search
Naomi Graetz

A Fearless Woman vs. A Testosteronic Male: Parshat Pinchas

I am always amazed at how the weekly parsha is in tune with what is happening in the world.  A few weeks ago, I suggested that if God Almighty spoke to President Biden, he might step down, just like Moses; and sure enough this week he has, just when Moses is told that he will not enter the promised land at the end of our parsha.  Our parsha begins with a note of violence and lots of testosterone. And no, I have not misspelled my title: “testosteronic” is an adjective related to aggressive masculinity. And this week’s parshat Pinchas ends with a major win for woman’s rights.  Let us hope that this will also be predictive of our future.

PINCHAS IN ACTION

In last week’s parsha, Pinchas, Moses’s grand-nephew acted with disproportionate force, or should we say overkill, when he saw the Israelites whoring with the daughters of Moab, and sacrificing to their god (baal peor).  God told Moses to impale all the chiefs of Israel so that God’s wrath would turn away from Israel. Moses told the judges of Israel to kill only the men who were actually worshipping the foreign Gods. But before this could happen, an Israelite man suddenly appeared and brought a Midianite woman right before the eyes of Moses and the entire community, whose reaction was to weep and wring their hands.

When Pinchas, son of Elazar son of Aaron the priest, saw this, he arose from the assembly and took a spear in his hand, and followed the Israelite into the chamber and stabbed both of them, the Israelite and the woman, through her belly. Then the plague against the Israelites was checked (Numbers 25:7-8).

GOD REWARDS PINCHAS

In this week’s parsha, Pinchas is rewarded by God and He tells Moses:

 “Pinchas son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest turned away My wrath from the Israelites by acting zealously for My zealotry in their midst, so that I did not wipe out the Israelites through my zeal. Therefore say: ‘I hereby grant him My Covenant of Peace. And it shall be for him and for his descendants after him a covenant of Eternal Priesthood because of his acting zealously for his God and atoning for the Israelites” (Numbers 25: 11-13).

We now find out that the Israelite man was Zimri, the son of a chieftain from the house of Simeon. And the Midianite woman was Cozbi, the daughter of a Midianite chieftain. Not only did God reward Pinchas with the covenant of peace and perpetual priesthood, but God told Moses that from now on the Midianites would be the enemy and pre-emptive attacks on them would be allowed because:

they have been foes to you through their wiles that they practiced upon you in the matter of Peor and in the matter of Cozbi daughter of the chieftain of Midian, their kinswoman, who was struck down on the day of the scourge over the matter of Peor” (Numbers 25:18).

There is some irony is this story. If we recall Moses, married Tziporah who was the daughter of Yitro, a Midianite priest who has a whole parsha named for him. Not only was he NOT a Baal worshipper, but Yitro spoke positively of the monotheistic God of Israel. In the period, towards the end of wandering in the wilderness, when the reality of the imminent entry into the land of Canaan is in the background, leadership has changed and with it perhaps a new ideology which involves hatred of neighbors and fear of the other and their Gods. The new generation who runs things (with God’s approval) praise zealotry in the name of God and gets rewarded for violent acts. This ancient “new” reality is similar to what we are facing in modern day Israel as well as in the U.S. In Israel this attitude is being stirred up by the Ben Gvirs and Smotriches among us and in the States, by followers of the Republican candidate for president.

FIVE DAUGHTERS: MAHLAH, NOAH, HOGLAH, MILCAH, AND TIRZAH

To counter all this testosterone we have a group of women who are not willing to have their rights taken away. These women, the five daughters of Zelophad appear towards the end of our parsha:

The daughters of Zelophehad, of Manassite family—son of Hepher son of Gilead son of Machir son of Manasseh son of Joseph—came forward. The names of the daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. They stood before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the chieftains, and the whole assembly, at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and they said, “Our father died in the wilderness. He was not one of the faction, Korah’s faction, which banded together against יהוה, but died for his own sin; and he has left no sons. Let not our father’s name be lost to his clan just because he had no son! Give us a holding among our father’s kinsmen!” Moses brought their case before יהוה. And יהוה said to Moses, “The plea of Zelophehad’s daughters is just: you should give them a hereditary holding among their father’s kinsmen; transfer their father’s share to them. “Further, speak to the Israelite people as follows: ‘If a householder dies without leaving a son, you shall transfer his property to his daughter. If he has no daughter, you shall assign his property to his brothers. If he has no brothers, you shall assign his property to his father’s brothers. If his father had no brothers, you shall assign his property to his nearest relative in his own clan, who shall inherit it.’ This shall be the law of procedure for the Israelites, in accordance with יהוה’s command to Moses” (Numbers 27: 1-11).

