Pinchas – Never Allow Anger to Guide You

The youthful Jewish leader, Pinchas, spears a Tribal Elder who fornicates publicly with a Moabite princess. Was he acting out of anger? Anger is forbidden in Jewish teachings. But if so, why does G-d get angry? Answer: G-d doesn’t. G-d’s seeming expression of distaste is always a pretence, for effect. By definition G-d is always compassionate. And Pinchas was not fuelled by anger, but by zealous expression of the law and ethics as the Torah later describes. Similarly should our responses never be fuelled by anger.