5770 פרשת קרח

 In this week’s Parsha, the Torah describes to us the occurrences surrounding the challenge that Korach instigated against the leadership of Moshe Rabbeinu. The Torah describes how Korach gathered all of Bnei Yisroel to view the showdown between himself and Moshe Rabbeinu. At the showdown, the Torah tells us that not only did God want to punish Korach and those who were with him in challenging Moshe but also the rest of Bnei Yisroel. Moshe then prayed to God and God forgave Bnei Yisroel and only punished Korach and those that were with him.

 The Ohr Hachayim asks, what did Bnei Yisroel do that God wanted to punish them? They were not involved in the actions of Korach at all?

 The Ohr Hachayim explains that the reason Bnei Yisroel was worthy to be punished was that they did not protest the action of Korach.

 If we look at this Ohr Hachayim more closely we can ask the following question. How could Bnei Yisroel be held responsible for not protesting against Korach? There were 600,000 people and most of them could not even contemplate protesting against one of the most powerful people in all of Bnei Yisroel whom they probably assumed would not listen to them anyway, so why would all of Bnei Yisroel be punished for not protesting?

 The answer can be based on an idea brought down earlier in the Parsha by the Ohr Hachayim. The Ohr Hachayim explains that when Korach went to gather Bnei Yisroel for the showdown he was planning on having with Moshe the people even though they didn’t agree with Korach went willingly with him which appeared that they were agreeing with the position Korach was taking against Moshe.

 This could be why Bnei Yisroel were worthy of the punishment for not protesting against Korach’s actions. It wasn’t that God actually expected all of Bnei Yisroel to actively protest against Korach but rather to show him by their actions of not willingly going when Korach called them to come would have been what was expected of them. However, by going willingly they were showing Korach even inadvertently that his actions did not bother them.

פרשת קרח 5769

In this week’s Parsha the Torah describes to us the Machlokes that Korach instigated against Moshe Rabbeinu. Korach challenged the leadership of Moshe Rabbeinu claiming that many of the things he did like appointing Aharon the Kohein Gadol was done by him without the consent of God. When Moshe and Aharon heard the complaints of Korach the Pasuk tells us that they fell on their faces. The Rabbeinu Bechai explains that when the Torah says “they fell on their faces” it was to daven to God in that position. The Rabbeinu Bechai continues and explains that there were three reasons why they prayed in that position:

1. To show fear of God.
2. To show a feeling of suffering and subservience to God.
3. To show a feeling that you have no control and rely on God for everything.

 The Rabbeinu Bechai then adds that we learn out the Halacha of the need to say Tachanun with Nefilas Apayim from here.

 We can ask the following question. I can understand that we would need to go through the motions of praying in the position of Nefilas Apayim since our natural emotions do not effect these feelings so that when we pray to God we want to bring out those feelings we say Tachanun with Nefilas Apayim. Moshe Rabbeinu, on the other hand always had these feelings in front of him. He spoke to God on a constant basis and we never see from the Torah any hint that there was a lack in his Yiras Hashem. Moshe Rabbeinu is called the “servant of God” which means he was completely subservient to God and we know of course that Moshe Rabbeinu had a full understanding that nothing was in his hands and that everything was done by God. If this is the case, why would Moshe Rabbeinu feel the need to pray to God in this position?

We can answer this question with the following idea. When it comes to feelings and emotions being used in serving God (like fear of God or subservience to God, etc) even when we feel we may be at the top level and can’t grow anymore there is still room to do more. However, that potential while inside of us is hard to tap. One of the ways to tap the potential is to do actions that reinforce the emotions you want to bring out. This could be why Moshe Rabbeinu when he was in a great time of suffering decided to pray to God in the position of Nefilas Apayim. He felt he wanted to bring out even higher levels of fear of God, subservience to God and trust in God to enable his prayers to be even greater.

 Bnei Yisroel are going through very difficult times both in America and in Eretz Yisroel. We should realize that God gave us an incredible prayer called Tachanun which he told us say with Nefilas Apayim. If we keep in mind these ideas of the Rabbeinu Bechai when we say Tachanun, and enable the ideas to be inculcated in our hearts, it can make our prayers so much stronger which will hopefully turn the tide so we hear only good news for all of Bnei Yisroel.

פרשת קרח 5768

 In this week’s Parsha the Torah describes the argument between Korach and Moshe Rabbeinu. The Torah describes to us how after Korach, Dasan and Aviram and the 250 princes of Israel challenged Moshe in front of all of Bnei Yisroel, Moshe Rabbeinu went out of his way to  try to get them to repent even ignoring his own honor by going to the tents of Dasan and Aviram to make peace with them. Dasan and Aviram responded that everything Moshe Rabbeinu did was not for the benefit of Bnei Yisroel but rather only for his desire to rule over Bnei Yisroel. At that point the Torah describes to us the response of Moshe Rabbeinu:

 Moshe Rabbeinu got angry (Vayichar) and he said to God, “Do not accept any of their gifts (Korbanos). I did not take even one donkey from the people of Bnei Yisroel even for my use as a leader to do work for them. I also did not use my leadership position to cause them any harm.

 Normally, the word ”vayichar” relates to anger, but in this case Rashi gives us a different interpretation:

  Moshe Rabbeinu was very pained.

 The Sipurno takes this a step further. He explains the reason why Moshe did not want God to accept the Korbanos of Dasan and Aviram the following way:

 The reason for Moshe’s request that God not accept the Korbanos of Dasan and Aviram was since Moshe would not forgive them for their actions against him and since a sin between man and his fellow man won’t be forgiven by God unless the aggrieved party forgives the person who hurt him.

