Pinchas and the True Meaning of Kanaus

Topics

• What Is a Kanoi?
• Kana’us Rooted in Ahavas Yisrael
• Being for Klal Yisrael, Not Merely Against Something
• Kana’us Cannot Be Assigned
• The One Who Read the Letter
• A Natural Reaction Reveals the Person
• Kana’us Requires Mesirus Nefesh
• No Personal Vendetta
• Sacrificing One’s Reputation
• A Job That Must End
• Kana’us Is Not a Career
• Pinchas and Eliyahu
• A Sanegor, Not a Kateigor
• What Can an Ordinary Person Learn?
• Why Reward Is Usually Withheld
• The Protection of Zikui Harabim
• A Question About Printing Posters
• The Posters of His Childhood
• A Mitzvah That Would Not Permit an Aveirah
• The Merit Continues to Protect
• Why Pinchas Lives
• The Chazon Ish’s Instruction
• Reward for Another Person’s Mitzvos
• Eliyahu, Malach HaBris
• The Bris Represents a Jewish Life
• Why Eliyahu Comes as a Malach or as a Person
• Eliyahu Outside the Ruin
• The Herald Must Understand Galus
• An Angel Must First Learn About Man
• The Lesson We Can Practice
• Do Not Live Only for Yourself

Transcript

## What Is a Kanoi?

The Torah tells us that Pinchas ben Elazar ben Aharon HaKohen acted with *kana’us* and turned away Hashem’s wrath from Klal Yisrael (Bamidbar 25:11). The usual English translation is “zealot,” but that word often creates the wrong picture. A Torah *kanoi* is not simply someone who is loud, angry, or eager to protest. Fire and noise do not make a person a *kanoi*.

There is a sharp story told about Rav Eizel Charif. As a child, he was mischievous in shul. An older man rebuked him: “If you behave this way now, what will become of you when you grow older?” Without missing a beat, the boy answered, “I will become an old man who gives mussar to little children.” The story contains a serious truth. Growing older does not automatically refine a person. A mischievous or angry child can simply become an older, angrier man. White hair and public rebuke do not prove *kana’us*.

## Kana’us Rooted in Ahavas Yisrael

The Torah therefore identifies Pinchas as “Pinchas ben Elazar ben Aharon HaKohen.” Rashi explains that the shevatim disparaged Pinchas through his maternal ancestry, and the Torah traced him specifically to Aharon (Rashi to Bamidbar 25:11). The mefarshim teach that this lineage also reveals the source of his conduct. Pinchas acted with the middah of Aharon: “loving peace, pursuing peace, loving people, and drawing them close to Torah” (Avos 1:12).

Before a person claims to act as a *kanoi*, he must ask himself: Does this come from anger and damaged middos, or from genuine pain born of ahavas Yisrael? Does he possess even a reflection of Aharon HaKohen’s love for every Jew? Perhaps without that love, he has no business entering the field of *kana’us* at all. True *kana’us* is not opposition for its own sake. It is an expression of love so deep that a person cannot bear to see Klal Yisrael harmed.

## Being for Klal Yisrael, Not Merely Against Something

A true *kanoi* may appear to stand against a movement or institution, but his inner motivation is not hatred. An oral teaching was cited concerning the Satmar Rebbe: people described him as “anti-Israel,” but the deeper truth was that he was intensely pro–Klal Yisrael. His opposition to policies that he believed harmed Torah and *kedushas Yisrael* emerged from love for Jews, not hostility toward them. That distinction determines whether a person is practicing *kana’us* or merely expressing anger.

## Kana’us Cannot Be Assigned

There is another defining halacha in the episode of Pinchas. When a Jew publicly cohabits with a non-Jewish woman, “*kana’im pogin bo*”—kana’im may strike him. Yet Chazal immediately qualify this: “*halacha hi, ve’ein morin kein*”—it is the law, but a beis din does not issue a ruling instructing someone to carry it out (Sanhedrin 82a).

Pinchas approached Moshe Rabbeinu and recalled the halacha. Moshe answered him, “*Karyana de’iggarta ihu lehevei parvanka*”—the one who reads the letter should be its agent (Sanhedrin 82a). Moshe did not simply order him to act, because *kana’us* cannot be manufactured through a command. It must arise from within the person.

## The One Who Read the Letter

Why did Chazal describe Pinchas as “the one who read the letter”? Reading here means more than seeing words. Pinchas had absorbed the halacha because the violation of *kedushas Yisrael* genuinely troubled him. When a person cares about a subject, he remembers what he learns about it. One person skims an article and forgets it; another reads every word because the subject touches his life.

