(6) 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 the Tent of Meeting. (7) When Phinehas, son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, saw this, he left the assembly and, taking a spear in his hand, (8) 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. (9) Those who died of the plague numbered twenty-four thousand. (10) GOD spoke to Moses, saying, (11) “Phinehas, son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the Israelites by displaying among them his passion for Me, so that I did not wipe out the Israelite people in My passion. (12) Say, therefore, ‘I grant him My pact of friendship. (13) It shall be for him and his descendants after him a pact of priesthood for all time, because he took impassioned action for his God, thus making expiation for the Israelites.’”

בקנאו את קנאתי means “when he executed my vengeance” (more lit., when he avenged my avenging) — when he displayed the anger that I should have displayed. The expression קנאה always denotes glowing with anger to execute vengeance for a thing; in O. F. emportment (cf. Rashi on 11:29).

IN THAT HE WAS VERY JEALOUS FOR MY SAKE AMONG THEM. There is no dagesh in the nun of be-kano (in that he was very jealous) in order to simplify enunciation. It means that Phinehas was jealous like his creator. Scripture tells us that God is a jealous God (Ex. 20:5) when it comes to idolatry.

[SO THAT I CONSUMED NOT THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL IN MY JEALOUSY.] If Phinehas had not been jealous for My sake, then I would have destroyed all of Israel in My jealousy.

PHINEHAS, THE SON OF ELEAZAR. The Holy One, blessed be He, [here] informed Moses that He would give Phinehas a good reward for his zeal, because he was zealous for his G-d, and for the righteousness which he did for Israel by bringing about atonement for them, so that they did not all die in the plague. He [also] commanded Moses to tell Israel that he [Phinehas] would be a priest forever, and this is the sense of the phrase, Therefore say, that Moses was to tell this to Israel. Now Scripture does not say: “and it shall be unto him, and to his seed after him ‘an everlasting priesthood, ’” as He said about Aaron, but instead it says: ‘the covenant’ of an everlasting priesthood, and it [also] says, I give unto him ‘My covenant’ of peace, meaning that He will give him a covenant with peace cleaving to it, whereas in the case of Aaron it says for splendor and for beauty. Therefore it says [here concerning Phinehas]: because he was zealous for his G-d. The student learned [in the mysteries of the Cabala] will understand.
Scripture mentions, Now the name of the man of Israel that was slain;And the name of the Midianite woman that was slain, in order to indicate that [Phinehas] deserved this great reward because he killed a prince of Israel, and the daughter of a heathen king and [nonetheless] he feared them not in his zeal for his G-d. And after He had requited His good reward to the righteous one [Phinehas], He commanded Moses to punish the wicked ones, and He told him, Harass the Midianites, but first He commanded him to count the people. This is the intent of [the phrase] And it came to pass after the plague [that the Eternal spoke unto Moses … ‘Take the sum etc.’], meaning that the taking of the census should be done first [before the punishment of the Midianites].

Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, appeased My wrath...The people of Israel should not hate him for having killed Zimri, for he did them a great favor by turning away My wrath from them and preventing their annihilation. And if they were to hate him, it would be of no consequence, for Behold, I will give him My covenant of peace he has nothing to fear, neither from the relatives of Zimri who was a prince, nor from the relatives of Cozbi who was a princess.

בקנאו את קנאתי בתכם, "when he displayed jealousy on My behalf amongst them." Both the apparently superfluous words קנאתי, "My jealousy," and בתכם, "amongst them," are very deliberate. These factors each contributed to giving Pinchas the power to turn away G'd's wrath. 1) Pinchas displayed his personal jealousy on behalf of G'd by endangering his life on account of G'd's honour. This idea is expressed by the suffix ו at the end of the word בקנאו. 2) His jealousy was purely on G'd's behalf, he had no ulterior motive. When man performs a מצוה for absolutely pure motives without the slightest consideration of how the performance of such a good deed might benefit him personally, this is the most beloved מצוה- performance that exists in G'd's eyes. This is why the Torah defines Pinchas' jealousy as "MY jealousy." 3) Pinchas did not do what he did in the confines of his house with no witnesses, but he performed the deed publicly in full view of his whole nation. Sanhedrin 82 describes that Pinchas was surrounded at the time by the whole tribe of Shimon who had surrounded the tent in which Zimri cohabited with Kosbi. This is what the Torah meant when it wrote: "in their midst."

