The seed from which has sprouted the Jewish extremism that legitimates Jewish terrorism in Judea and Samaria is to be found, in many ways, at the end of this week’s parasha. Phinehas (Pinḥas) takes a spear in hand and appoints himself prosecutor, judge, and executioner all in one. How, then, does that extreme act bring about an end to the plague and earn Phinehas both a “covenant of peace” (berit shalom) and “everlasting priesthood”?
What does such zealotry have to do with peace, and why is Phinehas rewarded?
We are called on to dedicate our whole being to the pursuit of truth and justice, to embody complete determination and revolutionary commitment, but extremism is a desecration of God’s name. The Blessed Holy One teaches that the antidote to extremism is a covenant of peace. If you want to oppose extremism, pursue peace and see the other as a person created in God’s image. Then you can put an end to your own extremism.
The Karaites claim to live the simple, direct meaning of the Torah; Judaism lives its interpretation. Not for nothing do the Sages in the Talmud Yerushalmi seek to excommunicate Phinehas. They know that in the Land of Israel, extremism is the seed of destruction. So it was in the past, and so it is all too likely to be once again in the future.
