#zeolot

וְהָיְתָה לּוֹ וּלְזַרְעוֹ אַחֲרָיו בְּרִית כְּהֻנַּת עוֹלָם תַּחַת אֲשֶׁר קִנֵּא לֵאלֹקָיו (במדבר כה, יג)

An eternal covenant of Kehunah shall be for him and for his descendants after him, because he was zealous for his G-d (Bamidbar 25:13)

Zimri, the leader of the tribe of Shimon, sinned with a Midianite princess. Pinchas, knowing the law that Moshe had taught regarding such a situation, courageously entered Zimri’s tent and killed him. G-d rewarded Pinchas with kehunah, priesthood, for him and his descendants.

The Torah states that Pinchas was rewarded so greatly “because he was zealous for his G-d.” Rashi (on Bamidbar 25:11) explains that this means that he raged G-d’s rage and avenged G-d’s vengeance. Implied is that the sin that Pinchas avenged is regarded as an affront to G-d Himself—more so than any other transgression. Why?

Chassidus explains that when a Jew transgresses any of the Torah’s commandments, the faculties of his G-dly soul that he employed in committing that sin are in a state of “exile,” vested in the act that defied G-d’s will. The exile of the G-dly soul is even greater when a person sins with his reproductive abilities, since reproduction draws from the very fabric of human life and the essence of the soul. Even so, however, the sinner remains a Jew, and his G-dly energies remain holy—albeit in exile until he repents. Even if a Jew birthed a child through prohibited relations, that illegitimate child is still Jewish.

A child born from a non-Jewish woman, however, is not a Jew. Hence, a sin such as Zimri’s causes the essential material of a Jewish body and soul to lose its Jewishness entirely, breaching the natural distinction that G-d created between Jew and non-Jew. Moreover, the Talmud (Niddah 31a) teaches that there are three partners in the creation of a child: a father, a mother, and G-d.  Thus, Zimri’s offense was an affront to G-d Himself, for he was also desecrating the G-dly power of reproduction (within him), as it were, utterly removing it from its sanctity.

This explains why G-d rewarded Pinchas with kehunah. Kehunah is a reality of nature; Rashi compares it elsewhere to the unchangeable realities of day and night (see Rashi, Bamidbar 16:5). Yet because Pinchas was zealous for G-d, avenging the breach of the natural distinction between Jew and non-Jew, G-d rewarded him commensurately with a breach of nature—He granted him kehunah.