מה חובתו בעולמו!

    ... And now for the weekly Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch dvar Torah.  Rav Hirsch interprets pesukim in novel ways, but he is often thought-provoking even when he repeats what we already know.  In that spirit:  

      It bears remembering – especially in our day and age when tolerance has become the greatest virtue imaginable (someone once observed that tolerance is 9/10 indifference) – that Pinchas received the “covenant of peace” from G-d for killing two people!  Indeed, not only did he receive this covenant; he and all his descendants for the rest of history merited  to become kohanim.  He also later “became” Eliyahu HaNavi (according to one opinion), the man who will usher in the era of Moshiach.

      Why did Pinchas merit all this?  Because he violently killed a man and woman sinning publicly.

      “It was not the inactive standing apart of the masses,” writes Rav Hirsch,” “it was not even the tears of those who stood inactive at the entrance of the Sanctuary weeping at the treason; it was the honest brave act of Pinchas that saved the nation and restored his peace with G-d and His law and thereby brought back the basis for real true peace on earth.”

      Love didn’t win the day.  Nor did tolerance.  Zealotry did.  Why?  Because if “a challenge to G-d finds no champion amongst a circle of human beings and the consciousness of the Rights that G-d has on them has disappeared from this circle, then they have lost G-d and thereby their own future existence” (which is why a plague started spreading among the Jews).

      I read this latter sentence several times when I came across it a few days ago.  It’s so much easier to stay at home and dismiss the world as crazy and unsalvageable.  But Rav Hirsch seems to be saying that we have to protest anyways.  Someone has to stand up for Hashem’s honor.  If a woman is gravely insulted, she will be hurt if her husband doesn’t at least make some attempt to defend her. The insult remains in her memory, but she takes great comfort in knowing that her husband stood by her. The Chofetz Chaim writes that Hashem acts in a similar manner.  If somebody attacks Him, He doesn’t get upset as long as His children – the Jewish people – defend Him.  If we don’t, He grows angry at us.

      We all love peace and harmony. But he “who, for the sake of so-called peace, quietly leave the field to people who are really at variance with G-d” stands “with the enemies of the bris shalom on earth” – since true peace between men “rests on the peace of all of them with G-d.”

      These are words to remember next time – to pick just one example – people try to organize a pride parade in Israel (or anywhere else).  It’s not everybody’s job to constantly fight and publicly defend Hashem’s honor.  But someone has to, and people in positions of power especially bear this obligation.

      Have a good Shabbos.