The Torah wanted to demonstrate that once G'd's anger had been aroused at בני ישראל, the elite of the Israelites, it could not be turned away without the presence of the three factors in Pinchas' deed we just enumerated. As far as saving the Jewish people from total annihilation, it is possible that G'd would have allowed a small portion of the Israelites to survive even if Pinchas' deed had not comprised all the three elements we described. The prayer of a righteous man such a Moses might have sufficed to accomplish this. However, if the Torah had only mentioned that Pinchas turned away G'd's wrath, without adding that G'd did not annihilate the whole people, I would have concluded that all that the action of Pinchas accomplished was the prevention of the complete annihilation of the people.

The tribes began to demean Pinehas: Did you see this son of Puti, so-called because his mother was one of the daughters of Putiel (see Exodus 6:25), and they interpreted homiletically: As Yitro, the father of his mother, according to one rabbinic tradition, fattened [shepittem] calves for idol worship, and he impudently killed the prince of a tribe of Israel without a trial. In response, the verse comes and provides his lineage as “Pinehas, son of Elazar, son of Aaron the priest” (Numbers 25:11). It is due to that lineage that he zealously executed Zimri.

MISHNAH: He who steals the chalice, or who curses by charms, or who copulates with a Gentile woman, one strikes him. If a priest officiated while impure, his brother priests do not bring him to court but the young priests take him outside the courtyard and smash his brain with bats. A non-priest who officiated in the Temple: Rebbi Aqiba said, by strangulation, but the Sages say, by the hands of Heaven.

What did the Holy One blessed be He see that led Him to trace Pinḥas’s lineage after that incident? When Zimri son of Salu was stabbed, the Sages said that Zimri had six names: Zimri, son of Salu; Shaul, son of the Canaanite woman; Shelumiel, son of Tzurishadai; Zimri – because he became upon that Midianite woman like a rotten [hamuzeret] egg. Son of Salu – a son who magnified [sila] his family’s iniquity. Shaul – as he lent [shehishil] himself for transgression. Son of the Canaanite woman – as he performed a Canaanite act. What was his name? Shelumiel. You find that when Zimri was stabbed, the tribes stood near him and said: Have you seen, this son of Putiel, whose mother’s father fattened calves for idol worship, killed a prince of Israel? That is why the verse came to trace his lineage: “Pinḥas, son of Elazar, son of Aaron the priest.”
“Therefore, say: Behold, I am giving him My covenant of peace” (Numbers 25:12).
“Therefore, say: Behold, I am giving him My covenant of peace” – as he is still alive. Likewise it says: “My covenant was with him, life and peace, and I gave it to him for the fear that he feared Me, and because he was in awe of My name” (Malachi 2:5).
“It shall be for him, and for his descendants after him, a covenant of an eternal priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and he atoned for the children of Israel” (Numbers 25:13).
“It shall be for him, and for his descendants after him…and he atoned” – did he sacrifice an offering, that atonement is stated in his regard? It is, rather, to teach you that anyone who sheds the blood of the wicked, it is as though he sacrificed an offering.
“The name of the Israelite man who was slain, who was slain with the Midianite woman, was Zimri son of Salu, prince of a Simeonite patrilineal house” (Numbers 25:14).
“The name of the Israelite man who was slain, who was slain with the Midianite woman” – just as the Holy One blessed be He engages in praise of the righteous to publicize it in the world, so, He engages in defamation of the wicked to publicize them in the world. Pinḥas, He publicized him for praise; Zimri, for defamation. In their regard it is stated: “The memory of the righteous is for blessing, and the name of the wicked will rot” (Proverbs 10:7).
“Prince of a Simeonite patrilineal house” – as anyone who tarnishes himself, tarnishes his family with him.
“Zimri son of Salu” – the verse is astonished in his regard: “One who breaches a fence, a serpent will bite him” (Ecclesiastes 10:8). His ancestor was initially zealous regarding harlotry, as it is stated: “The two sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, took [each man his sword…and slew all the males]” (Genesis 34:25), and this one breached the fence that his ancestor had established.
“And the name of the Midianite woman who was slain: Kozbi daughter of Tzur; he was head of the nations of a patrilineal house in Midian” (Numbers 25:15).
“And the name of the…woman who was slain…he was head of the nations of a patrilineal house…” – to inform you of the extent to which the Midianites devoted themselves [to cause Israel to sin]. They even renounced a king’s daughter, as it is stated: “They killed the kings of Midian among those who were slain [Evi, and Rekem, and Tzur, and Ḥur, and Reva, the five kings of Midian]” (Numbers 31:8) – Tzur was the greatest of them all. He was a king and renounced his daughter; who would not renounce? Because he demeaned himself and publicized his daughter in disgrace, the verse demoted him and wrote him third. But he was the king over all of them: “He was head of the nations of a patrilineal house in Midian.”

