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Torah Portion -
korah
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Written by d fine
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Just a short one. The 250 followers of Korach were pulled into this argument/rebellion, and they all offered their ketores despite the fact that they all knew that only one of them would be chosen - the rest were destined to perish. Each person genuinely thought that they would be the one to come out tops - above even Aharon HaKohen - to the extent that they were willing to put their life on the line for this judgment call. And we know what happened - ultimately they all perished and Aharon came out on top. We see from here the danger of machlokes; once dispute begins, all logic goes out the window in the quest for self-vindication and glory. Let’s try and keep our brain on top of things at all times.
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Torah Portion -
korah
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Written by d fine
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After Korach spits out his rebellious barrage against Moshe and Aharon, the pasuk says (16:4) ‘and Moshe heard.’ What do these words mean; of course Moshe heard (he was not deaf) - what is the pasuk telling us? The idea is that Moshe looked deeper and understood where Korach’s claim was really coming from. Korach hid behind the claim of ‘the people do not need any leaders’ to charge his way to the leadership himself. Moshe understood exactly what Korach wanted and looked beyond the mere words that came out of Korach’s mouth. Moshe understood that (as the gemarra says) Korach’s argument was borne out of his haughtiness and lust for honour. This is why Moshe responded ‘in the morning HaShem will make known His chosen one’ - for Moshe knew that Korach really wanted to be the leader himself. This was a real act of hearing.
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Torah Portion -
korah
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Written by d fine
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As a result of his rebellion, Korach is swallowed up by the ground, to remain there indefinitely, chanting ‘Moshe emes ve’Toraso emes.’ It is a basic principle that all punishments are midah ke’negged midah; the punishment matches the crime perfectly. So how was the earth-swallowing punishment connected to Korach’s rebellion then? One approach is that Korach was challenging the ‘natural order’ of Klal Yisrael. In claiming that Bnei Yisrael were too holy to need leaders, Korach was essentially destroying the carefully-assembled fabric and structure of Bnei Yisrael. Thus, since Korach was destroying our natural order, the world’s natural order (represented by the stiffly reliable ground) was turned upside down to punish him. This also explains the connection to the next part of the sedra - the various presents given to Kohannim and Leviim - for these are the halachic framework of the structure of Klal Yisrael that Korach was seeking to destroy.
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Torah Portion -
korah
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Written by Daniel Sandground
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Parashas Korach – How to Argue, The Kosher Way :
The bulk of this week's sedra deals with the famous rebellion of Korach and his band of followers. Through their protest they attempted to overthrow Moshe and Aharon as the leaders of the nation and question the legitimacy of their appointment, a grave crime which ended with all of them being swallowed up by the Earth in a phenomenon created by Hashem to end the madness. So what happened here? How did this all start and what was the ikur of their dispute with the two great leaders.
In the opening line of this week's sedra we are told that... “Korach... separated himself with Dathan and Abiram... and On” [16:1]. Straight away Rashi tells us that we are being put into the heat of a machlokes (dispute) with the word 'ויקח/and he took' describing how Korach placed himself at odds with the rest of the assembly with Dathan, Abiram and On to protest against Aharon's
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Torah Portion -
korah
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Written by Administrator
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Torah Portion -
korah
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Written by d fine
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Parshas Korach; The Fine Line of Dispute :
With the number of psukim in our sedra being equivalent to the numerical value of my name, I feel a certain connection to parshas Korach (or perhaps it’s because I’m just argumentative!). Our sedra deals principally with the rebellion of Korach and his band of not-so-merry 250 men, who challenge the legitimacy of Moshe and Aharon’s leadership roles. The ‘rebels’ are eventually zapped (well, Korach is swallowed by the ground,[1] whilst his 250 followers are cooked by a Divine fire). We are going to put Korach and his argument under the microscope and see what we can spot.
We shall open with two questions. The Midrash cited in Rashi[2] reveals to us the reason for Korach’s discontent. Elitzafan had been appointed the prince, whilst Korach felt that he was in line for this honour. The Kedushas Halevi asks that Elitzafan was appointed when the Jews were at Har Sinai
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Torah Portion -
korah
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Written by D FINE
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The main part of our sedra deals with the dispute ignited by Korach with its destructive consequences. The final perek deals with the various ‘gifts’ which are to be given on a regular basis to Kohannim or Leviim (depending on the gift); terumah to a Kohen and ma’aser to a Levi from crops to name but two of them. Since we spoke about the Korach machlokes last year, we shall discuss the latter part of the sedra.
The point to realise here is that these various gifts are resultant of the special kedusha given to Kohannim, as well as that of the Leviim. As Rashi (Yevamos 68b ‘giluy’) says ‘terumah is the kedusha of Kehunah.’ Likewise, the Targum in our sedra explains HaShem’s words to Aharon that the Kohannim ‘…shall not have a [specific] portion in the Land [of Israel], for I am your portion…’ (18;20) by saying ‘You shall not have a portion…for the gifts that I have given to you are your portion,’ for it is HaShem’s kedusha that was given to the Kohannim that caused these gifts. Consequently, it seems clear that since Kohannim have more gifts than Leviim, their kedusha is
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Torah Portion -
korah
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Written by d fine
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I heard the following from Rav Osher Wiess. The Chidushei HaRim asks why Korach picked on an argument that Moshe was 'raising himself over the kahal of HaShem' (16;3) if HaShem had said Himself that Moshe was the most humble person that lived (12;3); if Korach is going to make something up against Moshe why pick something that is blatantly untrue - and how did people go with korach on this one??? The Chidushei HaRim answers that this is the power of machlokes; nobody thinks straight and anything goes as 'truth.' Similarly does the midrash tanchuma relate that Korach told his followers a story that Moshe and Aharon took terumah, peah, etc from the field of a widow all for themselves and eventually left her with basically nothing. Korach told this story despite it being impossible for terumah to occur in the desert; nobody owned land there and nothing grew (!) because he knew that aything will be accepted in a machlokes. In short, BEWARE OF MACHLOKES! Even shorter...GADOL HASHALOM
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