This week’s Torah portion, PinHas, follows upon the heels of the terrifying episode which closes last week’s portion. So, before we take a look at a certain spelling anomaly in the Text, let’s recap.
In last week’s graphic portion, certain Israelite men engage sexually with Midianite women, in what seems to be cult prostitution: transactional sex as a means of worshipping the god Baal-peor.
(We should note that Moses’ wife Tzipora, and his father-in-law Yitro are Midianites, although they are not implicated in this affair.)
One of the Israelite men, by the name of Zimri, engages in a public sex act with a Midianite woman named Cozbi. At this, Aaron’s grandson PinHas, in an act of unrestrained religious zealotry, murders Zimri and Cozbi, while they are having sex, by running both of them through with a spear.
This horrifying act seems to abate God’s anger. God then praises PinHas, saying that he has “turned back My wrath from the Israelites by displaying zealotry among them for Me, so that I did not consume the children of Israel with My zealousness. Therefore, I grant him My covenant of peace.” —Numbers 25:11-12
My first reaction to this story has always been negative: in my core I stand against religious extremism, fundamentalism or nationalist zealotry of any kind. Full stop. I just don’t find a place for this in my philosophy.
And I should say that perhaps even God is conflicted about PinHas’ zealotry.
Why do I say so?
Well my dear, take a look back at the original Hebrew at Numbers 25:12, and specifically at the word שלום.
Have you found it?
There is a spelling anomaly to which I earlier referred.
The word שלום as it appears in the Text is composed of the following letters (read right to left:
shin ש
laméd ל
waw ו
mem sofeet ם
The word שלום is familiar to the wider word beyond Judaism. It is pronounced ‘shalom,’ and it means ‘peace,’ ‘wholeness,’ ‘completeness.’
But the word as written in this verse is not quite complete, it is not quite whole.
The letter ‘waw’ ו, as it is written here, has a cut in its midsection. Look back at the photo on my Instagram post, and you’ll see it: the broken waw with an asterisk above it.
Do you see the wounded waw torn in half?
Is this wound from the spear which PinHas thrust though Zimri and Cozbi?
Nowhere else in the whole of Torah do we find the word shalom שלום written with a wounded and fractured waw ו. The Talmud notes this at Kiddushin 66b.
Furthermore, I would note that the letter waw stands for a hook which joins two things together. Grammatically, when waw appears as a prefix, it functions as an additive conjunction, much like the word ‘and’ in English: ‘this and that’ are two things joined together.
Waw represents the ties that bind: that which weaves us together in a tapestry.
However, the waw of PinHas’ peace and wholeness has been cut in half.
What does God mean by this broken waw? By this broken wholeness?
The peace is fragile.
The wholeness is broken.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes of this episode, “God expects God’s prophets to be defenders, not accusers. The prophetic task of getting people to change is best done not through violent confrontation, but by gentleness and the word softly spoken.” (Sacks, Covenant and Conversation: Numbers, PinHas, p. 318)
I think now my dear friend . . . I think of the meaning of the name of the city Jerusalem: in Hebrew Yerushalayim, literally translates as: ‘you shall see peace,’ or ‘you shall know wholeness.’
May we and all the earth see peace, soon in our day!!
May the ties that bind us together be repaired.
May the waw be healed.
And may we know wholeness.