What is the Bris Shalom?

 

Parshat Pinchas

by Rabbi Avi Billet

 If you do an Internet search for the term “Bris Shalom” or “Brit Shalom” and click on anything that relates to circumcision, you will discover that there are people who offer a “Bris ceremony” for a child that includes “everything but the circumcision.” The argument at hand is that circumcision is an unpleasant experience for a baby, so why not give him all the benefits of the covenant without the most painful part?  [see here, the first time that topic is addressed here]

Readers who take the Covenant in question more seriously understand that a covenant dependent on two parties keeping their parts of the deal is not a covenant if one side doesn’t keep its part of the deal. The Talmud (Shabbos 130a) tells us “All mitzvos which the Jewish people accepted with joy, such as Milah… they still do with joy…. Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar says, ‘Every mitzvah that Jewish people were willing to give their lives for in a time of tyrannical oppression, such as [not submitting to] idolatry and performing circumcision, is still strongly established in their hands.’” 

All that having been said, the term “Bris Shalom” appears as a reward given to Pinchas after his killing Zimri and Kozbi, as his act of zealotry seems to be given a Divine stamp of approval, not only in his stopping the plague from the end of Parshas Balak, but in his personal life going forward. 

 Many interpret the word Shalom to mean peace in this context, but Haktav V'hakabbalah says the Covenant of Shalom refers to the word שלם - a completeness. Pinchas was now, as a Kohen, able to achieve a spiritual completeness that had previously been unavailable to him.

Last year, I shared this summary of how some of the commentaries explain this kind of covenant: 

The Bris Shalom: That he would live a long time (possibly forever) [Targum Yonatan, Seforno]; that he is untouchable, that no one could hurt him – especially the relatives of Zimri and the relatives of Kozbi [Midrash Aggadah, Rashi, Ibn Ezra, B’chor Shor, Chizkuni, Daas Zekenim]; that he is now complete as a Kohen, a status that he didn’t have earlier [Daas Zekenim, R’ Chaim Paltiel]; that he wouldn’t lose his Kehunah on account of killing someone [Chizkuni, Riv”a]. [Please note that each of these can use an expansion of explanation, but in the interest of time and limiting the length of this we will just leave those summaries for now.] 

Rav Hirsch builds the case that 

“The formation of the most complete harmony of all the conditions on earth, among one another and with God, is a Bris (covenant) and it is an absolute promise of God; God aims to bring about the realization of His promise, and the world can rest assured that ultimately it will be realized.” 

“The realization of the supreme harmony of peace is entrusted by God precisely to that spirit and to that activism which thoughtless people like to brand and condemn as ‘disturbances of the peace.’ Peace is a precious thing for which one is obligated to sacrifice everything, all of one’s own rights and possessions, but one may never sacrifice for it what God has declared to be good and true. There can be true peace among men only if they all are at peace with God. One who dares to struggle against the enemies of what is good and true in the eyes of God is – by this very struggle – one of the fighters for the Bris Shalom on earth. Conversely, one who, for the sake of what he imagines to be peace with his fellow men, cedes the field without protest and allows them to stir up strife with God makes common cause – by his very love of peace with the enemies of the Bris Shalom on earth. What saved the people was not the apathy of the masses, nor even the tears of sorrow shed by those who stood idly at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. It was the brave act of Pinchas that saved the people and restored to them peace with God and His Law, thereby restoring the basis for true peace.” 

Referencing the covenant of Shalom, Rabbi Yitzchak Arama (in his Aqedat Yitzchak) suggests along similar lines to Hirsch’s conclusion that it represents "the true wholeness of the saintly personality, people who preserve the divine image with which they have been equipped, in the perfect manner." 

 Nachshoni quotes an idea from Kosnos Or based on a passage in Kiddushin which suggests that the word שלום should be understood as שלים which means complete. This argument can get at least some traction because of the way the letter ו appears in a Torah scroll. In fact, many note that the ו in the word שלום has a break in it – it is called a ו' קטיעא, a split Vov. 

Hirsch argues that the covenant of Pinchas is שלום restored to its completeness. Where the zeal of Pinchas is required, the peace has been broken. Pinchas’ struggle is aimed at restoring true peace; he fights so that the שלום can be שלם (complete). 

 Other reasons given for the broken Vov is to indicate that a Kohen who has a blemish may not serve as a Kohen, and that the ו is broken here because it was taken from the name Eliyahu אליהו who is the reincarnation of Pinchas, whose name appears famously as אליה 5 times. In the Igra D’kala, R Zvi Elimelech of Dinov suggests that a similar thought can be ascribed to Yaakov who is sometimes written as יעקוב (instead of the usual יעקב) as if to suggest that יעקב has taken the Vov from somewhere. In reality though, a broken Vov looks like a Vov and a Yud! Yaakov’s job is to take both of those from Eisav (עשו), whose name means completely made (because he was developed and had hair), which would have (or should have) been spelled out עשוי. The Yud went to Yaakov (whose name should have been עקב because he was holding onto the עקב (heel) when he was born, leaving עשו. And the Vov, when taken, would destroy the enemy of peace forever leaving עש (which has no meaning for our purposes (though in modern Hebrew it means 'moth')). 

Pinchas is viewed as a defender of the Covenant, and is mentioned in the ceremony component at every Bris Milah. His defense of the Covenant was partially because Zimri was misusing the mark of the Covenant in his own flesh, but also because the abandonment of the Covenant by the people at the time, through their worship of Baal Pe’or, was something Pinchas could not stand idly by watching, letting it go unchecked. Our continuing to perform our side of the Covenant through circumcision is our way of saying, we don’t care what the world thinks, we value our Covenant and our relationship with God, just as Pinchas didn’t care what anyone thought in the moment he took to stop the plague, even at the cost of the lives of two people, and even endangering himself!

 We should be grateful to live in a time and place in history in which our ability to circumcise goes unchallenged by any ruling authorities. There may be people who are against circumcision, but they do not have power or sway, and their protests thankfully remain protests in their own spaces, with no influence on what we must do. 

 Pinchas’ zealotry for God and for truth is what Rav Hirsch adequately explained, so I leave us with a simple Bracha, that we should be able to stand for truth and goodness when we know with absolute certainty that we are right. And may our stand for truth and goodness be blessed with the coveted outcome – peace in all our ranks and in the world.