Do Not Rejoice When Your
At the end of Parshat Balak (Bamidbar 25 :7-8), in the midst
of a plague which was brought about from B’nai Yisrael acting promiscuous and
worshipping idols with the Moavite women, Pinchas, the son of Elazar, the
grandson of Aharon the Kohen saw the leader of the tribe of Shimon and the
daughter of the king of Midian acting promiscuously. Pinchas rose up, took a
spear in his hand, followed the Israelite man into the tent and pierced them both…and
the plague was halted from upon B’nai Yisrael.
At the beginning of Parshat Pinchas we read (Bamidbar
25:10-13): “God spoke to Moshe saying: ‘Pinchas, the son of Elazar, the son of
Aharon the Kohen turned back my anger from upon B’nai Yisrael, when he
zealously avenged My vengeance among them, so that I did not consume B’nai
Yisrael with My vengeance. Therefore tell him that I give him My covenant of
peace. It shall be for him and his descendents after him a covenant of eternal
kehunah (priesthood) because he took vengeance for his God and he atoned for
B’nai Yisrael.’”
Nechama Leibowitz points out that the Rabbis of the
Jerusalem Talmud state that the religious leaders at the time were not happy
with what Pinchas did and wanted to excommunicate him. Therefore God
immediately declared that Pinchas did the right thing.
According to Rabbi Baruch Epstein, author of Torah Temima,
the religious leaders wanted to make sure that Pinchas did not have a selfish
motive when he murdered the couple. God therefore backed up Pinchas and said
that his zeal was genuine.
Rav Kook explains that when it was time to write the
blessing V’Limalshinim (Against Heritics) for the Shmoneh Esrei they needed to
choose a Talmudic sage who loved his fellow creatures rather than a hateful
person in order to insure that it would be written with the purest of motives
and for the sake of Heaven as it is a blessing of vengeance: “And for the
slanderers let there be no hope; and may all wickedness perish in an instant;
and may all Your enemies be cut down speedily. My you speedily uproot, smash,
cast down and humble the wanton sinners- speedily in our days. Blessed are You
God Who breaks enemies and humbles wanton sinners.”
The person who was chosen to write the blessing was the
Talmudic sage known as Shmuel HaKatan (Shmuel the Modest) who teaches in Pirkei
Avot 4:19 a quote from Mishlei 24:17-18: “Rejoice not when your enemy falls and
let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord see it and it
displeases Him and He turn away His wrath from him.”
Pinchas and Shmuel HaKatan were not looking for honor, they
were selfless people who did what they needed to for the sake of Heaven.
The Jewish people today still follow the words of Mishlei
that are quoted by Shmuel HaKatan. We do not rejoice at the downfall of our
enemies. At the Pesach seder we remove a drop of wine as we recite each plague
to remember that even after all of the horrible things that the Egyptians did
to us, we do not rejoice at their downfall. When our enemies die or are killed
in wars we do not celebrate. The IDF continues to try to keep the casualties of
war to a minimum. We are not looking to celebrate the downfall of those who
want to destroy us, we are just trying to protect ourselves.
God gives Pinchas a covenant of peace. According to
Abravanel, God protects Pinchas from the relatives of Zimri who may want to
kill him as an act of revenge.
According to the Netziv, the covenant of peace is that
Pinchas should not become quick tempered and angry. His heart should not be in
an emotional unrest after having killed two people, rather he should have peace
and tranquility of the soul.
We pray for peace in the
