Print This Post Print This Post

rogerchover vort on start of parshas Pinchas

Written by d fine

The start of this week’s sedra reveals the identity of the two people Pinchas killed in his rightousness; Zimri the prince of Shimon and [the woman who he committed the aveirah with] Kozbi bas Tzur the Midianite. The Rogerchover points out a difference in the psukim in revealing these two people. Pasuk 14 says ‘and the name of the jewish man killed, who was killed with the midianite woman, was zimri…’ but the next pasuk says ‘the name of the midianite woman was kozbi…’ Why when mentioning Zimri does the pasuk say that he was killed TOGETHER with the midianite woman, whilst when revealing the identity of Kozbi, the pasuk does not say ‘she was killed TOGETHER with the jewish man’?
The Rogerchover answers that this shows that there were different reasons for the permitted killing of Zimri and Kozbi. The reason for Pinchas killing Zimri was a unique halacha that ‘zealous people may kill’ people who are committing such a sin as this one [“kannai’m pogeim bo”] and this has many conditions. One of the conditions is that it is only permitted to kill such a sinner when he is in the middle of the forbidden (sexual) act. This is why the Torah makes clear that Zimri was killed TOGETHER with Kozbi, ie Pinchas was allowed to kill them because he did so during their act of sin (the two bodies being connected). But Kozbi was killed for an entirely different reason. Being a Midianite, she does not have the same miztvos and aveiros as a jew, and she was killed because she caused a Jew to do such a terrible sin [the Rogerchover compares this to the halacha that one must kill an animal that a jew had relations with, because it had a hand in this terrible sin]. And so Kozbi’s death penalty does not carry with it the condition that it has to be done during the sinful act – it can be done even afterwards. This is why she pasuk when dealing with Kozbi does not need to mention that she was killed together with Zimri.

Leave a Comment