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Zealotry and Mercy: Parallels Between Pinchas and the War in Gaza

Zealotry and Mercy: Parallels Between Pinchas and the War in Gaza The biblical story of Phinehas (Heb. Pinḥas or Pinchas) presents a complex moral scenario in which an act of violence is divinely sanctioned as a means to restore order and peace. This narrative brings the ethics of conflict into sharp relief. The story of Pinḥas is found in Numbers 25:1-15. It takes place when the Israelites are encamped in Shittim, and some of them begin to engage in sexual immorality with Moabite women, as well as worshipping their gods. This angers G‑d, who sends a plague upon the Israelites. At the height of this crisis, an Israelite man named Zimri brings a Midianite woman named Cozbi into the camp, in full view of Moses and the whole assembly. Pinḥas, grandson of Aaron [...]

Creatio ex Nihilo and the Number Theory

As we began this Shabbat reading the Fourth Book of Torah—Numbers, I thought, it would be appropriate to post on this blog an excerpt from my article Creatio ex Nihilo, Number Theory, Quantum Vacuum, and the Big Bang, originally published in B’Or HaTorah (Jerusalem: 2007, No. 17, p.115). Introduction The kabbalistic principle of yesh m’ayin or creatio ex nihilo—creation of something from nothing—is difficult to fully understand because we have no experience of creating something from nothing. Although many human creative activities seem to create something new, in fact, they merely change the form or nature of things. Never do we create something from nothing. A sculptor takes a preexisting slab of marble and shapes it according to his imagination. So does a potter, who molds pottery out of clay; a glassblower, who forms liquid [...]

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