The story of Pinchas reads like a novel, it is hard to believe that this is a “biblical story.” There is public lewd behavior by Zimri, the head of a tribe, then Pinchas, stops him in middle of the act, by killing him and the Midyanite princess with whom he is cohabitating with. By doing so, he also stops the plague that takes the lives of 24,000 Jews! Yet, the Jews belittled him with names to the point that they wanted to kill him.
The Torah tells us who Pinchas was: Pinchas the son of Elazar the son of Aaron the high priest, we learn that the Jewish people – all the Jewish people, not just the tribe of Shimon, of which ZImri was its leader – were mocking him for killing Zimri saying: You killed him because you are a cruel person. and this cruelty you inherited from your mother’s father, Jethro! You see, Jethro was an idol worshiper, and he was a cruel one at that. He used to feed the cattle extra feed befohe would slaughter them so that they would be, not only better tasting animals and easier to kill, but worse, by feeding them in advance, they wouldn’t think that they are being slaughtered just after they were given such a good meal. That is cruelty par-excellence.
The Jewish people were saying that Pinchas and his maternal grandfather were one and the same: Cruel people.
G-d, on the other hand had a different perspective. Aaron, Pinchas’s paternal grandfather was a man of peace, a man who pursued peace. It is his DNA that Pinchas inherited.
Peace loving people have a tendency to share their love all the time. It’s a felling and a personality trait that one can pass onto their children naturally. So, it anyway makes more sense to say that Pinchas inherited Aaron’s traits. Pincahs wasn’t cruel. He was kind. He killed Zimri because he was acting wrongly. G-d rwards Pinchas, not just for his act, but to show the Jews that Pinchas was a just and kind man.
We can learn a very powerful message from this story: Many times, we accuse someone of doing something for the wrong reasons. When it is not true (although it may seem so). Even if it is a “little bit” true, nu, let the person work it out and come around the right reasons. However, for now we should allow the person to just do their thing (as long as they are not hurting anyone – or themselves). We don’t always know what makes someone tick. What gets their blood flowing. What makes them behave the way they are.
What matters is that we do the things we do to serve G-d.