Thursday, June 19, 2014
Parshas Korach: Jealousy can kill
10:04 PM | 
Posted by
Rabbi Chaim Coffman |
"Korach, son of Yitzhar, son of Kohas, son of Lvi, separated himself with Dathan adn Aviram, sons of Eliav and On son of Peles, the offspring of Reuven" (Numbers 16:1)
The commentaries are bothered by the fact that Korach was a great individual, comes from the offspring of Reuven, saw all the miracles in Egypt and crossing the sea, how could he have had the audacity to come out against Moshe and Aharon? After all, didn't Moshe and Aharon have directive straight from G-d Himself? Did he really think they were acting on their own and Moshe showed favoritism to his brother when he had a "legitimate" right as well?
The issue here is like the Mishna in Ethics of our fathers that teaches us that honor and jealously can take us out of this world. This can be taken literally that it could kill you but it could also mean that it could take them out of the next world as well. When a person is jealous of someone else, they could have legitimate reasons for doing so. At the same time, it is not a good character trait to have!
As great as Korach was, he made a fundamental mistake. After witnessing the miracles and coming out of Egypt, he did not take the lessons from there and place them in his heart. This means that he should have realized that Moshe and Aharon were only doing what G-d told them to do and had no ulterior motives! He failed in understanding a very important point.
Ultimately a person keeps Torah and mitzvos because they believe that G-d gave the Torah to Moshe at Mount Sinai and made all the laws binding for the Jewish people throughout the generations. There are mitzvos that we understand better, that make more sense and there are mitzvos that we don't really comprehend at all. Even though we keep them, it doesn't invalidate us and make us look like were are doing things because of a leap of faith.
Even the mitzvos that we do understand better we have to keep in mind that those reasons may not be the only ones as to why we keep it. Also, we have to look at them as if they are mitzvos we don't really understand as well. The reason is because if we keep all the laws of Torah just because G-d said so not necessarily because we understood them 100%, our mitzvah observance would look different!
This is the mistake Korach made. He though he "understood" what G-d wanted from him and instead decided that Moshe was taking too much power and giving it to his close family! Had he just realized that G-d was the one telling him what to do and say to the Jewish people, he would have seen that he was mistaken.
Instead he took his warped idea and convinced many righteous people that he was right and caused a tremendous tragedy to the Jewish people. From here we see what the power of jealousy is and how its venom can spread!
Shabbat Shalom
The commentaries are bothered by the fact that Korach was a great individual, comes from the offspring of Reuven, saw all the miracles in Egypt and crossing the sea, how could he have had the audacity to come out against Moshe and Aharon? After all, didn't Moshe and Aharon have directive straight from G-d Himself? Did he really think they were acting on their own and Moshe showed favoritism to his brother when he had a "legitimate" right as well?
The issue here is like the Mishna in Ethics of our fathers that teaches us that honor and jealously can take us out of this world. This can be taken literally that it could kill you but it could also mean that it could take them out of the next world as well. When a person is jealous of someone else, they could have legitimate reasons for doing so. At the same time, it is not a good character trait to have!
As great as Korach was, he made a fundamental mistake. After witnessing the miracles and coming out of Egypt, he did not take the lessons from there and place them in his heart. This means that he should have realized that Moshe and Aharon were only doing what G-d told them to do and had no ulterior motives! He failed in understanding a very important point.
Ultimately a person keeps Torah and mitzvos because they believe that G-d gave the Torah to Moshe at Mount Sinai and made all the laws binding for the Jewish people throughout the generations. There are mitzvos that we understand better, that make more sense and there are mitzvos that we don't really comprehend at all. Even though we keep them, it doesn't invalidate us and make us look like were are doing things because of a leap of faith.
Even the mitzvos that we do understand better we have to keep in mind that those reasons may not be the only ones as to why we keep it. Also, we have to look at them as if they are mitzvos we don't really understand as well. The reason is because if we keep all the laws of Torah just because G-d said so not necessarily because we understood them 100%, our mitzvah observance would look different!
This is the mistake Korach made. He though he "understood" what G-d wanted from him and instead decided that Moshe was taking too much power and giving it to his close family! Had he just realized that G-d was the one telling him what to do and say to the Jewish people, he would have seen that he was mistaken.
Instead he took his warped idea and convinced many righteous people that he was right and caused a tremendous tragedy to the Jewish people. From here we see what the power of jealousy is and how its venom can spread!
Shabbat Shalom
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