This week in the diaspora we will read the Parsha of Pinchas. The Jewish People began to have illicit relations with the Midianite women. Pinchas in order to stop this tremendous breach killed one of the princes (Cozbi) while he was engaged in these illicit relations. Our Sages teach us that Pinchas stood up in his great zeal and risked his life by killing Cozbi. The entire tribe of Shimon wanted to kill Pinchas and Hashem performed many miracles for Pinchas. As a reward for his great zeal Hashem Blessed Pinchas with His Covenant of Peace.

It seems a bit ironic that in reward for killing a prince of Israel and creating a huge tumult within the Jewish People he was rewarded with peace. In reality though when a society accepts "100% freedom" and absolute permissiveness it is clear that such a situation will lead to hatred, confusion, fighting and war. The only way to have peace is if each person, group, nation respects certain boundaries and forgos a certain amount of "freedom". If we allowed everyone to freely drive on the roads without any regard for whether the light is red or green this will create major issues. We must give up some of our "freedom" in order to have peace. The Torah tells us which "freedoms" we must "give up" and what the boundaries are; what is permitted and what is forbidden. Although we might not see crossing these boundaries as causing chaos in the physical realm but they certainly cause chaos in the spiritual realm. By standing up and enforcing the proper boundaries we bring peace. We should not be afraid to stand-up and do what we can to make sure the proper boundaries are upheld, not matter what the society around us determines as permissible.

Shabbat Shalom,

Heath