Pinchas is the prototypical kanoy. He saw a terrible sin before his eyes and he took extreme action to stop it. Kanaos is a difficult word to translate into English, the most common translation is zeal. Kanaos is to be bold and daring to champion the causes of the Torah and Hashem’s honor in the world. In my years as a student of Ner Israel Rabbinical College I learned a powerful lesson about kanaos that we learn from Pinchas himself.
In Ner Israel I had the privilege of spending a year in Rabbi Steinhardt’s shiur. After the year was over Rabbi Steinhardt created an alumni group. Almost every Shabbos afternoon we would gather together in Rabbi Steinhardt’s classroom and he would share divrei Torah on the parsha.
On Shabbos afternoon of Parshas Pinchas Rabbi Steinhardt told us about a special neighbor that he remembered from his years living in Israel. This neighbor of his was an elderly man and a magid of sorts. He could always be found sharing stories and divrei Torah while humming to a classic magid nigun melody. This neighbor of his was a very zealous fellow. He participated in many charedi rallies and had suffered beatings and jail time for his activist pursuits.
Rabbi Steinhardt retold the scene after Shacharis one morning of the week of Parshas Pinchas: The elderly magid was wrapping his tefillin in the back of Shul and sharing divrei Torah humming to his usual nigun. He shared the following two comments regarding Pinchas which he derived from the Torah’s language in the end of last week’s parsha.
“…And he (Pinchas) rose from amidst the congregation and he took a spear in his hand.” (Bamidbar 25:7)
“…And he (Pinchas) rose from amidst the congregation…” Pinchas was zealous but he didn’t stand out as a zealot. He was a person that lived “amidst the congregation”. It didn’t say “Mr. Zealous” on his mail box.
“…and he took a spear in his hand.” Pinchas wasn’t walking around with a spear looking for the next victim. When he saw something so terrible that a spear was necessary he went and took it.
These two comments both convey a valuable lesson in the area of kanaos. At times kanaos is appropriate, extreme scenarios require extreme responses. Pinchas received tremendous praise and blessing for his extreme actions. None the less kanaos is not a profession, it is not something you do regularly. If it is, then something is wrong, the sincerity of the motivation needs to be examined.
I found it particularly meaningful to hear that these were the thoughts of a charedi man who regularly participated in protests. He clearly didn’t participate because that is how he identified himself, it was because he believed that each instance warranted protest.
As with all areas of life, our job is to strike the proper balance. We need to live “amidst the congregation”, friendly, compassionate, and understanding. While simultaneously dedicating ourselves to guard Hashem’s honor, and to protect and uphold the principles of His holy Torah.