NUM319 Hillel and Shammai received the tradition from them [Sh'mayah and Avtalyon]. Hillel said: Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving people and drawing them near to the Torah. Pirkei Avot, Perek I, mishnah 12. We translate the Mishnah's words rodef shalom as "pursuing peace." But the verb rodef is often understood to denote pursuing with intent to destroy; in other words, persecution. In this vein, then, the passage would mean, "Love peace and persecute peace." Yet this is not at all paradoxical. Often times those who love peace may, for the sake of the Torah, have to be the ones who temporarily disrupt the peace. When one of the leaders of Israel defied Moses and publicly desecrated the name of God by committing gross immorality, Pinchas, a grandson of Aaron, was jealous for the Lord and destroyed the evildoers. He certainly did not uphold peace in its conventional sense. He committed violence and bloodshed. Pinchas did not hesitate to disrupt the "peace" of compromise and appeasement. He refused to be tolerant of evil. Yet the Almighty's award to Pinchas was "Behold, I give him My covenant of peace" [this verse]. Without any hesitation Pinchas destroyed an unreal superficial peace to achieve a genuine peace: a harmonious relationship between God and Israel. This was "a war to end war." We find such occasions in life and in history. We must pray to the Almighty to give us the wisdom to recognize and judge these occasions correctly!