So too, Pinchas remembered this halacha because it resonated with his deepest values. When the crisis came, his response was immediate—not because someone trained him to be angry, but because the pain of the aveirah already lived within him. A person cannot be appointed a *kanoi*. His reaction must reveal that the honor of Hashem and the kedushah of Klal Yisrael truly matter to him.

## A Natural Reaction Reveals the Person

A person’s first reaction often reveals what truly occupies him. When someone collapses in the street, a doctor immediately begins assessing and helping. Another person may merely stand and watch, while a third reaches first for a camera. Each response exposes the person’s inner world.

So too with Pinchas. He did not pause to create a public identity as a *kanoi*. The halacha had become part of him, and when the moment arrived, he responded. This gives us two conditions for genuine *kana’us*. First, it must be rooted in the *ahavas Yisrael* of Aharon HaKohen. Second, it cannot be imposed from the outside; it must be an authentic reaction arising from what the person truly values.

## Kana’us Requires Mesirus Nefesh

There is a third condition. Pinchas acted knowing that he might lose his life. Chazal teach that had Zimri turned and killed Pinchas while Pinchas was pursuing him, Zimri would not have been liable, because Pinchas was not acting as an executioner appointed by beis din. He had entered the exceptional law of “*kana’im pogin bo*,” and Zimri could have defended himself under the law of a pursuer (Sanhedrin 82a).

Why did the halacha leave Pinchas exposed in this way? Perhaps because *kana’us* must contain genuine *mesirus nefesh*. Pinchas had to be willing to act even if the act cost him his life. Without that willingness, the person must examine himself carefully: Is this truly for Hashem and Klal Yisrael, or does he receive some pleasure from attacking, condemning, or displaying his righteousness?

The real *kanoi* does not sit safely at a distance and send others into danger. Pinchas rose and acted himself. His *kana’us* was tested by the fact that he accepted the consequences personally. The Torah’s *kanoi* is not driven by the enjoyment of conflict. He is prepared to sacrifice himself because he cannot bear the spiritual destruction facing Klal Yisrael.

## No Personal Vendetta

Rav Chaim Zaitchik cited an oral account concerning a grave case in which a posek authorized action against a *moser*, a person who endangered Jews by informing to the authorities. The agent who carried it out died shortly afterward. The posek reportedly explained that the act may not have been performed entirely *leshem Shamayim*; some personal feeling or satisfaction had entered the deed.

The story was cited to sharpen the point. When a person undertakes an act of *kana’us*, there can be no private vendetta and no pleasure in harming the sinner. The action must be completely for the sake of Hashem and the protection of Klal Yisrael. That purity is extraordinarily difficult to achieve.

## Sacrificing One’s Reputation

Pinchas also accepted another form of *mesirus nefesh*: the destruction of his reputation. Rashi records that the shevatim mocked his ancestry, pointing to his maternal grandfather, who had fattened calves for idolatry. The Torah therefore traced Pinchas to Aharon HaKohen (Rashi to Bamidbar 25:11). The Kli Yakar explains that Pinchas knew beforehand how people would speak about him, yet he acted anyway.

A true *kanoi* must be prepared not only to risk his body but also to lose his public standing. He cannot act for honor, because the act may bring him humiliation instead. Pinchas accepted that people would misunderstand and malign him. His only concern was what had to be done for Klal Yisrael.

## A Job That Must End

The Torah says, “Therefore say: Behold, I give him My covenant of peace” (Bamidbar 25:12). Chazal describe Pinchas as one who “rightfully takes his reward.” The Chasam Sofer explains that ordinarily a person does not receive the reward for mitzvos in this world because his work is not finished. A worker is paid when the job is complete, and a Jew’s avodah continues throughout his life.

*Kana’us* must be different. After performing the necessary act, the *kanoi* should feel that the job is finished and hope never to face such a situation again. He should not look forward to another opportunity to attack. He should say: “I was forced to do what had to be done; now let the need for it disappear.” Precisely because this task should end, Pinchas could be described as receiving his reward immediately. Genuine *kana’us* is undertaken reluctantly and concluded gratefully.

## Kana’us Is Not a Career

This explains why Pinchas could receive his reward immediately. Ordinary mitzvos are the continuing work of a lifetime. *Kana’us*, however, must be a task that the person hopes never to repeat. If he longs for the next confrontation, that longing itself calls the purity of his motives into question.

