{"id":48205,"date":"2019-01-27T00:20:48","date_gmt":"2019-01-26T22:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=48205"},"modified":"2022-08-21T12:29:30","modified_gmt":"2022-08-21T09:29:30","slug":"the-moral-ambivalence-of-zealotry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-moral-ambivalence-of-zealotry\/","title":{"rendered":"The Moral Ambivalence Of Zealotry"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[479,414,354,543],"acf":{"old_id":"48205","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33923,"related_cahpter":"142","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Vengeance belongs to God alone","content":"

With Pinchas a new type enters the world of Israel: the zealot. \u201cPinchas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned My anger away from the Israelites by being zealous with My zeal in their midst so that I did not put an end to them in My zeal\u201d (Num. 25: 11). He was followed, many centuries later, by the one other figure in Tanakh described as a zealot, the prophet Elijah. He tells God on Mount Horeb, \u201cI have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty.\u201d (1 Kings 19: 14). In fact, tradition identified the two men: \u201cPinchas is Elijah\u201d (Yalkut Shimoni, Torah, 771). Pinchas, says Targum Yonatan (to Num. 25: 12), \u201cbecame an angel who lives forever and will be the harbinger of redemption at the End of Days.\u201d…<\/span><\/p>\n

There can be no doubt that Pinchas and Elijah were religious heroes. They stepped into the breach at a time when the nation was facing religious and moral crisis and palpable Divine anger. They acted while everyone else, at best, watched. They risked their lives by so doing. There can be little doubt that the mob might have turned against them and attacked them. Indeed after the trial at Mount Carmel, Jezebel lets it be known that she intends to have Elijah killed. Both men acted for the sake of God and the religious welfare of the nation. And God himself is called \u201czealous\u201d many times in the Torah.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Yet their treatment in both the written and oral Torah is deeply ambivalent\u2026 Pinchas and Elijah are, in other words, both gently rebuked by God. Why this moral ambivalence? The simplest answer is that the zealot is not acting within the normal parameters of the law… More profoundly, the zealot is in effect taking the place of God\u2026. The zealot who takes the law into his own hands is embarking on a course of action fraught with moral danger. Only the most holy may do so, only once in a lifetime, and only in the most dire circumstance when the nation is at risk, when there is nothing else to be done, and no one else to do it. Even then, were the zealot to ask permission from a court, he would be denied it.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Nothing in the religious life is more risk-laden than zeal, and nothing more compelling than the truth God taught Elijah, that God is not to be found in the use of force but in the still, small voice that turns the sinner from sin. As for vengeance, that belongs to God alone.<\/span><\/p>\n

From:<\/span>The Zealot (Covenant & Conversation, Pinchas 5772)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":60001,"id":60001,"title":"2sam6-anger","filename":"2sam6-anger.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/david-doesnt-let-god-off-the-hook\/2sam6-anger\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"2sam6-anger","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":59992,"date":"2019-07-23 10:32:20","modified":"2022-08-21 09:29:27","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1089,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger-255x300.png","medium-width":255,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger-768x903.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":903,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger-871x1024.png","large-width":871,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger.png","1536x1536-width":1089,"1536x1536-height":1280,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger.png","2048x2048-width":1089,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger-1021x1200.png","post_full_size-width":1021,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger-357x420.png","home_baner-width":357,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"The Moral Ambivalence of Zealotry","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Vengeance belongs to God alone","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":60001,"id":60001,"title":"2sam6-anger","filename":"2sam6-anger.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/david-doesnt-let-god-off-the-hook\/2sam6-anger\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"2sam6-anger","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":59992,"date":"2019-07-23 10:32:20","modified":"2022-08-21 09:29:27","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1089,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger-255x300.png","medium-width":255,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger-768x903.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":903,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger-871x1024.png","large-width":871,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger.png","1536x1536-width":1089,"1536x1536-height":1280,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger.png","2048x2048-width":1089,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger-1021x1200.png","post_full_size-width":1021,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam6-anger-357x420.png","home_baner-width":357,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48205"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48205"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107404,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48205\/revisions\/107404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}