„Just as at first, before his sweetening, he recognized more than anyo…”

In this week's portion the deed of Pinchas is recounted, who, in the face of an act of licentiousness performed as a provocation against the leader Moses, responds with fury and zealotry. Rav Kook explains that Pinchas's zealotry was necessary, and the fact that Scripture grants him the crown of peace is a result and not a reversal. The provocation was against the covenant between the Holy One and Israel, and thus the flame that flared up, despite the difficulty and extremity in it, was a flame of love — like the jealousy of a man for his wife or a woman for her partner. The Midrash says that Pinchas is Elijah, the angel of the covenant. A covenant of love.