Pinehas: Human Rights and the rejoining the human family

By Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom on July 18, 2008 - ט"ו תמוז תשס"ח

I am moved by zeal for the Lord, the God of Hosts, for the Israelites have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and put your prophets to the sword. I alone am left, and they are out to take my life.

‘Come out’, He called, ‘and stand on the mountain before the Lord.’

And lo, the Lord passed by. There was a great and mighty wind, splitting mountains and shattering rocks by the power of the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, a soft murmuring sound.

When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his mantle about his face and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then a voice addressed him: ‘Why are you here, Elijah?’ He answered, ‘I am moved by zeal for the Lord, the God of Hosts, for the Israelites have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and put your prophets to the sword. I alone am left, and they are out to take my life.’

The Lord said to him, ‘Go back…and anoint Elisha, son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet

(I Kings 19:10-16, new JPS translation)

Jewish tradition attaches this famous passage as a haftarah to Pinhas, this week’s Torah reading (Numbers 25-29), to amplify and contrast to its themes of zealotry and succession. The narrative gives a clear explanation why Moses cannot lead any longer — he and Aaron have disobeyed God’s command (27:14) — but in the case of Elijah, there is only a hint: after God appears to him in “a soft, murmuring sound,” Elijah repeats his lament; he hasn’t learned a thing.

As in the case of other haftarot, passages from the Prophets attached to the Torah reading, much is to be gained by going back and reading this excerpt in context. While Elijah complains of the violence of others, he somehow does not mention that he himself had just slaughtered 450 (or perhaps 850) idolators (I Kings 18:40). And after the theophany, Elijah is still obsessed with their violence, and, once again omits his own; he remains alienated from the human family, and only reinforces his loneliness.

Today, as the liturgy recycles this biblical story, we don’t have to strain to find its contemporary relevance. God and Country demand that we join the Goldwasser and Regev families as they mourn for Udi and Eldad, and raise a cry of outrage that their remains were kept for over two years ; but how sad and disgraceful is it that only now can hundreds of Lebanese families finally receive the remains of their beloved and bury them.

Elijah, who cannot confess his own violence, seeks to perpetuate it: “Whoever escapes the sword of Hazael shall be slain by Jehu, and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu will be slain by Elisha (19:17)”. Elisha, however, does not shed blood, and does not join the company of Elijah, Samuel and Moses as prophets “with blood on their hands.” Is it too much of a dream, no, a demand, that our leaders abandon the terrible loneliness of Pinhas and Elijah and rejoin the human family?

Rabbis for Human Rights recommends that you read these articles in Pinehas

Pinehas: Human Rights and the rejoining the human family - July 18th, 2008
Dvar Torah – Parashat Pinchas - July 8th, 2007
Pinehas: Fanaticism and peace between man and his neighbor and between the nation and God. - July 13th, 2006
Pinehas: Conflict of Human Rights values that are sometimes mutually exclusive - July 22nd, 2005

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