Zealotry even when permitted is not allowed TB Sanhedrin 82-3

Even in our homeland the monotheistic Israelites/the Jewish people were always a minority surrounded by the majority of pagan countries. There was always a danger that the Jewish people would assimilate into the wider pagan world, adopt pagan religions, and disappear. The rabbis acknowledging this danger created high social walls to prevent the Jewish people from socializing with pagans. One of the high walls the rabbis created was an extrajudicial death penalty. “Mishna:… one who engages in intercourse with an Aramean woman, zealots strike him and kill him. Although the Torah does not say that one who performs one of these actions is liable to be executed, it is permitted for anyone who zealously takes the vengeance of the Lord to do so.” (Tb Sanhedrin 81b, Sefaria.org translation)

The most famous case of such an extrajudicial vigilantism concerns Pinkhas ben Eleazar ben Aharon, Zimri son of Salu from the tribe of Shimon, and Cozbi, daughter of Zur, princess of Midian.” Pinkhas spears Zimri and Cozbi in the act and kills them both.

The story in the Torah contains very sparse details.

While Israel was staying at Shittim, the menfolk profaned themselves by whoring with the Moabite women, who invited the menfolk to the sacrifices for their god. The menfolk partook of them and worshiped that god. Thus Israel attached itself to Baal-peor, and YHVH Pinkhas was incensed with Israel.

YHVH said to Moses, “Take all the ringleaders and have them publicly impaled before him YHVH, so that YHVH’s wrath may turn away from Israel.” So Moses said to Israel’s officials, “Each of you slay those of his men who attached themselves to Baal-peor.” 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

When Phinehas, son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, saw this, he left the assembly and, taking a spear in his hand, he followed the Israelite man into the chamber and stabbed both of them, the Israelite man and the woman, through the belly. Then the plague against the Israelites was checked. Those who died of the plague numbered twenty-four thousand. (Numbers 25:1-7)

Daf TB Sanhedrin 82 fills in all the sordid details. If you are interested, I suggest you go to the daf and read it. What interests me is how the rabbis distanced themselves and frowned upon this form of zealotry. “Rav Ḥisda says: Concerning one who comes to consult with the court when he sees a Jewish man engaging in intercourse with a gentile woman, the court does not instruct him that it is permitted to kill the transgressor. It was also stated that Rabba bar Ḥana says that Rabbi Yoḥanan says: Concerning one who comes to consult with the court, the court does not instruct him that it is permitted to kill the Jewish man engaging in intercourse with a gentile woman.

“Moreover, if Zimri son of Salu (see Numbers 25:1–9) had separated himself from the woman and only then Pinehas killed him, Pinehas would have been executed for killing him, because it is permitted for zealots to kill only while the transgressor is engaged in the act of intercourse. Furthermore, if Zimri would have turned and killed Pinehas in self-defense, he would not have been executed for killing him, as Pinehas was a pursuer. One is allowed to kill a pursuer in self-defense, provided that the pursued is not liable to be executed by the court.” (Sefaria.org translation)

I like to share with you a commentary below the line on Numbers 25:11 in the Humash Etz Hayyim.

Some postbiblical commentators, however, have been uncomfortable with the zealous vigilantism of Pinkhas, criticizing his fanaticism as a dangerous precedent. The Talmudic claims that, had Pinkhas asked the rabbinical court if it was permitted to kill Zimri and Cozbi, citing the halakhah to justify his request, the court would have told him: “The law may permitted but we do not follow the law! (BT Sanhedrin 82a). Moses of Coucy knows that although parashah ends with Pinkhas’s deed and the death of 24,000 Israelites (it is unusual for a parashah to end in such a negative note), Pinkhas’s reward is not proclaimed until the beginning of this parashah (Pinkhas-gg). This teaches us to never rush toward extremism. We are to wait until later this clarified whether the zealot’s intention was indeed pure.

In the text of the Torah scroll, the letter yod in Pinkhas’s name in the second verse (v 11) is written smaller than the other letters. When we commit violence, even if it is justifiable, the yod in us (standing for the name of God and for Yehudi, “Jew”) is diminished thereby. In verse 12 the letter vav in shalom in the Torah scroll is written with a break in a stem. This is interpreted, likely to suggest that this sort of peace achieved by destroying one’s opponent will inevitably be a flawed, incomplete peace.

Other commentators understand God’s granting the priesthood to Pinkhas and his descendants, not as a reward for his extremism but as an antidote for it. “He will have to cure himself of his violent temper if he is to function as a kohen (K’tav Sofer). This will protect Pinkhas from the destructive impulse within him. Perhaps serving as a Kohen will give him ways of atoning for having taken two lives. A person is never the same after he has shed blood, no matter how justifiable the cause. (Page 918)