What was Pe’or really all about?  

 Pe’or is based on a Pe’or culture which is the antithesis of the Torah Moses gave us. Pe’or is based on deifying that which comes naturally. If my body wants to defecate, that’s beautiful. If my body feels the need to sleep with that woman although she is someone else’s wife, then I must heed my body. If my body desires someone forbiidden or even an animal, then it must be acceptable. If I hunger for anything, then I must feed that hunger. If today I feel like a man, I am a man and if tomorrow I feel like a woman, I am a woman. The key to Pe’or is shedding any and every aspect of
self-control. It is freedom from responsibility. It is the pursuit of every type of sensual self-indulgence and sensual pleasure as an end in itself. Its apex is in the serving of ones basest inclinations.  

Rabbi Abittan would teach that the purpose of the Torah is to take us from slavery to freedom and the highest level of freedom is when one can exercise complete self-control while living in the real world. One is free when one is no longer a slave and there is no master as powerful as our inclination. Moses, the messenger through whom Hashem gave the Torah, taught us that G dliness can and must permeate through all of reality; it must even dictate our approach to physical pleasures.  

The danger of Pe’or is real. We live in a Pe’or society. We live in a world of excuses and justifications. We live in a world where we are told to be who we want to be. We live in a world where almost anything goes. We live in a world where we are told not to bridle our passions. We live in a world where we are told to applaud those who are free. But that’s not freedom. That’s slavery. And it’s so dangerous that Moses himself is buried opposite Pe’or, perhaps to always remind us that we as Moses’ people must remain opposite of what Pe’or stands for. Only through control, can we be truly free.