Parshas Korach-- Get over your Pride!

In this week’s parsha, Korach, we see how Korach desires a more prominent position within Bnai Israel. Because Korach was born in prominent family, he was Moshe’s cousin after all, he assumed that he deserved a position of royalty or priesthood. Indeed, Korach did have many superior qualities:
1.    He was a first cousin of Moshe and Aaron.
2.    He was chosen to be one the men who carry the aron.
3.    He was an extremely learned man.
4.    He had ruach hakodesh (divine inspiration), that his descendents would include prophets (i.e. Shmuel being one of them).
5.    He was the wealthiest man at the time.

In Korach’s mind, he believed that he was destined for greatness considering all his superior qualities. However, since Korach was not chosen for a high-ranking position, he was greatly dismayed and this took a toll on his pride.

Although Korach was a wise man, he lost all his wisdom by letting his pride get in the way. Korach let his desire for stature get so far that he eventually gathered 250 followers to rebel against Moshe, stating that Moshe was assigning all the high ranking roles to his brother and to his nephews. Korach even went so far and he started asserting that Moshe made up all the commandments!

From this we can see how Korach let his jealousy and pride cloud his mind and caused him to sin. Rather, he should have recognized the Hashem has endowed him with a specific potential that only he could accomplish, and actualize that potential. Instead, he looked at what he lacked, which led to his downfall and death.

This should shed light into our own lives. At times, we tend to overlook the greatness Hashem has graciously bestowed upon us. Rather, we look at what strengths others possess, thereby, we feel as though we are lacking. Essentially, we must realize that each member of Bnai Israel has a different strength and potential to fulfill. We must appreciate our unique set of strengths that were given to us in order for us to accomplish our unique mission. Rather than constantly comparing ourselves to others, we should keep in mind the greatness we have within and completely develop those qualities. Once we have accomplished that, the greatness achieved through that, will be much greater than trying to actualize someone else’s potential.

Torah for your table! Become more educated!

From rebelling against Hashem’s Torah, Korach and his followers were severely punished with pershing in Gehinnom (Jewish understanding of ‘hell’ --place of making teshuva- repenting). Because Korach claimed that it was Moshe who made up all the commandments, Moshe had pleaded with Hashem that He publically punish Korach and his followers in order to reveal to the entire nation that Korach was in fact a liar. Moshe never wishes for his people to be punished; however, he needed the entire nation to recognize that their claims against the Torah were in fact false.

From this we can see how important it is to stay committed to Judaism and accepting the Divinity of the Torah. The Divinity of the Torah is based on the fact that the entire nation of Israel was present at Mount Sinai and heard the revelation from Hashem, and Moshe was appointed as His leader. When Korach and his followers rebelled against Moshe, they were denying the Divinity of the Torah. Additionally, had Korah not been publically killed, others may have later challenged other parts of the Torah, and eventually later generations would have questioned the Torah altogether. Moshe wanted to avoid this at all costs and asked that Hashem punish these men uniquely so that the entire nation could see that in fact, Hashem is the Master of the Universe who created the Torah, not Moshe. So to, Hashem performed a miracle and had the Earth split open and Korach, Aviram, Dasan, and their entire families were suctioned into the ground below, into Gehonnim.

Moreover, rather than making outlandish assumptions that ‘Rabbi’s created this religion for the sake of controlling people’ we must recognize the Divinity of the Torah has been revealed to our ancestors many times over (in Jewish historical facts: mass revelation, Hashem’s open miracles to Bnai Israel, Korach’s open miraculous death, etc.). It is just up to us to become educated enough and see Hashem’s Divine hand in all that occurs.