Following the slaying of Zimri at the hands of Pinchas, the passuk describes how Pinchas removed Hashem’s anger from the Jewish People by avenging Hashem “among them.” This saved the Jews from destruction.
The Kotzker Rebbe notes the apparently superfluous words, “among them,” and explains that not only did Pinchas display zealousness for Hashem’s honor, but he also instilled zealousness into the entire Jewish People. The Vorka Rebbe adds that although being passionate about standing up for Hashem’s honor is a high level which is generally hard to attain, after Pinchas’ deed there was not a single Jew who did not reach this.
Every Yid has within him a desire to defend the honor of Hashem and His Torah. Each person expresses this passion in a different way, depending on his personality, level of observance, and upbringing. Virtually every Yid will be extremely passionate about something, and you’ll rarely find someone who is capable of being indifferent about absolutely everything.
Each of us can pinpoint where his red lines are and what kinds of actions he simply will not — and cannot — tolerate, and it’s very common for children to absorb a sense of where the red lines are from their parents, even if they don’t actually inherit their parents’ precise order of priorities.
Interestingly, just as each person has a number of issues about which he has no strong feelings at all (even if those issues may be objectively serious or considered serious by most other people), so too is it common to find children sharing their parents’ passion about certain issues and not sharing it at all, about others. This is where friction can arise, and it’s important to know how much one can relay ideas and principles, and where one simply cannot.
