After Pinhas killed Zimri and Cozbi at the end of the previous Torah portion, God rewards him in this week’s Torah portion with “briti shalom,” with “My covenant of peace.” Much has been written about this passage. Was Pinhas a hero or a fanatic?
My teacher, Rabbi Professor David Weiss Halivni, asked (Divrei Halev, Jerusalem, 2025, pp. 307-308) why Pinhas, who saved the Jewish people in his act of zealotry in Numbers 25, was not chosen to lead the Jewish people in Numbers 27. He replied that someone who carries out an act of zealotry may be praiseworthy for his momentary reaction, but is not ready to be a leader. A leader must also have the characteristics of mercy and understanding.
I would like to discuss a different aspect of zealotry or fanaticism, when a group of Jews is obsessed with one specific mitzvah or aspect of Judaism at the expense of all other mitzvahs.
My starting point is a famous quote from Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk. His disciples were discussing a puzzling verse found in Deuteronomy 4:23: “Take care then, not to forget the covenant that the Lord your God made with you, and you shall make for yourselves a graven image in any likeness, which the Lord your God has commanded you.”
But it should say: “and you shall not make… which the Lord your God has not commanded you.”
Rabbi Menahem Mendel said, "The Torah warns us not to make a graven image of anything that the Lord our God has commanded us (Tales of the Hasidim, Martin Buber, New York, 1948, p. 279)." In other words, do not turn the mitzvahs or one specific mitzvah into a form of avodah zarah (idol worship).
When one mitzvah becomes an idol
It seems to me that in our day, we have large groups of Jews who have taken one mitzvah and turned it into idol worship. Here are three examples.
The first is prevalent, especially in the United States, and is based on the rabbinic concept of Tikun Olam, “fixing the world” (Mishna Gittin chapter 4). Some people call them Tikun Olam Jews.
In general, Tikun Olam Jews are very concerned about poor people in India and Africa, and they’re very worried about the Palestinians, but they don’t care about studying Torah or observing mitzvahs, or about the people, land, or state of Israel. In other words, they’ve taken one rabbinic concept of Tikun Olam and turned it into a form of idol worship at the expense of all other aspects of Judaism.
The same thing has happened with the so-called “Religious Zionists” in the state of Israel today.
I am not referring to classical Religious Zionists such as Yosef Burg and Zevulun Hammer. I am referring to the adherents of Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, and especially the hilltop youth who only care about the Land of Israel or about the mitzvah of settling the Land of Israel as interpreted by Nahmanides, to the exclusion of all the other mitzvahs.
Many of them hate non-Jews, and some are even willing to murder non-Jews for no reason whatsoever. In addition, they hate secular Jews, Conservative and Reform Jews, LGBT Jews, and so on. The list is very long.
According to IDF statistics from the end of 2025, in 2021 there were 446 incidents of settler violence in Judea and Samaria against innocent Arabs; 1,045 in 2023; and 870 in 2025. In other words, they have turned the mitzvah of settling the Land of Israel into a form of idol worship.
The last example has to do with current events. Last Wednesday, my wife was scheduled to drive up north to visit one set of our grandchildren, and she had to leave hours early because the haredim (ultra-Orthodox) were blocking roads all over the country to protest the fact that some haredim had been arrested for draft evasion.
The haredim have turned the study of Torah – something I have devoted my life to – into a form of idol worship, at the expense of all other mitzvahs. They don’t care about a milhemet mitzvah, that all Jews are required to serve in the IDF according to the Mishna (Sotah 8:7) and the Rambam.
They don’t care about the mitzvah of capturing and settling the land as mentioned above. They don’t care about pikuah nefesh (saving lives), which is the main thing the IDF has been doing since October 7. They don’t care about dina d’malkhutah dina (the law of the land is the law), which, according to many rabbis, means that Jews must observe the laws of the state of Israel.
They don’t care about “love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), which includes protecting your neighbor and his property. And they don’t care about kiddush Hashem (sanctifying the name of God) and hillul Hashem (desecrating the name of God). This is because they have turned the mitzvah of Torah study into a form of idol worship.
I hope that we will take this lesson to heart and remember that Jews are commanded to observe the entire system of mitzvahs – both ritual and ethical.
If we turn one mitzvah into idol worship, it becomes a form of fanaticism or zealotry with very negative consequences.
The writer, a rabbi and professor, is president emeritus of the Schechter Institutes, Inc. in Jerusalem. This article is based on a video he made for the UTJ in memory of Rabbi Prof. David Weiss Halivni z”l.