Pinchas: Conclusion

Pinchas, the zealot who killed the prince from the tribe of Simon and the Midianite princess in flagrante delicto,  was introduced long ago. He is the last of the cast of characters introduced in Exodus (6;25)

וְאֶלְעָזָ֨ר בֶּֽן־אַהֲרֹ֜ן לָקַֽח־ל֨וֹ מִבְּנ֤וֹת פּֽוּטִיאֵל֙ ל֣וֹ לְאִשָּׁ֔ה וַתֵּ֥לֶד ל֖וֹ אֶת־פִּֽינְחָ֑ס אֵ֗לֶּה רָאשֵׁ֛י אֲב֥וֹת הַלְוִיִּ֖ם לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָֽם׃ 

And Aaron’s son Eleazar took into his [household] as wife one of Putiel’s daughters, and she bore him Phinehas. Those are the heads of the ancestral houses of the Levites by their families.

What does that mean for the story placed here, close to the end of the narrative Torah?  It reveals the planned structure of the story to be told. The novel is the artform that tickles the sense of memory. This had always been the plan: to end the story with Pinchas. 

Immediately following the ascension of Pinchas to a legacy of (high) Priesthood, war is declared upon Midian

Who is this daughter of Putiel?  Rashi quotes part of the Talmud in Sotah 43a

מבנות פוטיאל ONE OF THE DAUGHTERS OF PUTIEL — of the family of Jethro (cf. Rashi on Exodus 4:18) who used to fatten (פטם) calves for idolatrous sacrifice, and of the family of Joseph who overcame (פטפט, who talked or argued with) his passion (Sotah 43a; Bava Batra 109b).

The authors of the Talmud and Rashi had seen what is revealed in our parsha, the end of the story. Pinchas was leading the battle against his mother's nation of origin. 

The relationship between Midian and Israel is complex. Jethro is the primary representative of Midian. Moses is homeless, as he flees from the Egyptian authorities after he kills the Egyptian taskmaster ( his own act of [spontaneous] zealotry).  Jethro, the sheik of Midian,  instructs his daughters to bring the Egyptian fugitive, Moses, into his camp.  Moses marries one of his daughters, Ziporah.  Jethro advises Moses to democratize the judicial system and establish a hierarchy to make adjudication more efficient.  Moses experienced the revelation that initiated the Israelite protests and culminated in the Exodus, while in  Jethro's employ in the land of Midian.  Ultimately, Jethro rejects an invitation to join the nation of Israel. 

Elazar, this purest of Levites, married out. Was it the internal struggle that drove Pinchas to his act of zealotry?  Perhaps Moses  experienced a similar internal conflict when he killed the Egyptian taskmaster, the act of zealotry that launched the Exodus narrative. Moses knew from the inside the depth of the antipathy toward Israel, the murderous nature of the demeaning hatred. That justified  the (pre-emptive) homicide of the taskmaster.  Perhaps Pinchas knew similar, deeply engrained and hidden, secrets of the mystical Midianites by virtues of his contacts with  his mother's family.  He understood the unstated dangers that came from the adoption of Midianite ways. ( Where are the Midianites now?)

Perhaps the most important zealots in the parsha are the daughters of Zelophchad. They present their case for (some modicum of) inheritance rights for women so convincingly that Moses is dumbfounded and must turn to Divine consultation.( Note that the past cases of Divine consultation had yielded death sentences: for the blasphemer [son of an Egyptian father and Hebrew mother]  and the Sabbath desecrator  [ Rabbi Akiva identifies him as...Zelophchad, the father of the litigating women, see Rashi 27;3].)  Gd recognizes the possibility that women have property rights. This is a lasting zealotry... and the fight  goes on. 

There are injustices that call for the courage of battle. Some of us know the secret depths of their evil. Can this narrative  encourage us?