Parashas Pinchas: Two Types of Anti-Israel Enemies

I wish I could write this dvar Torah without it being relevant to a real-world parallel. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The events of the past two weeks have led me to expand this dvar Torah in order to address the current situation in Israel. I believe that exceeding the usual 1,400 word length is justified in this instance. As always, I am eager to hear your thoughts. Have a good Shabbos.

Artwork: Sword of War and Peace, by Chris Rahn

Parashas Pinchas: Two Types of Anti-Israel Enemies

Imagine the following scenario:

You are a gentile resident of a land that you have called "home" for as long as you can remember. You have raised your own family here, and have lived in tranquility.

One day you are informed by your leaders that you, your family, and your entire people are in grave danger. Israel, a young and powerful nation, is on the march, and it is only a matter of time before it reaches your borders. 

Israel has already established itself as an indomitable military power, despite of its short history. It has conquered several of the surrounding nations which were once thought to be invincible. If Israel were to lay siege to your homeland, its victory would be swift and certain. 

Your leaders call for action, demanding complete allegiance to their strategic vision. They mobilize their people for battle, and are prepared to use every tool at their disposal to put a stop to Israel's rapid ascent. 

And you support them.  

You have committed yourself to do whatever it takes to vanquish the enemy and protect your people. You will even go so far as to sacrifice your own children, if doing so will achieve a tactical advantage for your people. 

In short, you will stop at nothing until Israel has been wiped off of the face of the earth. 

Did you guess who I'm talking about? That's right: the nations of Moab and Midian, at the turn of the 13th century BCE. In this dvar Torah we will examine the question: What does the Torah have to say about the type of anti-Israel mentality depicted above? We will seek insight on this question from this week's parashah. We will conclude by applying our findings to the current state of affairs in Israel. 

Artwork: Ghitu Encampment, by John Avon

In order to understand the Torah's view on this matter, we will need to recap the events leading up to this week's parashah, which began in last week's parashah. Parashas Balak is told from the perspective of Moab and Midian, who heard about Israel's conquest of its enemies: 

Balak son of Tzipor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorite. Moab became very frightened of the people, because it was numerous, and Moab was disgusted in the face of the Children of Israel. Moab said to the elders of Midian, "Now the congregation will lick up our entire surroundings, as an ox licks up the greenery of the field." Balak son of Tzipor was king of Moab at that time. He sent messengers to Bilam son of Beor ... saying, "Behold! a people has come out of Egypt, behold! it has covered the surface of the earth and it sits opposite me. So now - please come and curse this people for me, for it is too powerful for me; perhaps I will be able to strike it and drive it away from the land." (Bamidbar 22:2-6)

Consider, for a moment, the terror that the average Moabite and Midianite experienced. Israel, a nation of slaves descended from shepherds, somehow managed to miraculously break free from captivity and reduce the Egyptian kingdom - the greatest superpower the world had seen - to rubble. It then proceeded to take down nation after nation, and king after king: first was the the Canaanite king of Arad, followed by Sichon, the king of the Amorite, followed by Og, the king of Bashan. And now they approach the plains of Moab, showing no signs of stopping or slowing down.

After Bilaam's repeated failures to curse Israel, he finally came up with a plan that worked. Bilam knew that the divine protection enjoyed by the Israelites was predicated on their adherence to the laws of the Torah. He realized that if he could somehow entice them to deviate from those laws, they would be subject to the wrath of God. They would then be vulnerable enough for Moab and Midian to swoop in and finish the job. 

Bilaam persuaded the Moabites and Midianites to "whore out" their own daughters to the Israelite nation in hopes of baiting them to violate the severe transgressions of sexual promiscuity and avodah zarah (idolatry). Bilam's scheme played out exactly as he anticipated: the Israelite men were seduced by the Moabite and Midianite women, and eventually become attached to Baal-Peor - a Moabite deity. "Operation: Seduce and Destroy" reached its pinnacle when a Midianite princess and a Jewish prince copulated publicly in front of Moshe Rabbeinu and the rest of the nation, displaying a brazen disregard for the Torah and its prophet. Bilaam's plan was a success. "The wrath of Hashem flared up against Israel ... those who died in the plague were twenty-four thousand" (ibid. 25:3,9). Were it not for Pinchas's act of zealotry, which ended the plague, Israel would have continued to fall before Moab and Midian. 

Parashas Pinchas commences with the aftermath of the seduction campaign. Now that the immediate cause of divine wrath had ceased, the question remained: How would Hashem command Israel to deal with the Moabites and Midianites, in light of the evil they had perpetrated? Not only did they aim to destroy the Chosen Nation of God, but they engaged in the illicit practices of avodah zarah and sexual promiscuity, going so far as to make their daughters into harlots in order to take advantage of their enemy's vulnerability. 

