I don’t often connect these little articles to the Torah portion, but this week we are reading Parashat Pinchas – the section of the Five Books of Moses named after the zealous priest Pinchas, the grandson of Aaron. Since this portion always falls during the summer, it doesn’t always get the attention it deserves.

The main action of the story actually happened in last week’s portion – the Israelites, on the verge of entering the Promised Land, are swept up in an idolatrous orgy, celebrating the god Ba’al-Peor with what appears to be ritual intercourse. This behaviour results in a plague, which only stops when Pinchas, Captain of the Levitical Guard, takes up his spear and executes a royal couple, a prince of the tribe of Shimon and a Midianite princess, who are engaged in that activity. That’s the end of the previous portion.

In this week’s portion, G-d tells Moses, who was completely paralysed during this episode, that Pinchas, who has saved the people by displaying his zealotry, will now be given “My covenant of Peace”. 

What does this mean? Is Pinchas being rewarded for his violence? Or is he maybe being put under a peace bond, to control his violent nature? Is zealotry admirable, or not? It is confusing.

The rabbis imagined that PInchas was reincarnated as Elijah the Prophet, also a violent, zealous figure in the Bible – but who evolved, in the Talmud, into the peace-bringing harbinger of the Messiah. We sing about him every week as we say goodbye to Shabbat. 

Does this mean that zealots can evolve into peaceable beings? The rabbis seem to have thought so – although Elijah/Pinchas keeps his fiery nature, he generally keeps it under control and helps bring peace into the world.

Let’s hope that the same can be true of the zealots and extremists who are trying their best to bring our world to a fiery end. May they all be given a covenant of peace, and may every human, everywhere, be blessed to live in peace, dignity and security.