From the 7th Aliyah
When Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to commit sexual immorality with the
daughters of Moab. These women invited the people to the sacrifices of their
gods; then the people ate and bowed down to their gods. When Israel joined
themselves to Baal-peor, the anger of the Lord flared up against Israel.
The Lord said to Moses, "Arrest all the leaders of the people, and hang them up before
the Lord in broad daylight, so that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel." So Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Each of you must execute those of his men who were
joined to Baal-peor."
Just then one of the Israelites came and brought to his brothers a
Midianite woman in the plain view of Moses and of the whole community of the Israelites, while they were weeping at the entrance of the tent of meeting. When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he got up from among the assembly, took a javelin in his hand, and went after the Israelite man into the tent and thrust through the Israelite man and
into the woman's abdomen. So the plague was stopped from the Israelites. Those that died in the plague were 24,000. (
Numbers 25:1-9)
Phinehas represents something totally new in the Torah: self-initiated decisive action to punish a
transgressor-an action not directed by Moses but done spontaneously by one of the people.
