민수기 25:6의 인용 해설

If one steals the sacred vessel called a “kasvah” (Numbers 4:7), or cursed by the name of an idol, or has sexual relations with an Aramean (non-Jewish woman, he is punished by zealots. This section lists three crimes in which the mishnah allows religious zealots to kill the perpertrator at the moment of the crime even though these crimes do not normally carry the death penalty. The first crime is stealing a sacred vessel from the Temple. The second crime is one who used the name of an idol to curse another person. The third crime is one who has relations with an Aramean woman (or any idol worshipping woman). The quintessential example of the zealot in the Torah is the example Pinchas, who upon seeing an Israelite having sexual relations in public with an Midianite woman, kills the two of them on the spot. God rewards Pinchas for his zealotry by giving him a “covenant of peace” (Numbers 25:6-13). Of course, Jewish tradition was very troubled by people taking the law into their own hands and summarily executing others. When reading this mishnah we must take into consideration that it is embedded in a tractate entirely devoted to the establishment of courts and judicial procedure. This mishnah does teach, though, that occasionally vigilante justice is legitimate.

וזאת ליהודה, “”and this for Yehudah;” i.e. “and this is the blessing for Yehudah. Moses means that the blessing he had just given to Reuven will also apply to Yehudah. He prayed that they both be extraordinarily successful in that war. The reason he also singled out Yehudah for such a blessing was that that tribe usually was always at the head of the army. (Compare Judges 1,2) In that verse G–d had answered t]he people’s query who should lead them in war now that Joshua had died. Our sages in the Talmud, tractate Sotah folio 7 state that the bones of Yehudah were rattling in their coffin all the years that the Israelites wandered in the desert, the reason being that he had said to his father Yaakov before obtaining permission to take Binyamin to Egypt, that he would consider himself as having sinned unforgivably against him for all his life if he did not bring him back safe and sound. (Genesis 43,9). Even though it appears at first glance as if Binyamin had descended with the rest of Yaakov’s family (Genesis 46,21) when a wise man utters a curse, even a conditional one, it comes true at some time [Yaakov had cursed the anonymous person who had stolen Lavan’s t’raphim if he would be found, and although he never found that person Rachel died prematurely on account of that as she had stolen them. Ed.] (compare Talmud, tractate Makkot, folio 11) The Talmud there describes that at the time when David dug the hole known as shitin, under the site where the Temple would stand in the future, the subterranean waters started rising from the depths and threatened to flood the earth. At that point, when Achitofel did not rule on the subject though he had been openly invited to do so, David reasoned as follows before writing the holy name of G–d on a shard commanding the waters to stop rising. If in the case of a woman suspected of infidelity by her husband, the priest dissolves a parchment with the Holy Name of the Lord in order to help restore marital harmony, when the life of the whole of humanity is at stake, surely I am not only allowed but I have the duty to try and save mankind by that means. (Compare Numbers 5, 11-31) When Achitophel saw that his advice concerning the rebellion of Avshalom had not been followed, he went home and arranged his affairs, and hung himself. (see beginning of chapter 17). [Achitofel, according to tradition was the outstanding Torah scholar of his generation, and at one time David’s tutor. Ed.] The Talmud Makkot quoted before comes to the conclusion that Moses when wondering why the bones of Reuven did not rattle in their coffin whereas those of Yehudah, his brother did not, especially since it had been Yehudah’s public confession of having fathered Tamar’s children which had caused Reuven to also publicly confess that he had committed an indiscretion with Bilhah, and remains with a question, else he would not have commenced Yehudah’s blessing with the words he did. He did not bless Shimon, just as his father had also not given him a blessing on his deathbed, as in addition to the deceit and violence at Sh’chem, as the leader of that tribe, Zimri had added to his sin by sleeping provocatively with a Midianite princess, as reported in Numbers 25,6. Although Levi had been Shimon’s partner in the killing of the male population of Sh’chem, his descendants had rehabilitated themselves when, to a man, none of them participated in worshipping the golden calf. (Compare Exodus 32,26) Moses at least hinted at a blessing for Yehudah, according to the Talmud in Makkot there.

ושם איש ישראל, And the name of the Israelite man, etc. If G'd was so interested in our knowing the names of the people Pinchas slew why did the Torah not report this at the time it reported Pinchas' deed in the last Parshah? If the Torah had mentioned these names at that time it could have saved at least a half a sentence here!