Simeon’s sons: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Saul the son of a Canaanite woman.

בן הכנענית THE SON OF THE CANAANITISH WOMAN — means the son of Dinah, who had been associated with a Canaanite (Shechem). When they (her brothers) had killed Shechem, Dinah refused to leave the city until Simeon swore to her that he would marry her and regard the child she was about to bear as his own (cf. Genesis Rabbah 80:11).

The Gemara rejects this: The prohibition concerning a Jew who engaged in intercourse with a gentile woman is a halakha transmitted to Moses from Sinai, not a rabbinic ordinance. As the Master said: With regard to one who engages in intercourse with an Aramean woman, zealots may attack him, as Pinehas did to Zimri in the wilderness (see Numbers 25:6–8).

והמה בכים AND THEY WERE WEEPING — the law (decision on this matter) escaped him and therefore they all burst out into weeping (Sanhedrin 82a). — In the case of the golden calf Moses successfully resisted six hundred thousand men, as it is said, (Exodus 32:20) “And he ground it to powder [and he made the children of Israel drink of it]”, and here his hands were weak (he did not know what to do)?! But this was intentionally caused by God in order that Phineas might come and receive that which was meant for him (Midrash Tanchuma, Balak 20).

If zealots did not strike him, what is the halakha? Rav forgot that which he learned through tradition concerning this matter. They read this verse to Rav Kahana in his dream: “Judah has dealt treacherously and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, as Judah has profaned the sacred of the Lord, which he loves, and has engaged in intercourse with the daughter of a strange god” (Malachi 2:11). Rav Kahana came and said to Rav: This is what they read to me in my dream.

Rav then remembered that which he learned through tradition and said: “Judah has dealt treacherously,” this is a reference to the sin of idol worship. And likewise it says: But as a wife who treacherously departs her husband, you have dealt treacherously with Me, house of Israel, says the Lord (Jeremiah 3:20). “And an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem,” this is a reference to male homosexual intercourse, and likewise it says: “You shall not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; it is an abomination” (Leviticus 18:22). “As Judah has profaned the sacred [kodesh] of the Lord,” this is a reference to a prostitute, and likewise it says: “There shall be no harlot [kedesha] of the daughters of Israel” (Deuteronomy 23:18). “And has engaged in intercourse with the daughter of a strange god,” this is a reference to one who engages in intercourse with a gentile woman.

Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Avuya says: With regard to anyone who engages in intercourse with a gentile woman it is as though he married the object of idol worship itself, as it is written: “And has engaged in intercourse with the daughter of a strange god.” Does a strange god have a daughter? Rather, this is a reference to one who engages in intercourse with a gentile woman who is an adherent of a strange god.

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.

Together with your households, you shall feast there before the ETERNAL your God, happy in all the undertakings in which the ETERNAL your God has blessed you.

Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa said: anyone whose fear of sin precedes his wisdom, his wisdom is enduring, but anyone whose wisdom precedes his fear of sin, his wisdom is not enduring. He [also] used to say: anyone whose deeds exceed his wisdom, his wisdom is enduring, but anyone whose wisdom exceeds his deeds, his wisdom is not enduring.

Judah ben Tema said: Be strong as a leopard, and swift as an eagle, and fleet as a gazelle, and brave as a lion, to do the will of your Father who is in heaven. He used to say: the arrogant is headed for Gehinnom and the blushing for the garden of Eden. May it be the will, O Lord our God, that your city be rebuilt speedily in our days and set our portion in the studying of your Torah.

He used to say: At five years of age the study of Scripture; At ten the study of Mishnah; At thirteen subject to the commandments; At fifteen the study of Talmud; At eighteen the bridal canopy; At twenty for pursuit [of livelihood]; At thirty the peak of strength; At forty wisdom; At fifty able to give counsel; At sixty old age; At seventy fullness of years; At eighty the age of “strength”; At ninety a bent body; At one hundred, as good as dead and gone completely out of the world.