פרשת קרח
This week’s Parsha tells us about the strife which ensued between Korach and his posse and the rest of the Jewish people. Many laws are learned out from this Parsha about how to deal with our fellow Jew and how important it is to avoid conflict at all costs. Korach’s jealousy originally surfaced when he desired the position of Elitzaphan, but it ultimately drove him to covet Moshe and Aharon’s positions and to completely undermine their authority and to cause all the Jewish people to doubt Moshe’s authenticity as the interface between Hashem and the Jewish people.
Korach asked Moshe two seemingly innocent questions. He asked if a garment is made completely of the Techeiles dye, does it require a Techeiles string to fulfill the Mitzvah of Tzitis. Furthermore, he asked if a room is full of holy scrolls, does it require a Mezuza. These seemingly innocuous questions were actually a cunning, two pronged acerbic attempt to make fun of Moshe and show how illogical Moshe’s system was. The first claim that Korach was making that since it is ridiculous to demand Techeiles on a garment which is made entirely from Techeiles, therefore Moshe must be a fake. If successful, Korach could have managed to convince the entire Jewish people that Moshe’s position as the prophet in charge of transmitting the Torah was fraudulent, and was just an unfortunate case of self-aggrandizement. And secondly, Korach was trying to convey the message that all the Jewish people received the Torah at Sinai, and they were therefore all eligible to receive holiness directly from God, and they did not need Moshe to intercede on their behalf. He was using the Techieles as a front to present this argument. Just as a garment which is saturated with that dye is completely holy, and therefore requires no further holiness, so to the Jewish people are all holy, and do not need one more “holy man” to get close to Hashem.
Nevertheless, Korach’s claims were not so unreasonable. Korach seemed like a people’s person, fighting for the rights of the common folk. On a surface level, perhaps he was a little jealous, but he seemed to be saying that each and every Jew should have a right to access Hashem directly, without a middleman. In many ways, this type of attitude seems admirable. I would like to attempt to explain what it was about Korach’s claims that were so insidious that he was sentenced to be rotated on a spit in Gehenom on a daily basis and is forced to call out, “Moshe is true and his Torah is true”.
There is an interesting Zohar in this week’s Parsha which says that Korach was disputing the concept of peace, and the concept of Shabbos. It seems obvious what the Zohar is referring to with peace, but what does the Zohar mean when it says that Korach disputed the Shabbos? I think we are being taught a very deep principle here about the service of Hashem. We know that Yom Tov is different then Shabbos in one very major way. When it comes to Yom Tov, the Jewish people are in charge of determining when it will begin and when it will end, because Yom Tov is intrinsically linked to the Jewish calendar which was given over to Beis Din. Whereas Shabbos, on the other hand, is completely built into the creation. Its sanctity is predetermined and can never be altered. Korach wanted to claim that all of man’s spiritual efforts work in a “Yom Tov” like way. Meaning, you are what you make of yourself. If you build yourself up, you can be whoever you want to be. But this is incorrect. There is also a “Shabbos” mode of growth, which means for us, that there is a built in system of sanctity in the world, which cannot be altered, and which we are obligated to utilize for growth as well. This built in system is comprised of the wise people and the Torah giants in each generation, who are the scions in charge of passing down the tradition and whose wisdom and knowledge can be traced all the way back to Sinai. These are the fixed “Shabbos” positions of holiness on this earth which we are required to tap into in order to develop. One thing is clear, to try to produce Torah scholars, without the aid of a Rebbe or a well seasoned mentor is a recipe which is destined for failure, and this was Korach’s primary error.
The Rambam in his introduction to his masterpiece, the Yad Hachazaka lists each and every one of the 40 Rabbis who guided the generation from Moshe Rabenu, to the last Amora, R’ Ashi. In a way, he was essentially establishing his own credentials by linking himself to Sinai. He concludes this fascinating historical account by saying that each and every one of these holy Rabbis was linked directly to Hashem. The Rambam is teaching us that when a person has a Rebbe who has a direct transmission from his Rebbe, this is our interface with Hashem, and if a person attempts to bypass this system, he is lacking a primary connection with Hashem Himself. Perhaps this is why the Gemorah in Kesuvos, (111b) says that we have an obligation to attach ourselves to Talmide Chachamim in each generation. The verse says, “And you shall cling to Hashem”. The Gemorah asks, “Is Hashem physical that a person can fulfill this commandment by clinging to Him?” The Gemorah answers that indeed, we cannot cling to Hashem, but by clinging to the Torah Scholars, it is as if we are adhering to Hashem Himself. The Gemorah learns out from here that it is a specific positive commandment in the Torah to do business with a Torah Scholar, to marry a Torah Scholar’s daughter, to marry one’s daughter off to a Torah Scholar, and to engage in conversation and have daily dealings with a Torah Scholar. All of these activities are the equivalent of interacting with the Shechina itself.
The importance of attaching oneself and feeling reverence for Talmid Chacham cannot be overstated. The Gemorah in Sanhedrin (100b) says that anyone who argues with his Rabbi, or even considers the possibility that his Rabbi is wicked, it is as if he has considered the possibility that the Shechina is wicked.
R’ Chaim Shmuelevitz explains the verse in Mishle, “If somebody neglects to listen to the Torah, his prayer is an abomination”. Most people understand this to mean a person who does not learn sufficiently, will not have his prayers answered. But R’ Chaim dwells on the word “listening”, and he learns that the verse is teaching us that even if a person learns constantly, but does not have a Rabbi to receive from, his prayers will not be answered. This punishment is very fitting, because that type of person is a hypocrite. He prays to Hashem, because he knows that only Hashem is capable of answering, yet when it comes to Torah, all of a sudden he thinks he can do it on his own? The perfect punishment for such a person is that even his prayers, which he does admit are from Hashem, will not be answered!
May we all merit to learn from Korach’s mistakes and remove all jealousy from our hearts, and cling to our Rabbeim with all of our might!