In Song: Pinchas
Moses Views the Land of Israel. Woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld from the 1860 “Bible in Pictures.”
Each week The Arty Semite connects the Torah reading — however tenuously — with a classic work of rock and roll.
In this week’s parsha, Pinchas is spiritually rewarded for killing the leading perpetrators of the idolatry of Baal-Peor with the Midianites, thereby staving off a collective punishment of death for all the Israelites. A census is taken of the people for the purpose of dividing up the land into which they will be entering. The daughters of Tzelafchad establish the claim for women to be able to inherit family land, in the absence of an equivalent male heir.
In spite of all the preparations for entering Canaan, Moses is again informed that he will not be going with the Israelites. Moses shows his concern for the people and requests that a leader be appointed to replace him. Joshua ben Nun is chosen and is officially sworn in. The Parsha concludes with a list of public sacrifices to be brought at their appointed times.
This week’s song is hit from 1981, “Jealous Lover,” by Rainbow. It’s not exactly an accurate description of Pinchas’s motives but the adjective “jealous” does figure in (it’s used three times in one sentence), as in “Jealous for God’s sake.”
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
- 2
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
- 3
Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
- 4
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
In Case You Missed It
-
Art How a Lower East Side Jew conquered the multiverse
-
Fast Forward Right-wing activists riot outside Israeli-Palestinian memorial event at Reform synagogue in Israel
-
Fast Forward Trump fires Doug Emhoff from Holocaust Memorial Council
-
Fast Forward Facing police investigation, Irish band Kneecap denies supporting Hamas, Hezbollah
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.