The Silence of Phinehas and Every Jew's Duty to Protest

Jephthah the Gileadite vowed an improper thing, to offer up his daughter upon the altar. The men of Ephraim gathered to him to make a great quarrel with him. It was for Phinehas to say to them: you should release his vow; you have come only to make a quarrel. But he did not protest against the men of Ephraim, and he did not release Jephthah's vow. "He who sits upon the throne of righteous judgment" (compare Psalms 9:5), may His great name be blessed forever and to all eternity: after this man had placed his life in his palm and come to save Israel from the children of Ammon and Moab, and they came to make a quarrel with him, at once he rose and killed forty-two thousand of them, as it is said, "Say now Shibboleth, and he said Sibboleth" (Judges 12:6). This [pronunciation] is the language of idolatry, like a man who says to his fellow, "sha bel" [bow to Bel]. And who killed them? Phinehas, who had it in his power to protest and did not protest, and to release Jephthah's vow and did not release it. For anyone who has it in his power to protest and does not protest, to bring Israel back to the good and does not bring them back, all the blood that is shed in Israel is shed by his hand. As it is said, "And you, son of man, I have set you as a watchman... and you, if you have warned the wicked" (Ezekiel 33:7-8); this teaches that all Israel are responsible for one another. If you should say, those seventy-two thousand who were killed at Gibeah of Benjamin, why were they killed? The Great Sanhedrin that Moses and Joshua and Phinehas son of Eleazar had left with them should have tied iron cords around their loins and raised their garments above their knees and gone around to all the towns of Israel, one day to Lachish, one day to Eglon, one day to Hebron, one day to Bethel, one day to Jerusalem, and taught them proper conduct year after year, two, three, four, five years, until Israel were settled in their land, so that the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, would be magnified and sanctified in all the world that He created from one end to the other. They did not do so. Rather, once Israel entered their land, each one ran to his vineyard and his olive trees and said, "Peace be upon you, my soul," so as not to increase his trouble. The sages taught in the Mishnah: lessen your business and engage in Torah, and be humble of spirit before every person; and if you neglect the Torah, you will have many causes of neglect against you. And when they committed at Gibeah of Benjamin ugly deeds and unfit things, the Holy One, blessed be He, went forth to destroy the whole world, and seventy-two thousand of them fell. And who killed them? The Great Sanhedrin that Moses and Joshua and Phinehas had left with them. And the concubine at Gibeah was in the days of Cushan-rishathaim. At that time the priesthood was given to the sons of Ithamar son of Aaron for about forty-two years, and the sons of Eli acted corruptly. At that time the Holy One, blessed be He, said: let the priesthood return to its [rightful] owners. As it is said, "I said indeed [that your house should walk before Me forever, but now the LORD says, Far be it from Me]" (I Samuel 2:30): say to Aaron [the original promise]; say to Jeremiah, "And I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest" (I Samuel 2:35); this is Zadok the priest before David the king.