## Pinchas and Eliyahu

Chazal identify Pinchas with Eliyahu HaNavi. In the episode at Har Chorev, Eliyahu declared, “I have been exceedingly zealous for Hashem, God of Hosts, for Bnei Yisrael have abandoned Your covenant” (Melachim I 19:10). At first glance, this sounds like the language of Pinchas: “He was zealous with My zeal among them” (Bamidbar 25:11). Yet the response to Eliyahu was not approval. Chazal understand that he was taken to task for speaking accusingly about Klal Yisrael.

What changed? Pinchas’s *kana’us* was “among them” and resulted in “I did not destroy Bnei Yisrael in My zeal” (Bamidbar 25:11). His act protected the nation and stopped the plague. Eliyahu, however, concluded, “Bnei Yisrael have abandoned Your covenant.” His words became a prosecution of the nation.

## A Sanegor, Not a Kateigor

This is the fine line that defines *kana’us*. A *kanoi* must be a *sanegor*, an advocate for Klal Yisrael, not a *kateigor* who derives satisfaction from listing their failures. The purpose is to elevate, repair, protect, and restore. It is not to trample people, humiliate them, or prove how corrupt they are.

The original Pinchas acted from within Klal Yisrael and for their survival. *Kana’us* divorced from love becomes accusation. Even Eliyahu, who could truthfully say “*kano kineisi*,” was corrected when his zeal took the form of speaking against the Jewish people. True *kana’us* must always return to the question: Will this help Klal Yisrael become better and closer to Hashem?

## What Can an Ordinary Person Learn?

At this point, the demands of *kana’us* appear almost impossible. Does a person possess Aharon’s *ahavas Yisrael*? Is he completely *leshem Shamayim*? Is he willing to risk his life and reputation? If not, perhaps the safest conclusion is to leave *kana’us* alone.

Yet Rav Zalman Sorotzkin pointed out that Pinchas was not introduced as the *gadol hador* or the *av beis din*. At that moment he was not yet serving as a Kohen. He was simply Pinchas ben Elazar, an individual who rose when action was needed. The parashah therefore teaches that an ordinary person can become great through one courageous deed.

How can both ideas be true? On the one hand, we are not qualified to imitate the exceptional violence of Pinchas. On the other hand, the Torah plainly intends his conduct to teach every Jew something. The answer is that the accessible lesson is not necessarily *kana’us* itself. It is *zikui harabim*.

## Why Reward Is Usually Withheld

The Ksav Sofer asks why Pinchas received reward in this world. Chazal teach that the reward for mitzvos is not ordinarily paid in this world (Kiddushin 39b). One reason is that enormous material reward can itself endanger a person. Wealth, honor, and comfort can lead to “Yeshurun grew fat and kicked” (Devarim 32:15). Therefore, Hashem preserves the reward for Olam HaBa, where it cannot corrupt its recipient.

## The Protection of Zikui Harabim

However, the Mishnah teaches: “Whoever brings merit to the public, sin does not come through his hand” (Avos 5:18). Pinchas stopped the plague and rescued Klal Yisrael from further sin. He was *mezakeh es harabim*. Since the merit of the public protects such a person from falling into sin, the danger normally associated with reward in this world is reduced. Pinchas could therefore receive reward here.

This gives every person a practical path into Parashas Pinchas. We may not be capable of his *kana’us*, but we can help others learn, daven, perform mitzvos, and avoid aveiros. The lesson available to every Jew is to stop living only for himself and become a source of merit for the many.

## A Question About Printing Posters

A deeply religious man once came with a practical question. His work involved printing and hanging posters. Some advertised shiurim and mitzvah events; others promoted gatherings whose standards of *tznius* or propriety were uncertain. He wanted to know whether he was obligated to investigate each event and whether printing such advertising might constitute assisting an aveirah.

The practical ruling was not presented publicly. What was important for the shiur was the story of how this man entered the business.

## The Posters of His Childhood

As a boy in Petach Tikva, an older Jew repeatedly asked him to hang signs inviting local children to a Shabbos gathering where they would recite *Kriyas Shema* and participate in a Shabbos program. Many of the children came from homes distant from observance. Hanging the signs was difficult. The shuls were often closed, the weather was hot, and the boy did not particularly enjoy the work. Nevertheless, he did it because the older man kept asking.

Years later, the boy had drifted away from Torah. He became involved with a group planning an improper mixed party, and once again his assignment was to hang the posters. This time, everything went wrong. The printing was faulty, obtaining the signs became unusually difficult, the tape failed, and rain repeatedly pulled the posters down.

