From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, June 18, 2004 2:37
AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Korach,
5764
What's
So Funny?
By
Rabbi Joshua (humorously known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
In memory of my
grandmother, Shaindel Leah (Shapiro) bas Shmuel Mordechai, whose 30th yohrzeit
occurred on Thursday, 28 Sivan. May her memory be a blessing.
The
story is told of an itinerant preacher - a maggid - who went from town to town
speaking, with only one sermon in his arsenal. That sermon discussed the
rebellion of Korach and his minions against the leadership of Moshe and Aharon.
When the maggid spoke during the week of parshas Korach, of course, he had no
problem, but what did he do the rest of the year? He would get up to speak,
reach into his pocket for his snuff box, pretend that he had dropped it, and
then, after a lengthy search, announce, " My snuff box is gone! It must have
been swallowed up by the earth, just like Korach ! Speaking of Korach…." He
would then proceed to give his Korach sermon. Interestingly, this joke is only
one of several that I once heard from a well known rabbi in Chicago as part of
his sermon on the Shabbos of parshas Korach. Moreover, I have, on other
occasions, heard rabbis begin their sermons of that week with a Korach joke or
story (readers are invited to send in any additional Korach jokes they may know.
For my personal favorite, see Netvort to parshas Korach, 5759, available at
Torahheights.com). Why is it that Korach, more than any other Biblical figure,
has become the object of so many jokes? On a simple level, it is possible to
explain that the very absurdity of Korach's charge of arrogance against Moshe,
the humblest of all men, in saying, "why do you exalt yourselves over the
congregation of God" (Bamidbar 16:3) , evokes laughter. However, I believe that
there is a more fundamental idea latent in this phenomenon, and that an
understanding of Korach's core offense can help explain it.
Korach, in
confronting Moshe and Aharon, argued that the entire congregation is holy, and,
therefore, they should not exalt themselves over them and act as their leaders.
The midrash says that Korach clothed the two hundred fifty people who joined his
rebellion with prayer shawls dyed completely with techeiles, commonly (though
not universally) identified as a certain shade of blue, and argued that there is
no need to dye any of the strings with techeiles, since the entire garment is
dyed with it. Moshe, however, maintained the normative halacha that there still
needs to be a thread hanging from the end corner of the garment that is dyed
with techeiles. Korach also argued that a house filled with Torah scrolls does
not requires a mezuzoh - which contains two sections of the Torah written on a
small piece of parchment - on its doorposts, while Moshe insisted that it does.
The Maharal of Prague, in his work Tiferes Yisroel, chapter 22, explains that,
symbolically, Korach was arguing that everyone in the congregation is holy, and,
therefore, there is no need for the leadership of Moshe and Aharon. The halachic
requirement of a thread dyed with techeiles, and of a mezuzoh on the doorpost,
is symbolic of the need for leaders over the people. The thread of techeiles on
the tallis represents the leadership of Aharon, who taught the people how to
serve God properly, and the mezuzoh on the doorpost is symbolic of Moshe, who
taught Torah to the people. On a more essential level, the Rambam, in his list
of thirteen fundamental beliefs of the Torah, writes that Moshe, as the one who
brought the Torah to the nation, was in a different category than all of the
other prophets, and belief in the uniqueness of his prophecy is a separate
principle, in addition to the principle that God bestows prophecy on certain
people. Thus, Korach's rejection of Moshe's choice of Aharon as kohein gadol,
besides being a rejection of the kehunah, can thus also be seen as a further
rejection of Moshe and his unique status as a prophet.
Interestingly, it
seems from the Rambam that Miriam and Aharon made the same mistake as Korach
when they spoke disparagingly of Moshe. As we discussed last week, Miriam was
punished for this by being stricken with tzora'as, a certain kind of skin
disease, commonly translated as leprosy. The Rambam, at the end of his Laws of
the Impurity of Tzara'as (16:10), writes that tzora'as comes as a punishment for
speaking leshon hora, or evil talk.The purpose of the punishment, he says, is to
prevent the person from engaging in the conversations of the wicked, which he
describes as being 'leitzonus' and leshon hora. Although 'leitzonus' is commonly
translated as 'joking,' the Rambam, as we will see, seems to use it in a wider
sense, as a specific kind of humor. He goes on to mention the incident of Miriam
speaking about Moshe, and notes that she did not say what she did with bad
intent, and, moreover, she loved her older brother, Moshe, whom she had helped
raise from infancy. Still, what she said was forbidden, and she was punished for
it. All the more so, then, will people who have bad intentions be punished. Such
people, the Rambam says, speak against the righteous people - the tzadikim - and
against the prophets, the Torah, and, ultimately, deny God. My teacher, Rav
Aharon Soloveichik, zt"l, explained that according to the Rambam, we learn from
the incident of Miriam that there is a special prohibition of leshon hora, not
to equate ourselves to Torah leaders and judge them by our own
criteria.
The Rambam, as we have seen, refers to this kind of talk as
'leitzonus.' Rav Aharon translated this term to mean cynicism, imputing hidden
motives to the actions of our leaders instead of regarding them with the respect
they deserve. Korach, then, did not learn from the incident of Miriam and
Aharon, but, rather, repeated the offense in a magnified way, cynically accusing
Moshe of having personal motives in his appointment of Aharon as kohein gadol,
and in his own role of leadership. This cynical attitude led to his eventual
demise. Perhaps, then, the reason for the abundance of Korach jokes is a kind of
'midoh kineged midoh,' a measure for measure punishment. Korach spoke of Moshe
in a cynical way, and so, people treat him cynically as well, making 'leitzonus'
of him with a continual supply of jokes and stories.
Please
address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following
address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.
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