From:                              JoshHoff@aol.com

Sent:                               Friday, June 27, 2008 4:59 AM

To:                                   JoshHoff@aol.com

Subject:                          Netvort:parshas Korach

 

                                                                     It Never Ends   
                             By Rabbi Joshua ( endlessly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman   

 

About a year and a half ago I attended a conference on outrech held at a synagogue in Manhattan. The speakers presented some innovative methods of attracting unaffiliated Jews to traditional Judaism that they had  been using, and the afternoon went very well until one person in his early  twenties got up to speak.  This person called himself a rabbi and  ran a website with a controversial name. He mentioned the names of one or two great Torah scholars of today, and  asked who appointed these  people as leaders of the Jewish people and who gave them  the right to tell everyone how to act? He then asked the age-old question, first heard form Korach in this week's parsha, " for all of the nation is holy and God is in their midst, and why do you exalt yourself above the nation of God?"( Bamidbar,16:3). Many of the people there, myself included, took great offense at this reiteration of Korach's challenge to Moshe and Aharon so many   centuries after the Torah taught us of the consequences of that rebellion. However, in reality, the Torah itself warns us that such scenes are, in fact, likely to recur in Jewish history.        

 


.The Torah does not tell us when this rebellion occurred,  and there is a dispute among the commentators when to place it. Rav Yehudah Shaviv, in his work MiSiani Ba, mentions that there are  some  commentators ( unnamed) who say that this omission was made in order to impress upon us that  rebellion against Torah leadership is something that can occur at any time. Rav Moshe Tzvi Neriah, in his Ner LaMaor, writes, similarly, that the verse in parshas Pinchas, which says, " the sons of of Korach did not die" ( Bamidbar,26:11), can be taken, figuratively, to mean that people who act like Korach have not died, but continue to surface throughout Jewish history. The Mishnah in Avos( 5:20) tells us that a machlokes or controversy, for the sake of heaven will endure, while a controversy which is not for the sake of heaven will not, in the end, endure. The Mishnah goes on to say that the machlokes of Korach and his group was a machlokes for the sake of heaven. There is  a popular, witty comment on this Mishnah, to the effect that when people think that their controversy  is for the sake of heaven, it will endure, because they will keep fighting it no matter what. However, the truth is that, since the conflict orchestrated by Korach, there never has been a controversy that is totally done for heaven's sake, although everyone thinks that their own cause is the one that is correct. In any case, since the kind of controversy generated by Korach is destined to recur, says Rav Neriah, the Torah recorded it to give future leaders guidelines on how to contain them. I would like to point out some of the methods used by Moshe to overcome Korach's challenge,perhaps as a means of  recognizing who our true leaders are, and of  supporting them  when they are challenged.

 


The Torah tell us that when Moshe first heard the complaints of Korach and his followers, he fell on his face ( Bamidbar,16:3).. Later,  when God told Moshe and Aharon to separate themselves from the assembly that had gathered in rebellion, " they fell on their faces and said, O God , God of the spirits of all  fleshe: shall one man sin and You shall be angry with the entire congregation? " ( Bamidbar, 16:22). This verse contains two key elements in the reaction of Moshe and Aharon to the rebellion that demonstrate their qualifications for their positions, and the proper means of addressing such challenges. First, as pointed out by R. Ephraim of Luntshitz, author of the Keli Yakar, in his lesser -known work on Chumash, Ir Gibborim, the  act of falling on their faces before god demonstrates the extreme humility which they had, which made them qualified fo lead the people. when God asked Moshe to go on his mission of delivering the Jewish people from bondage, he continually refused to go, deeming himself unworthy of the task. Although, eventually, God punished Moshe for his continued refusal, his initial reaction, according to Abarbanel in his commentary to Avos, Nachalas Avos,  was  correct, and in line with what is taught in Avos ( 1:10) , that one should despise  a position of leadership. Aharon, too, when he was about to be initiated into the service in the mishkan, held back before approaching the altar ( see Rashi and Ramban to Vatikra,8:7),. The midrash to parshas Shemini tells us that Aharon saw the image of the eigel before his eyes when he approached the altar, and was embarrassed to proceed. Moshe then told him to go ahead and do the service, and that he was chosen for this. Rav Chaim of Volozhin explained that it was because of this sense of embarrassment that Aharon was chosen for the position. Korach, on the other hand, although in other ways qualified to hold a position of leadership, exhibited great arrogance in rebelling against Moshe and Ahron. This arrogance actually led him to reject the truth of the Torah that Moshe taught the Jewish people, and led to his demise as a means of meting the challenge he confronted them with.

 


A second element that emerges from the above-cited verse is the care that Moshe and Aharon exhibited for the nation they led. As Rav Neriah points out, the challenge that Korach and his followers confronted Moshe and Aharon with constituted a denial of the truth of the Torah, and, if gone unchallenged, could implicate the entire nation in a reaction of the Torah. In order to preclude that possibility, Moshe felt he had to make a clear separation between Korach and his followers, on the one hand, and the rest of the people, on the other. Rabbi Yitzchak Arama,in his Akeidas Yitzchak,points out that  this kind of separation was, in future generations, accomplished through imposition of a cherem,or ban, on people who denied basic Torah values.  Rav Neriah adds  the observation that this is why Moshe prayed to God not to turn to the mincha,or gift-offering, of Korach's followers( Bamidbar, 16:15). Rashi explains that, although the simple meaning of this prayer relates to the incense that they would bring  the next day as a test,  the midrash adds that Moshe asked God not totake into consideration the portion that   Korach and his followers had in the korban tamid,the daily continual offering brought from the shekalim given by the entire nation. not The korban tamid, as explained by Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook in his Mishpat Kohein, represents the corporate entity of the Jewish people,as a collective unit dedicated to holiness and the service of God. By rebelling against the Torah authority of Moshe and the decisions he made as to who would lead the Jewish people, Korach and his followers were excluding themselves from the Jewish people, and were thus not deemed worthy of being included in the korban tamid, which represents the essential unity of the people. Thus, this prayer of Moshe, which at first blush seems difficult to comprehend, constituting, as it does, an appeal to God not to show mercy on those who rebelled against him, is perfectly understandable in light of the challenge to the unity of the people, and the possibility on implicating the entire nation in the rebellion, that the challenge of Korach and his followers represented. Thus, Moshe and Aharon met the challenge of the rebels by, on the one hand, exhibiting their characteristic trait of humility when  presented with  the challenge of the rebels , and, on the other hand, displaying a great degree of courage in then standing up to the challenge and naming it for what it was, and taking the appropriate steps to prevent its further spread among the people.

 

 

 

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