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New York in the seventies was a rough place, convulsed by an epidemic of muggings and street violence. As a reaction to this situation, actor Charles Bronson starred in a film called “Death Wish”. Bronson played a mild-mannered architect who, after his wife was killed and his daughter injured by muggers, became a vigilante. There are numerous issues with the film, but as a dark fantasy, it works. Audiences cheered as Bronson’s fictitious character gunned down various criminals, with the tacit acquiescence of law enforcement.
Real-life vigilantes turn out to be more problematic individuals. Take the case of Bernhard Goetz, who in 1984 shot several muggers, including one who was fleeing the scene. Goetz turned out to be a racist and an extremist, and his lawyer said that no one did more to damage his client’s case than Goetz himself, who was fined millions of dollars in a civil judgment.
Our Torah portion, Pinchas, opens with one of the very few Jewish vigilantes in our history being promised a “covenant of peace” for his actions. (Numbers 25:12) Pinchas successfully stopped a plague which resulted from the illicit consorting of Israelite men with Moabite women when he killed a prominent couple whose actions were carried out in public view. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 82a-b) notes that such actions violate the usual methods by which justice is carried out:
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Rav says: Pinchas saw Zimri (Jewish prince) and Cozbi (Moabite princess) publicly consorting before him and he remembered the halacha. He said to Moses: My great-uncle Moses, did you not teach me this during your descent from Mount Sinai: One who publicly consorts with a Moabite woman, zealots strike him? Moses said to him: Let the one who reads the letter (understands the concept) be the agent [parvanka] to fulfill its contents. And Shmuel says: Pinchas saw and considered the meaning of the verse: “There is neither wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord” (Proverbs 21:30), which the Sages interpreted to mean: Anywhere that there is desecration of the Lord’s name, one does not show deference to the teacher (but takes the law into his own hands).
In other words, our sages understood that on rare occasions, extreme and violent action is called for and even effective. In I Maccabees 2:27, Mattathias, father of Judah Maccabee, strikes dead a fellow Jew who is following an order to carry out a pagan sacrifice. Given that such extremism was necessary to preserve traditional Jewish practice, you end up understanding such behavior as necessary and justifiable.
In the end, however, vigilantes aren’t looked upon favorably by Jewish tradition. A faith based upon a detailed system of laws and judges has little place for those who act outside it.
Then again, occasionally, we have to admit that we need a Pinchas. Hopefully even more than New York needed Charles Bronson.
- Rabbi Scott Hoffman
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