of the Israelite man who was struck…was Zimri Ben Salu, prince of the tribe of Shimon” (Numbers 25:14).

This week’s Torah portion opens by identifying the names of the two individuals, an Israelite prince and a Midianite princess, whom Pinchas the Kohen pierced by the sword while they were in the midst of an act of public copulation at the conclusion of last week’s Torah reading. But why conclude the portion of Balak with the initial story of this flagrant violation of the Biblical code of morality and the maintenance of Israelite purity? Why not place it at the beginning of this week’s reading of Pinchas, since Pinchas was the hero who punished the transgression, since their names are identified in this week’s reading and since their desecration seemingly has nothing to do with the prophecies of Balaam, the topic of the portion of Balak?

To add to our perplexity, why is Balaam, the Gentile Prophet, known by our Sages as Balaam, the wicked? After all, although he may have come to curse Israel, he stayed to praise Israel, and with a declaration which opens our daily prayers: “How goodly are your tents oh Jacob, your dwelling places oh Israel”. He is the main Biblical source for our messianic vision, “A star (kochav) will step forth from Jacob and a comet will rise from Israel, he will destroy the last remainders of Moab and will trample all of the proud despots. Edom will be his inheritance, Seir his enemy, will be his inheritance and Israel will do valiantly.. (Numbers 24: 17-19) He seems to have been an enemy who was turned into a friend and an admirer, he should be seen as a penitent rather than a tyrant!

And to add fuel to this fiery question, Balaam’s messianic vision - which we’ve just cited, which is quoted by Maimonides at the end of his laws of Kings, and which was the basis of Bar Koziba’s name change to Bar Kochba (son of a star) when he emerged as Rabbi Akiba’s messiah in the battle against Rome, is interpreted by the Sages of the Talmud as the source for Balaam’s wicked design and the precursor to the heinous crime committed by Zimri together with Kozbi: “And now that I (Balaam) am about to return to my nation, come and I shall advise you…as to the end of the days… I see it but not now, I view it but not from near, a star shall come forth from Jacob… (Numbers 24:14,17). Our Talmudic Sages maintain that the advice of Balaam was for Moabite and Midianite women to tempt Israelite men, precisely the advice which led to the closing incident of the Torah portion of Balak: “And Israel dwelt in Shitim (from ‘shtut’ or foolishness), and the nation began to whore after the daughters of Moab…and a man from among the children of Israel, and he brought a Midianite woman to his brethren in front of Moses and in front of the entire congregation of Israel..? (Numbers 25:1-8). Why take a majestic messianic prophecy and arbitrarily turn it into an insidiously hateful plot to destroy Israel from within?

Two fascinating interpretations provided me with the Yonatan Ben Uziel, in his Aramaic translation-interpretation of the Bible, identifies Balaam as “Laban the Aramean who wished to swallow up the nation of the House of Israel. Balaam was either Laban himself, Laban’s re-incarnation, or Laban’s prototypical descendent. And Rav Mordecai Allon cites a commentary by Rabbi Abraham Azulai, the grandfather of the Hida in his novel, “Hesed L’Avraham”, that the soul of Rabbi Akiba (no less!) was the tikkun or repair for Zimri Ben Salu, the Simzonite Prince who publicly consorted with the Midianite Kozbi. Balaam, just as Laban before him, understood that Israel could never be vanquished by external enemies - as long as we remained steadfast to our traditions and values. Laban was even worse than Pharoah, teaches the author of the Passover Haggadah, because by attempting to assimilate Father Jacob and prevent him and his family from returning to the ancestral home in Israel- he had sought to eradicate Judaism completely. The fact that the Torah portion of Balak concludes with the influx of Moabite and Midianite women to the camp of Israel right after Balaam has given his “messianic” advice and returns home, suggests to the Talmudic Sages (Pesahim 106a) that he had advised the Gentiles to seduce Israel; one form of messianism is to unite the world by assimilating Israel into Gentile-dom by freely intermarrying and inter-culturating.”

Rabbi Akiva, it is true, was the great proponent of Messianism; he was the spirit behind Bar Kochba’s rebellion against Rome, but Rabbi Akiba also taught, “This is the great law of the Torah: Love your neighbor as yourself.” We must love everyone, but first we must love and be proud of ourselves. Outreach to others is a wonderful and most noble quality, but only from the backdrop of profound understanding of and appreciation for our own history, traditions and values. Under these conditions, if there will be assimilation, the Gentile world will become assimilated into ours- at least to the extent of their acceptance of the Seven Noahide Laws of morality and at least Jews will not be accepting other lifestyles by default-because they are ignorant of their own treasure trove, have nothing to offer in an encounter with another civilization. Indeed, when we know and love ourselves and our traditions, the true redemptive Messianism of “From Zion shall come forth Torah and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” will replace the false assimilationist Messianism of Laban and Zimri.