ספורנו — בקנאו את קנאתי בתוכם

Q — The Torah praises Pinchas for "בקנאו את קנאתי *בתוכם*" — among the people. Why does the public-ness of the act figure so centrally in his reward of "ברית כהונת עולם"?

A — For Sforno, the "בתוכם" is the whole engine of the kapparah. Pinchas's deed didn't only kill the sinners; it killed them in full view of every Israelite. The bystanders' choice — *not* to protest the killing — became the formal atonement for their earlier failure to protest the sin. The collective was complicit by silence at the moment of bias toward Moav; Pinchas's public act gave them a chance to redeem that silence with another, righteous silence. The pattern was set in the immediately preceding command (Bamidbar 25:4) — "והוקע אותם לה' נגד השמש" — public hanging "שיראו העם את הריגת עובדי עבודה זרה ולא ימחו ובזה יכופר להם על שלא מיחו בפושעים." Pinchas didn't need to be commanded — "כיוונה דעתו לדעתו של הקב"ה." Cancellation of a national chet, on Sforno's reading, requires a public counter-act that the community must also fail-to-protest.