Did Hashem decree vengeance on Moab and Midian? Surprisingly, He did not:

Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying: “Torment the Midianites and smite them, for they tormented you through their conspiracy that they conspired against you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, daughter of a leader of Midian, their sister, who was slain on the day of the plague, in the matter of Peor” (ibid. 25:16-18)

Hashem commands Moshe and Israel to take vengeance upon the Midianites alone, but not the Moabites - even though both nations were equally involved in their efforts to seduce and destroy Israel through immoral means. The question is: Why didn't the Moabites deserve the same retribution as the Midianites? Weren't their actions the same? Wasn't their decision to sacrifice their daughters equally disgraceful in the eyes of Hashem? 

The Ralbag [1] addresses this question. He begins by explaining Hashem's commandment to smite Midian:

Hashem (may He be exalted) commanded Israel to hate the Midianites and to smite them, for their evil mentality caused them to hate Israel; they strove to cause Israel to stumble with their daughters and with avodah zarah until Hashem annihilated them; and this was [instigated] by the advice of Bilaam, to the point where all were drawn after him, including the kings who promiscuously abandoned their daughters to act as a stumbling block, as is clear from the matter of Cozbi. Now their hatred had increased because Cozbi – who was the daughter of a Midianite king – had been killed. For this reason it was clear that if [the Israelites] didn't hasten to smite Midian, then the Midianites would strive to harm them from every angle possible.

The Ralbag [2] goes on to derive a practical lesson from this:

[We learn from here] that once it has been established that someone is trying to destroy you, it is correct for you to preempt him and to destroy him in order to save yourself. For this reason you will find that Hashem commanded [the Israelites] to destroy the Midianites, since it was well-known that they hated the Israelites and sought to harm them, in addition to the fact their hatred was increased due to the killing of Cozbi bas Tzur.

In other words, Israel was commanded to destroy Midian because of its "evil mentality" toward Israel - a mentality which fueled the Midianites' hatred and made them a threat, even after Bilam's plot was thwarted. It was clear that Midian would seek vengeance until Israel was entirely destroyed. As such, the commandment to smite Midian was a preemptive act of self-defense. 

However, the Moabites were different, as the Ralbag [3] explains:

[We learn from here that] if one person is afraid of another, then there is nothing contemptible in him searching for any means by which to save himself. For this reason we find that the Moabites were not punished for enticing the Jews to sin, since the reason for their actions was their fear that the Jews would destroy them, for they were already afraid of Israel, as it is stated, “Moab became very frightened of the people, because it was numerous” (Bamidbar 22:3). For this reason, the Moabites' enticement of Israel to sin was but one of their weapons. The Midianites, however, were not as afraid, and their intention in following the advice of Bilam was to rebel against Hashem; for this reason, Hashem desired that the Jews take vengeance against them.

According to the Ralbag, the Torah differentiates between an enemy whose anti-Israel operations are founded on an anti-Israel ideology, and an enemy whose anti-Israel operations are driven by fear and self-defense. The former, represented by Midian, are worthy of condemnation even if their actions are partially motivated by fear and self-defense. The latter, represented by Moab, are not "contemptible" in the eyes of the Torah, even when their actions involve what is otherwise immoral behavior, such as giving up their own daughters to be sexually violated by the enemy. As the Ralbag said, "Moab's enticement of Israel to sin was merely one of their weapons." Even though they targeted Israel in the same way as the Midianites, Hashem did not command Israel to take vengeance, since the Moabites were only acting in self-defense, and were no longer a threat.

Parenthetically, I feel it is necessary at this point to take a brief pause from the flow of this dvar Torah to underscore the fact that the Torah does condemn the type of sex-trafficking practiced by Moab and Midian. This becomes clear if we turn the tables and consider what the Torah would say if Jews engaged in this practice with our own daughters.

Few transgressions are considered by the Torah to be in the same ballpark as murder. One of those transgressions is sexual immorality. The Torah explicitly states this when speaking about a case where a man rapes a betrothed girl: "But you shall do nothing to the girl, for the girl has committed no capital sin, for like a man who rises up against his fellow and murders him, so is this thing" (Devarim 22:26).

Based on this pasuk, the halacha [] states that there is no difference between giving over a fellow Jew to our enemies to be killed and giving over a fellow Jew to our enemies to be sexually violated. In both cases, we must forfeit our own lives rather than turn over the lives of another Jew. This is true for any Jew, and would certainly be true in the case of our own wives and daughters. 

From this standpoint, the actions of Midian and Moab are truly abominable in the eyes of the Torah. Had they been Jews, they would have been guilty of committing a capital crime. And yet, the Ralbag defends the actions of Moab, insofar as they were motivated by fear and self-defense. This is not a contradiction. The Ralbag's point is that from the standpoint of anti-Israel warfare, Moab's use of its daughters is excusable; from the standpoint of morality, it is disgraceful. 

