Thursday, June 18, 2015
Parshas Korach: Dont be Jealous of Others
10:25 PM | 
Posted by
Rabbi Chaim Coffman |
"And they shall keep the charge and the charge of all the tent..." (Numbers 18:3)
After Korach and the men that sided with him have been destroyed, the Torah tells us that Aharon and his sons will be in charge of the mishkan (tabernacle) later to be the beis hamikdash (Temple). We see from here that G-d has made clear His choice of who will be in charge of His house and who will serve in it.
The reason this is made so clear is that no one will make the mistake and think that they were given favortism from Moshe that they reached this position but rather from G-d Himself. The Torah warns us not to be like Korach and his group and think that Moshe and Aharon were acting on their own and taking power for themselves.
The Torah makes clear that nothing that Moshe and Aharon did was for themselves but rather directed from G-d above. The Rambam in the 13 principles of faith makes this clear that Moshe could not have acted on his own but his authority as law giver and prophet were stamped by G-d Himself! Therefore, anyone who goes against what Moshe wrote or wants to change it or even if they claim to have prophecy and can change the Torah, we label that person as a false prophet!
In essence, you go against Moshe, you are denying G-d! This is the fundamental principle that Korach failed to understand. He understood that Moshe was the law giver and G-d's trusted servant but he felt that he went too far by handing over the priesthood to Aharon when he felt he deserved it. He was angry and wanted what was rightfully his! Can we blame him?
Yes because if he internalized the message from living in Egypt and subsequently going into the desert, he would not have made such a mistake! His ego and desire for honor destroyed him and the people around him. Moshe had gone too far and Korach rallied the troops to defy him.
He paid a serious price but the Torah makes clear that he was wrong, proving once again that G-d runs the world and that nothing done on the behalf of the Jewish people was done for their sake but rather by direct command from G-d. It boggles the mind that after seeing all the miracles in Egypt and in the desert that Korach could think that Moshe was acting on his own!
The truth is that even if we were to witness miracles and we heard about many of them that occurred the previous summer during the war between Israel and Hamas. The question is did it change any of us or did we think about it for a little bit and interalized the message that changed us?
The more G-d does for us in a revealed way the more responsibility we have to act on this and change! If we see things and it doesn''t effect us, G-d will take us to task for wasting the opportunity in seeing His presence and giving thanks for that.
The whole parsha of Korach is difficult to understand. We see how far a person's desire for power and prestige can literally kill a person. May we continue to work on ourselves being satisfied with what we have and never desiring things that won't be good for us.
Shabbat Shalom!
After Korach and the men that sided with him have been destroyed, the Torah tells us that Aharon and his sons will be in charge of the mishkan (tabernacle) later to be the beis hamikdash (Temple). We see from here that G-d has made clear His choice of who will be in charge of His house and who will serve in it.
The reason this is made so clear is that no one will make the mistake and think that they were given favortism from Moshe that they reached this position but rather from G-d Himself. The Torah warns us not to be like Korach and his group and think that Moshe and Aharon were acting on their own and taking power for themselves.
The Torah makes clear that nothing that Moshe and Aharon did was for themselves but rather directed from G-d above. The Rambam in the 13 principles of faith makes this clear that Moshe could not have acted on his own but his authority as law giver and prophet were stamped by G-d Himself! Therefore, anyone who goes against what Moshe wrote or wants to change it or even if they claim to have prophecy and can change the Torah, we label that person as a false prophet!
In essence, you go against Moshe, you are denying G-d! This is the fundamental principle that Korach failed to understand. He understood that Moshe was the law giver and G-d's trusted servant but he felt that he went too far by handing over the priesthood to Aharon when he felt he deserved it. He was angry and wanted what was rightfully his! Can we blame him?
Yes because if he internalized the message from living in Egypt and subsequently going into the desert, he would not have made such a mistake! His ego and desire for honor destroyed him and the people around him. Moshe had gone too far and Korach rallied the troops to defy him.
He paid a serious price but the Torah makes clear that he was wrong, proving once again that G-d runs the world and that nothing done on the behalf of the Jewish people was done for their sake but rather by direct command from G-d. It boggles the mind that after seeing all the miracles in Egypt and in the desert that Korach could think that Moshe was acting on his own!
The truth is that even if we were to witness miracles and we heard about many of them that occurred the previous summer during the war between Israel and Hamas. The question is did it change any of us or did we think about it for a little bit and interalized the message that changed us?
The more G-d does for us in a revealed way the more responsibility we have to act on this and change! If we see things and it doesn''t effect us, G-d will take us to task for wasting the opportunity in seeing His presence and giving thanks for that.
The whole parsha of Korach is difficult to understand. We see how far a person's desire for power and prestige can literally kill a person. May we continue to work on ourselves being satisfied with what we have and never desiring things that won't be good for us.
Shabbat Shalom!
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