Rabbi Sacks writes of the similarities between the narrative of Elijah and of Pinchas, both classified as zealots, and both rebuked, albeit gently, by God. Scholars are ambivalent about PInchas; while his zeal was well-intended, he didn’t act within the moral parameters of Jewish law. God rebuked him by removing him to a position of mandatory peace, while Elijah was rebuked for not hearing “the still small voice”.