The obstacles were so unnatural that he began to wonder whether there was a message in them. He consulted a rav, who asked him whether he had ever used poster-hanging for a mitzvah. At first he remembered nothing. Then the childhood signs for *Kriyas Shema* returned to him.

## A Mitzvah That Would Not Permit an Aveirah

He began to consider whether the merit of those old Shabbos posters was preventing him from successfully advertising the sinful gathering. That realization awakened him. He returned through teshuvah and ultimately entered the poster business with a desire to use it for mitzvos.

This gives living expression to the Mishnah: “Whoever brings merit to the public, sin does not come through his hand” (Avos 5:18). The earlier *zikui harabim* did more than protect him from one aveirah. It helped redirect the very same skill toward further mitzvos. A person never knows how far one act performed for the public will travel.

## The Merit Continues to Protect

The man understood the failed posters as a sign that his earlier *zikui harabim* had not disappeared. He returned to Torah, raised a religious family, and continued using signs to spread mitzvos. “Sin does not come through his hand” can mean not only that a person is protected from falling, but that Hashem guides the very tools of his life toward additional good.

## Why Pinchas Lives

Pinchas is identified with Eliyahu HaNavi, who does not die. Perhaps his continuing life is connected to this principle. Pinchas arose as an ordinary individual and performed an extraordinary act of *zikui harabim*. He saved the nation from further sin and stopped the plague. When a person becomes an enduring example for generations, his influence continues to live.

An oral teaching was cited concerning the Chafetz Chaim’s long life. Because he became the world’s great teacher concerning *shemiras halashon*, generations needed his living example. His years themselves became part of the public merit he created. In a similar way, Pinchas’s act continues to teach Klal Yisrael, and Pinchas continues to live.

## The Chazon Ish’s Instruction

A family story makes the same point. Rabbi Walkin’s maternal grandfather suffered a severe heart attack while still a relatively young man. The doctors believed that his diabetes made surgery impossible and that little hope remained. He insisted that the family approach the Chazon Ish.

The Chazon Ish reportedly answered that a doctor has permission to heal but is not the master who decides who will live and who will die. Life remains in Hashem’s hands. He instructed the sick man to accept upon himself work that would bring merit and mitzvos to the public.

The family delivered both messages. In a striking and painful turn, the physician who had spoken with finality about the patient’s death was himself killed shortly afterward. The grandfather, without the proposed surgery, recovered and lived until approximately eighty-six years old.

He devoted those added decades to helping Jews perform mitzvos. He brought tefillin to people who could not put them on independently, visited and assisted the sick, carried medicines, and involved himself constantly in the needs of others. The lesson was not merely that he survived. His life was extended for *zikui harabim*, and he used that life for precisely that purpose.

## Reward for Another Person’s Mitzvos

The Ksav Sofer offers another explanation for Pinchas receiving reward in this world. A person generally does not receive payment here for his own mitzvos. However, when he helps other people perform mitzvos and brings them from spiritual death to life, the reward for that *zikui harabim* can be received in this world.

Pinchas’s act was therefore not merely an isolated display of *kana’us*. He stopped the plague, halted the aveirah, and restored Klal Yisrael to the proper path. His deed was an act of public rescue. This is why the Torah emphasizes the good he accomplished for the nation and why his reward could appear immediately.

## Eliyahu, Malach HaBris

Pinchas is identified with Eliyahu, the *malach habris* who is present at every bris milah. A Midrash connects this role with Eliyahu’s declaration that Bnei Yisrael had abandoned Hashem’s covenant. He is therefore sent to witness how faithfully Jews continue bringing their sons into the covenant.

This need not be understood as punishment in the ordinary sense. A Jewish punishment is itself a *tikkun*. Eliyahu had spoken as a *kateigor*, accusing Klal Yisrael of abandoning the bris. His correction is to become their helper at every bris.

The nusach recited at a bris addresses him: “Eliyahu, *malach habris*, stand at my right hand and support me.” That is the mission: stand beside the Jew and help him. Pinchas’s original *kana’us* was *zikui harabim*, and Eliyahu’s continuing role must likewise be to protect, strengthen, and create merit.

## The Bris Represents a Jewish Life

Perhaps Eliyahu’s presence is not limited to the moment of the circumcision. The bris represents the entire life of *mesirus nefesh* and covenant that begins with this child. Pinchas stands there as a protector, helping the child and his family remain connected to that covenant.

Thus, the correction for “Bnei Yisrael have abandoned Your covenant” is not merely to observe that the accusation was wrong. It is to become part of the answer—to attend every bris, assist every Jewish family, and transform *kana’us* from prosecution into support.

