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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