This brings us to the current state of events. We, the Jewish people, are under attack. Our enemy is Hamas - an organization hellbent on the obliteration of Israel and its Jewish inhabitants. The Hamas charter proclaims:

"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him."

As we know, Hamas advocates the morally reprehensible practice of using women and children as human shields. Hamas is aware of the extreme measures taken by the IDF to avoid civilian casualties, and takes full advantage of the IDF's adherence to a code of morality. Jews would never engage in such behavior - not with our own children, and not even with our enemy's children. 

Let me be absolute clear on this next point: I am against moral relativism in the realm of ethics as much as I am against subjectivism in the realm of metaphysics. Those who attempt to reduce the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a mere difference of opinion without any basis in objective reality are either ignorant or biased.

At the same time, I am also against Jewish racism. Perhaps I have a different perspective because I am a ger (convert), and didn't grow up hearing tales and warnings about anti-Semitism. Still, I would like to think that out of all people, Jews would be the least prone to racism, seeing as how we've been the victims of it throughout our 3,000 year history. 

At times like these, when our people and our homeland are under attack, the Jewish racists come out of the woodwork. Although they are a minority, their voices resound and cause a chilul ha'Shem (desecration of God's Name). Sadly, I have witnessed a number of examples of this behavior on the Internet: Jews who denounce all Muslims as inherently evil, Jews who condemn all Arabs as anti-Israel, and worst of all, Jews whose hatred moves them to indiscriminately call for terrible violence and vengeance against all Palestinians. It is these misguided Jews who are most in need of the ideas elucidated by the Ralbag.

Midian and Moab were both anti-Israel. Both nations went to war against us. Both nations utilized the unethical practice of whoring out their daughters as a means of defeating their enemy. Nevertheless, Hashem differentiated between the two nations. Moab, who acted out of fear and self-defense, was spared from the decree of extermination, once they no longer posed a threat to Israel. Midian, on the other hand, sought to destroy Israel as a part of their evil ideology, and would continue to seek the destruction of Israel; for this reason, we were commanded to annihilate them.

Hamas is the modern-day equivalent of Midian. Their anti-Israel sentiment stems from the core of their evil ideology. The same is true of Fatah, Islamic Jihad, and a number of other organizations and movements in the Middle East. Like Midian, they deserve no mercy, and we must utterly decimate them.

At the same time, we must recognize that interspersed throughout the Palestinian people are the modern-day equivalents of Moab - residents of Arab descent whose anti-Israel activity stems not from an evil ideology, but from fear and self-defense. They may be quiet and they may be relatively powerless, but they exist.

Have these individuals been influenced by their evil counterparts? Most likely, yes. Might they implement the same depraved practices, such as using civilians as human shields and endorsing the use of suicidal acts of terror and martyrdom? In many cases, yes. Do they pose a threat to the safety of our people and our homeland? Definitely. But are they to be viewed as equal to their anti-Israel ideology-driven brethren? No. There is one important factor which differentiates these individuals from their extremist brethren: whereas the "Moabite" Palestinians would stop fighting if they no longer perceived Israel as a threat, the "Midianite" Palestinians will stop at nothing until Israel and the Jewish people are completely eradicated.

I am not making any claims about the relative proportions of these two categories of our enemies, nor am I suggesting any differences in how the State of Israel ought to handle these factions in the present conflict. It is clear that both types of enemies, at the moment, pose a threat which must be quelled by any means necessary. I am not even making the oft-heard point that "Not all Muslims/Arabs/Palestinians are bad!" I am making a subdivision within that argument, namely, that not all bad Muslims/Arabs/Palestinians are the same type of bad. Even enemies ought to be critically assessed, and we must do everything in our power to perceive them as they actually are - not as dictated by propaganda, prejudice, or lazy thinking.

So next time you see or hear reports of Palestinians forming human shields out of innocent women and children, remember that their actions, while evil, are not to be judged as equally so. To the average Israelite, Midian and Moab would have been seen as one in the same. In Hashem's eyes, they were not.

May we merit to perceive the reality of ourselves and our enemies as realistically as possible, may our enemies receive exactly what they deserve, and may Hashem bring us complete salvation from all calamity and iniquity, thereby ushering in an era of peace and knowledge for all of mankind.

[1] Rabbeinu Levi ben Gershon (Ralbag / Gersonides), Commentary on Sefer Bamidbar 25:17-18

[2] ibid. 27:17-18, Toeles #2

[3] ibid. 22:2-6, Toeles #1[4] Rabbeinu Moshe ben Maimon (Rambam / Maimonides), Mishneh Torah: Sefer ha'Mada, Hilchos Yesodei ha'Torah 5:5