Parashat Pinchas 5781

Rashi on Numbers 25:8

IN HER STOMACH - He miraculously struck exactly at Zimri’s male and her female parts so that everyone could plainly perceive that he had not killed them without just cause. Many other miracles, too, were wrought for him, as is related there (Sanhedrin 82b).

Rashi on Numbers 25:11

PHINEAS THE SON OF ELEAZAR THE SON OF THE PRIEST — Because the tribes spoke disparagingly of him, saying, “Have you seen this grandson of Puti the father of whose mother used to calves for idolatrous sacrifices (see Exodus 6:25 that Eleazar his father had married a ( פטם) fatten daughter of Putiel who is identified with Jethro; see Rashi on that verse and Exodus 18:1), and he has dared to slay a prince of one of Israel’s tribes!”, therefore Scripture comes and connects his genealogy with Aaron (Sanhedrin 82b).

Rambam, Hilchot Issurei Biah 12:4-5

4) Whenever a man has relations with a gentile woman in public, i.e., the relations are carried out in the presence of ten or more Jews, if a zealous person strikes him and kills him, he is considered praiseworthy and ardent. [This applies whether the relations were] in the context of marriage or licentious in nature. This matter is a halachah conveyed to Moshe at Sinai. Support for this can be derived from Pinchas' slaying of Zimri.

5) The zealous person can strike [the fornicators] only at the time of relations, as was the case with the woman into her stomach." If, however, [the ו[regard to Zimri, as [Numbers 25:8] states: "[He pierced transgressor] withdraws,he should not be slain. Indeed, if [the zealous person] slays him, he may be executed [as a murderer].

If the zealous person comes to ask permission from the court to slay him, they do not instruct him [to], even if this takes place at the time [of relations]. Not only that, if the zealous person comes to kill the transgressor and he withdraws and kills the zealous person in order to save himself, the transgressor is not executed for killing him.

Ramban on Numbers 25:5

Or it may be [that he dared to do this publicly] because, as our Rabbis have said, [the people of] his tribe complained to him: “We are being sentenced to death, and you keep quiet!” Then [when Zimri came forth] and the judges began weeping, and stood up, and wrought judgment, and so the plague was stayed. Thus none of the people was [actually] sentenced by the judges, for G-d had said, and hang them up unto the Eternal in face of the sun, that the fierce anger of the Eternal may turn away from Israel, and His anger had already turned away [by the action of Phinehas, so that the judges no longer had to proceed with the execution of the judgment]. It is for this reason that Scripture does not say: “and the judges of Israel did so [as they had been commanded].”

It is possible that the intention of the text mentioned [above as to the number of men slain in this episode is not that they were actually killed, but means, as explained above], that according to [the strict] command [of G-d] there ought to have been more than one hundred and fifty thousand killed, meaning to say that there were many sinners, but the act of Phinehas protected them.

Deuteronomy 4:3-4

3) You saw with your own eyes what the LORD did in the matter of Baal-peor, that the LORD your God wiped out from among you every person who followed Baal-peor; 4) while you, who held fast to the LORD your God, are all alive today.

Daat Zekenim onNumbers 25:15

And the name of the woman who had been slain, etc,” the reason that the Torah bothered to name the woman in question was only in order to tell us that she was of the elite of the women in , and although Pinchas was aware of this, and the possible political implication of killing her, this did not stop him from acting zealously on behalf of Hashem, as he remembered that G–d said to Avraham, after he had killed four prominent kings in order to free his nephew Lot, that he should not be afraid of the relatives of those kings seeking revenge. (Genesis 15,1).

Midrash Tanchuma (Buber), 29

AN INSOLENT122 AND ARROGANT ONE, SCORNER IS HIS NAME; HE ACTS WITH ARROGANT WANTONNESS. Because was a king's daughter, she said to him: I am surrendering to no one but Moses or Eleazar. He said to her: I also am as great as they are, in that I bring you before their eyes. he seized her by her braid and brought her to Moses. He said to him: Son of Amram, is this woman permitted or forbidden? Now if you say that she is forbidden, this woman is a Midianite, the very woman who is under you (as your wife) is a Midianite; and who permitted you to have her? The ruling (halakhah) slipped from his mind. They all wept bitterly. That is what is written (in Numb. 25:6): AS THEY WERE WEEPING AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE TENT OF MEETING. Why were they weeping? Because they were discouraged for the time being.