Parshas Korach 5761 Clean Hands
By Rabbi Joshua (sanitarily known as The Hoffer) Hoffman 

 Special thanks to Rabbi Moshe Shapiro, synagogue rabbi in Fort Lee, New Jersey and librarian at Yeshiva University, for his role in inspiring this week's message.
 
   In this week's parsha we read of the rebellion of Korach and his followers against the leadership of Moshe. The rebellion ended in failure and led to the violent demise of its participants through direct divine intervention. Rashi, citing the midrash, asks why Korach, who was a very wise man, did such a foolish thing, to reject the leader who was chosen by God? One answer he cites is that Korach's eye led him astray, in that he saw through ruach hakodesh, or the holy spirit, a special kind of divine inspiration below the level of prophecy, that the prophet Shmuel would descend from him. He therefore felt that he was worthy of a leadership position. The Midrash Tanchumah Yashan however, explains the opening words of the parsha - "Vayikach Korach" - "and Korach took" - to mean that his heart took him, in the sense of the verse in Iyov, " Why does you heart carry you away?" (Iyov 15 : 12). Korach's sin, then, was a sin of the heart. What needs to be understood is how it was his heart, specifically, that led him to reject what Moshe had to offer the Jewish people. 
 
   Rabbi Shaul of Modzitz, in his commentary Imrei Shaul, connects the comment of the Tanchumah to that of another midrash, the Tanna de-Bei Eliyahu, on the verse in parshas Netzavim, " And it will be, when he hears the words of this oath, he will bless himself in his heart saying, ' I will have peace, for I will go as my heart sees fit' " (Devarim 29 : 18). The midrash there says that from this verse we learn that if someone treats the halachic requirement of netilas yadayim, washing one's hands before eating bread, with contempt, it is a bad sign for him. Rabbi Shaul explains that netilas yadayim is being taken here as symbolic of mitzvos in general. The heresy of the person depicted in the verse in Netzavim is that of cardiac Judaism, which posits that it is sufficient to be a Jew in one's heart, without actually doing with one's hands the mitzvos that the Torah commands. It is, of course, important to have a good heart. Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, in Pirkei Avos 2 : 13, teaches us that a good heart is the most important character trait a person can have. Still, the Torah commands us, as people living in this world, to act, to do mitzvos with our hands, and all the good intentions imaginable cannot exempt us from those duties. Korach's mistake was to believe that fulfilling the Torah's intent without carrying out its command is all need one to do, and it was on this point that he challenged Moshe's authority. 
 
   Based on his explanation of the midrash and the verse in Netzavim, Rabbi Shaul goes on to explain Korach's tactic in rebelling against Moshe. As Rashi cites from the midrash, Korach gathered two hundred fifty people around him and wrapped each one up in a talis that was completely dyed with techeiles. He brought these people before Moshe and asked if one is required to place a techeiles - dyed string on the corners of such a talis. Moshe replied that it is required, and Korach ridiculed his ruling. His argument was that the purpose of the techeiles strand is to remind one of the similarly colored sea, and thereby think of the sky, and eventually think of God. If one wears a talis completely dyed with techeiles, then, he would certainly think of God. Why, then, argued Korach, is there any need to attach a strand dyed in techeiles, when the purpose is accomplished through the talis itself?  Korach missed the point that proper observance of the Torah entails following God's command, doing the acts that he bids us to do. Moshe, before calling on God to deal with the rebels, told them, " Through this you will know that God has commanded me to do all these acts, for it was not from my heart" (Bamidbar 16 : 28). He was thus responding to Korach's emphasis on the heart and his neglect of the actual commands of God, which was the core of his rebellion. 
 
   Although Rabbi Shaul does not say this, I believe that the midrash on parshas Netzavim that he cites is really a veiled allusion to the founder of Christianity, who, as is well known, made light of the requirement of washing one's hands. This attitude was reflective of his general neglect of the mitzvos, and his argument that he had 'fulfilled' the law. Later in Netzavim we read, " The hidden things are for the Lord, our God, but the revealed things are for us and for our children forever, to carry out all the words of the Torah" (Devarim 29 : 28). Rabbeinu Bachya, in his commentary there, mentions an explanation of the verse that he had heard in the name of the Rambam. He explained that the hidden things, meaning the secret purposes behind the mitzvos, are left to God. However, even if we do manage to understand some of these secrets, it is still incumbent upon us and our descendents to observe, through action, all of the commands of the Torah. In contrast to the person who, as cited earlier, rejects the requirement of netilas yadayim, and by extension the fulfillment of mitzvos in general, we are called upon to observe these mitzvos in all generations to come. Korach's rejection of this principle was, thus, a foreshadowing of a future rejection, and his punishment is a message to us for all time . . .