One merciful towards evildoers, will act evilly to the merciful

The Midrash on this week's parsha states that one brings atonement and peace to the world, when weeding out evil. The Midrash asks why is it that the opening verses of the Parsha state that Pinchas brought atonement to the world, if the only way to do so is through bringing a korban, or sacrificial offering? Thus, teaches the Midrash, killing evildoers is like bringing a korban. 

Though it may be mindboggling in its own right how Pinchas was vilified after killing Zimri, the Prince of Shimon, given that his zealous act ended a plague that had already killed 24,000 men, that notwithstanding, it is important to conceptualize the sheer courage his act required. Stepping up to the plate, when everyone around him was on a much higher level, a stature he could seemingly never attain. With his great zeal, uprooting evil, he brought peace, atonement and restored order to the people of Israel. 

When seeing the Midrash I couldn't help but recall the infamous episode in 1948 involving the "Convoy of 35" soldiers who were mercilessly killed on their heroic overnight mission to rescue the then blockaded Gush Etzion. There are different accounts as to who saw the soldiers - an elderly Arab shepherd, or two Arab women who were cutting trees in the early morning (https://www.haaretz.co.il) - but regardless, the humane instinct to not spill innocent blood was what prevented the soldiers from extricating themselves from the greatest of dangers. Within hours, all of the surrounding villages closed in on the soldiers, every last one killed. 

I can't remember where I saw this article but it was written about a war historian who shared that a major fallacy we have is that peace is the default, war, an anomaly. The opposite, he argued, was the case, the history of mankind replete with incidences of war, eras of peace few and far between. Asked as to how to ensure peace, he answered, "Prepare for war." Perhaps there is something militaristic in his approach, but the more salient point he made was that furthering peace requires work, effort, strategizing etc. Many have argued that when Putin saw weakness, he knew that it was time for war; Pinchas brought peace to the world, expanding the blessing it could offer by engaging in a preemptive strike, quelling unrest by literally spearheading those who would undermine the governance of the Jewish state, a state that may have been transient but that needed symbolic acts to maintain its sovereignty, and the unquestioned domain of its leadership. 

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