WHAT WOMEN CAN DO WHEN THEY UNITE FOR A CAUSE

The case of five women united together, standing up for their rights, takes place at the end of Moses reign, for after this important precedent for woman’s rights, God tells Moses to  “Ascend these heights of Abarim and view the land that I have given to the Israelite people. When you have seen it, you too shall be gathered to your kin, just as your brother Aaron was“ (vs 12-13). But Moses, like President Biden is concerned and he tells God that he should “appoint someone over the community who shall go out before them and come in before them, and who shall take them out and bring them in, so that יהוה’s community may not be like sheep that have no shepherd” (vs 16-17). And God tells him to “Single out Joshua son of Nun, an inspired man, and …invest him with some of your authority, so that the whole Israelite community may obey” (vss 18-21). And this is exactly what Joe Biden did, when he singled out his Vice President, who happens to be a black, Asian woman,  to carry on the torch for the future. And just like the five daughters who won their case against the patriarchal society, Kamala Harris has a good chance of winning.  Why? Because, she has youth on her side; her opponent is a good twenty years older than she is; she is smart, she is a professional prosecutor; she has momentum on her side; she is a serious contender. She radiates composure and calm and even her smile makes one feel good. She is the perfect foil to the corrupt Trump who radiates ferocity. She represents the future, not the past! She hopefully, will take a page from this week’s parsha and will stand up against him, and even in an “unladylike” fashion will counter-attack him for being the lawbreaking bullying felon that he is. Her record as a prosecutor suggests that she has the knowhow to do this. And the fact that she is the chosen heir of the departing president should certainly help.  Let us hope Kamala Harris will be as fearless as the testosteronic male she is challenging and save America from its descent into totalitarianism.

HAFTARAH: ELIJAH VS. JEZEBEL (1 Kings 18:46-19:21)

The haftarah echoes some of the themes in this week’s parsha.  The obvious one has to do with the zealotry of Pinchas and Elijah in prosecuting those who are perceived to be enemies of God.  In the haftarah, God makes clear to Elijah that he is not the bombastic God, but rather to be found in the small still voice:

There was a great and mighty wind, splitting mountains and shattering rocks by GOD’s power; but GOD was not in the wind. After the wind—an earthquake; but GOD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake—fire; but GOD was not in the fire. And after the fire—a soft murmuring sound (1 Kings 19:11-12) .

Like the republican candidate, Elijah fears strong women. He would like to totally obliterate them. He singles out Jezebel as the symbol of what is wrong in society and prophesizes bombastically her bitter end: dogs will lick her blood and nothing will remain of her–she will be dung spread throughout the land:

It is just as GOD spoke through Elijah the Tishbite—God’s servant: The dogs shall devour the flesh of Jezebel in the field of Jezreel; and the carcass of Jezebel shall be like dung on the ground, in the field of Jezreel, so that none will be able to say: “This was Jezebel” (2 Kings 9:36-37).

God tells Elijah that it is time to let go—to both choose a new king and also to choose a new prophet to replace him, one who will have a different style—one that is not one of rage and zealotry, but one with a softer, more human touch, namely Elisha, who carries out Elijah’s mandates. Unfortunately, Elijah only knows how to serve God with rage and histrionics and so he must leave the scene. The haftarah points to both a need for change and makes it clear that zealotry is dangerous. Unfortunately, the image of Elijah, off in his chariot, suggests that zealotry is never too far away and that we should never let our guard down against the ever-present danger in our midst of those who see themselves above the law and who use the name of God to justify their illegal actions.

About the Author
Naomi Graetz taught English at Ben Gurion University of the Negev for 35 years. She is the author of Unlocking the Garden: A Feminist Jewish Look at the Bible, Midrash and God; The Rabbi’s Wife Plays at Murder ; S/He Created Them: Feminist Retellings of Biblical Stories (Professional Press, 1993; second edition Gorgias Press, 2003), Silence is Deadly: Judaism Confronts Wifebeating and Forty Years of Being a Feminist Jew. Since Covid began, she has been teaching Bible and Modern Midrash from a feminist perspective on zoom. She began her weekly blog for TOI in June 2022. Her book on Wifebeating has been translated into Hebrew and is forthcoming with Carmel Press in 2025.
Related Topics
Related Posts