Zimri - a good leader?
I was reading a Chabad on-line article the other day ("What was Zimri thinking?" http://tinyurl.com/6y7kane), a short story about Parashat Pinchas; kids know it as the "shis-ka-bob parasha."
ANYWAY, in the Chabad article, Zimri brings the Moabite (ruler's daughter) Cozbi before Moses who has told Zimri and all those with him that G-d prohibits relationships with anyone from any of the Canaanite tribes, of which Moab was one.
With Cozbi at hand, Zimri, a Simeonite price (the story begins at the end of Parashat Balak and ends at the beginning of Parashat Pinchas) allegedly challenged Moses, saying:
"Son of Amram, is this woman forbidden or permitted to me? And if you say that she is forbidden, who permitted to you the daughter of Jethro [who is also a Midianite woman]?”
It seems to me that Moses marriage to - and abandonment of - Tziporah, "the daughter of a Midianite priest/leader" came well before HaShem's prohibiting intercourse with any of the Canaanite tribes.
In other words, Tziporah was "grand-fathered."
I wonder what Zimri would say if he could have looked into the future and seen that one of Israel's greatest kings was descended from a Moabite!
The Chabad article spins the Zimri story in a way I had never seen before and shows him as a good, albeit misguided, leader; it deserves a few moments of your time.
I find it a bit strange that Chabad finds so much good to say about Zimri and apparently nothing good to say about Balaam.
Spinning Balaam
Balaam (Parashat Balak) is many things, including a G-d inspired prophet, the rabbis say, second only to Moses in stature and ability.
According to the story, Balak sends messengers to Balaam offering him a hefty commission to come to Midian and curse the Israelites who "covered the eye of the land."
Balaam tells the messengers to spend the night at his place while he communes with G-d. In the morning, he tells Balak's lackeys that G-d told him to stay at home, and he sends them packing. There is no - repeat no - indication that Balaam had second thoughts or ulterior motives about sending the messengers on their way.
Balak rejects this, thinking Balaam is holding out for more loot. He sends higher ranking personages to Balaam with the same request, this time grandly increasing the reward.
Once again, Balaam tells the messengers to cool their camels while he asks G-d what he should do.
At this point the rabbis get up in arms and chastise Balaam for having the nerve to ask G-d a second time; after all, they say, G-d told Balaam once not to go; wasn't that enough? "He was just after the loot," the rabbis tell us.
It seems to me that if G-d had not wanted Balaam to ask again, G-d could have prevented the messengers from reaching Balaam's abode. Certainly HaShem had shown his ability to make his point - with the Egyptians, with the man(na), with the fire pans of Aaron's sons Nedab and Abihu (Parashat Shemini), why not Balak's messengers - or even Balak himself.
Just as an aside, how many times did Moses go to Pharaoh and how many times did G-d "harden Pharaoh's heart"? (Rhetorical question.)
When Balaam has his second chat with G-d on the Balak offer, HaShem tells Balaam to say exactly what G-d tells him to say, and Balaam, being a good prophet of G-d, agrees.
How, and why, the interjection of his e'tone (which always makes me think of the other "e'tone" - one spelled with an aleph [ass] the other with an ayin [newspaper]) is included is beyond my ken. G-d has given permission for Balaam to travel. He has instructed Balaam, and Balaam has agreed, to say only what HaShem puts into his mouth. Why the talking animal, only one of two in the entire Bik'tav. Perhaps to show that animals have perception and we ought to treat them respectfully, humanely?
By my reckoning - and it most assuredly goes against the rabbis - Balaam was indeed a prophet of G-d (second only to Moses) and was a tool of HaShem in the same was that Moses was a tool for HaShem; both had job descriptions that included "and other tasks as may be assigned."
If you like spy stories, consider Balaam as a "sleeper" or "mole" ready to be activated on HaShem's command.
Call my thinking a "spin" on the story if you will; I think this "spin" is well within the realm of probability; after all, is anything impossible for G-d?