## Why Eliyahu Comes as a Malach or as a Person

A well-known discussion asks how Eliyahu can attend a bris on Shabbos if his arrival from beyond the *techum* would raise a question of *techumin*. Chazal discuss whether the prohibition of *techumin* applies above ten tefachim and connect the issue to the possible arrival of Eliyahu (Eruvin 43b). The explanation cited is that at a bris he appears as a malach, whereas when he comes to announce the geulah he appears as a person.

Why must the announcement of redemption come through a person? Why would the message not be sufficient if delivered by an angel?

## Eliyahu Outside the Ruin

The Gemara tells that Rabbi Yosei entered one of the ruins of Yerushalayim to pray. Eliyahu waited for him outside and afterward asked why he had entered. Rabbi Yosei answered that he had entered to daven, and Eliyahu taught him that he could have prayed a shortened prayer on the road (Berachos 3a).

The shiur suggested a homiletical dimension. Rabbi Yosei was moved by the *churvah*, the ruin of Yerushalayim, and his prayer expressed longing for redemption. Eliyahu, the future herald of the geulah, therefore appeared. His words hinted that salvation can come “on the road,” while Klal Yisrael is still traveling through galus, and through a “short prayer”—meaning suddenly and in a short time.

The point is not that the Gemara states this interpretation explicitly. It is a *remez* within the encounter. Eliyahu stands beside a Jew who is mourning the destruction and teaches him that Hashem’s salvation can arrive immediately. Geulah is not imprisoned by the length of the exile. It can come in a moment.

To announce that message, Eliyahu must come as a person. Redemption must be spoken in a language that Jews living inside galus can hear and believe.

## The Herald Must Understand Galus

Eliyahu is present throughout galus, strengthening Klal Yisrael so that they do not collapse spiritually. To perform that mission, he must appear as a person. A malach does not experience human weakness, fear, humiliation, or exhaustion. Klal Yisrael must hear the news of redemption from one who can speak to what they have endured.

A Midrash describes Mashiach standing upon the roof of the Beis HaMikdash and announcing to the humble, “The time of your redemption has arrived” (Pesikta Rabbasi 36). Why are they addressed as humble? Galus has humbled and broken the Jewish people. The herald speaks directly to that experience: You have been downtrodden, but the time of your geulah has come.

Mashiach is likewise described as “a poor man riding upon a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9). The donkey bears a heavy burden and climbs difficult roads. Klal Yisrael has carried a crushing load through the long ascent of exile. The redeemer comes in a form that reflects and understands that burden.

## An Angel Must First Learn About Man

A teaching was cited concerning the angels sent to Avraham and then to destroy Sedom (Bereishis 18–19). Why did the angel assigned to Sedom first enter Avraham Avinu’s home? Before judging Sedom, the angel had to witness what a human being could become. In Avraham’s tent he saw chesed, hospitality, concern, and dignity. Only then could he understand the corruption of a society built upon cruelty.

The point is that a malach does not naturally identify with the struggle of flesh and blood. To judge or help humanity properly, he must encounter the greatness and pain of human life. Eliyahu therefore comes as a person when he announces the geulah. He shares the language of exile and can speak to Jews who have carried its burden.

## The Lesson We Can Practice

When Eliyahu attends a bris as *malach habris*, his mission is *zikui harabim*—to support a Jew entering the covenant. When he comes as the human herald of redemption, he again comes to strengthen the public. In both forms, the true continuation of Pinchas is not aggression but helping Klal Yisrael remain connected to Hashem.

## Do Not Live Only for Yourself

The practical lesson of Pinchas is *zikui harabim*. It may mean supporting a minyan, organizing a shiur, helping a Torah institution, encouraging another Jew to perform a mitzvah, or creating an environment in which the public can grow. It need not resemble the dramatic act of Pinchas.

Pinchas did not live only for himself. He was prepared to surrender everything to rescue Klal Yisrael. That willingness transformed an ordinary individual into the model of one who brings merit to the public.

This is also the mission of Eliyahu, the herald of redemption. The geulah will be announced and advanced through concern for the rabim. A Jew must ask not only, “What am I accomplishing?” but also, “Whom am I helping? Whose Torah, tefillah, or mitzvah becomes possible because of me?”

We may be unable to reproduce Pinchas’s *kana’us*, and perhaps we should not attempt it. But his *zikui harabim* is a lesson for every person. Live for more than yourself. Help another Jew. Strengthen Klal Yisrael. That is the enduring avodah of Pinchas.