 When we look at this Rashi and this Sipurno the following questions can be asked:

1. We know Moshe epitomized the character trait of humility. In fact the Torah tells us that when Miriam spoke Lashon Hara about Moshe it didn’t bother him because of his great humility, so would the words of Dasan and Aviram cause him pain?
2. We know that even after Moshe was challenged, he went to Dasan and Aviram to get them to repent, so what could they have said now to suddenly cause Moshe such great pain?

In order to answer these questions let us first try to analyze what was the claim of Dasan and Aviram to Moshe. It seems from what we mentioned above that they were disputing the fact that Moshe’s actions from the time of the slavery in Egypt until now were done for the completely selfish reason of power. Moshe wanted power so he kept Bnei Yisroel in the desert, and he appointed his relatives to positions of power, etc.

We can see from Moshe’s response to their claims that this was what was bothering him. He answered I did not even take one donkey from Bnei Yisroel even though it was used to assist them. I used only my own possessions. This is the opposite path of someone who is just out for power and control.

Why did this claim bother Moshe Rabbeinu so much, while nothing else bothered him?

The answer can be that when a person gives his whole life for the benefit of others and it is viewed  as being done as a selfish act, it can cause a person great pain. For Moshe Rabbeinu, due to his great humility, he was not bothered when someone spoke badly about him or when other people had prophecy among Bnei Yisroel. He never cared about his own personal feelings. The only thing that could bother him is when someone cast aspersions on his relationship with Bnei Yisroel. Moshe did everything for God and Bnei Yisroel; he did nothing for his own benefit. What Dasan and Aviram did was to deny all the good that Moshe did for them. This was a tremendous lack of  Hakaras Hatov. It was the turning of what should have been appreciation for Moshe’s actions on their behalf to an indictment of his actions that caused him such tremendous pain. 

 We can learn an incredible lesson from this Sipurno. The lack of appreciation for what a person does for you is not only a lack in a person’s own Midos but it can also cause a person who did so much for you to be hurt. 

5767 פרשת קרח

 In this week’s Parsha the Torah discusses the occurrence of the argument of Korach and Moshe Rabbeinu. One of the most famous Gemoros discusses the story of On ben Peles and how his wife saved him from being part of the congregation of Korach. The Gemara explains the conversation between On ben Peles and his wife as follows:

 She said to him what does this argument have to do with you, if Moshe is the leader you will still be his student and if Korach becomes the leader you will still be the student?  His response to his wife was what can I do I was with them when they brought up the idea and I swore to them.

Rashi explains the response of On ben Peles as follows:

I was with them in the advice and I swore to them that if they called me I would go with them.

 The obvious question here is as follows:

 We see from the Gemara that On agreed with his wife’s analysis and understood that her argument was correct, but nevertheless felt that because he committed to Korach he should continue to go with them.

 Let us look at this a little more closely.Korach was involved in an argument with Moshe Rabbeinu who was the true leader of the generation. Furthermore, every time that Bnei Yisroel challenged God they were punished with awful plagues and even death. How could On be Peles once he understood that he had nothing to gain, and in fact as is implied from the Gemara that Korach was wrong, feel the necessity to join them just because he said he would?

 The answer is that we underestimate the true power of peer pressure. As we see from Rashi the pressure could be so great that if members of the group of Korach came and called him to come, it would have been very difficult for him to refuse even though he saw the folly of the action.

From looking at this Chazal you might think that peer pressure is all bad. However, the exact opposite is the case. Peer pressure is in truth one of the most important aids that we have in our service of God. All people have desires and not always do our desires match the will of God. There are many times where the fight to control our desires is very difficult and sometimes what holds us back is the fact that we care what our friends will say?

This applies to the opposite side of the coin too. There are people sitting in learning in yeshiva and Kollel today only because everyone is doing it, while if you look back 50 years when learning in Yeshiva was looked down upon there were very few people in Yeshiva.

This idea is actually the mainstay of one of the Berachos we make every morning. When we make Birchas Hatorah we say the following: 

And the words of Torah should be sweet in our mouths and in the mouths of all of Bnei Yisroel and we and all our descendents and all the descendents of Bnei Yisroel should know God ….

 The question that arises when we look at this Beracha is why we repeat over and over that not only we and our children should be involved in Torah but also all of Bnei Yisroel?

 Even if you want to say that like we do in Shemoneh Esrei that we always daven for all of Bnei Yisroel  why here did Chazal word the Beracha in such specific language repeating over and over all of Bnei Yisroel, why not just use vague plural like we do in Shemoneh Esreil (ie. heal us, return us etc.), why not use the same type of language here and say “the Torah should be sweet in our mouths”?

 I believe the answer relates exactly to the idea we just mentioned. We have many desires in our lives that naturally draw us away from learning torah. In order for us to have the best chance of getting into the Beis Midrash we need 2 things which we ask for in this Beracha. The first is that the Torah should be sweet in our mouths so we should at least an equal desire to learn Torah as to do other things. The second thing is to have everyone feeling the same way so we have the positive peer pressure which will also help us get into the Beis Midrash.

 However, since there is good and bad forms of peer pressure how do we ensure that we don’t get influenced by the bad peer pressure? The answer is to try and steer ourselves to associate with and to be around people who are known to be Yirei Shamayim and daven a lot to God that he send us the right group of aquaintences.

 If we can use the good peer pressure to improve our service of God, we should merit being able to join all of Bnei Yisroel for the rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdash in our days.