The Edythe Benjamin חיה בת שלמה, beloved mother of Barbara Hanus, Rosh Hodesh Tamuz Torah essay
Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach characterized Sefer Bamidbar as “great souls making great mistakes”. As we enter the month of Tamuz and Av, what we might see as the beginning of a downward spiral of events for Am Yisrael, I find this characterization helpful. In these “great mistakes” we can find our repair.
Korach, or the Korach ideology, is a paradigm for this idea. This past Shabbat in Israel we read Korach’s seemingly well- intentioned claim:
“Now Korach, son of Izhar son of Kohat son of Levi betook himself, along with Dathan and Aviram sons of Eliav and On son of Pelet-- descendants of Reuven-- to rise up against Moshe, together with two hundred and fifty Israelites, chieftains of the community, chosen in the assembly, men of repute. They combined against Moshe and Aaron and said to them, ‘You have gone too far! For all the community are holy, all of them, and the Lord is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above the Lord’s congregation?’” (Bamidbar 16:1-3).
At first this claim seems justified, even correct. The midrash even mocks Korach’s question to prove its inherent legitimacy: “Is a house full of Sefarim in need of a mezuza?” the midrash asks. So too with a people that are filled with holy people. What need for leadership is there really? And what about our everyday lives? Do we need Shabbat or Yemei Yom Tov if every day is holy? And we know there is some truth to this. Kedusha, according to Korach, does not have different levels or is not found in one place: “The whole land is filled with Hashem’s Kavod”. Afterall, we read in this coming week’s parsha that “The sons of Korach did not die” (26: 11). The Korach ideology and all that it connotes still exists today.
I would like to propose a reading offered by HaRav Dr. Yehuda Brandeis, who sees the sin of Korach as an issue of misplaced motive and middot. But before we examine these aspects, Dr. Brandeis explores how the hassidim, specifically the Ba’al Shem Tov and Rebbe Nachman, offer an almost identical approach to Korach. These masters understood that the niggun of the pauper on the street is just as powerful as the Tsadik who prays for hours in a Synagogue. A big part of their mission was to show that every person in Am Yisrael is part of the greater Kedusha of the nation, and we are all equal before Hashem. Rabbi Nachman sent his chassidim to the forest, to pour out their hearts to Hashem, to speak in their mother-tongue language, to speak to Hashem as if they are speaking to a dear friend. Hashem is found in every place and answers to every Jew according to his or her specific needs.
But the difference between the hassidic worldview and that of Korach’s worldview is in fact great. Whereas the former stems from true humility, the latter rises from arrogance that looks like humility. Chazal explains that Korach’s intentions derive from jealousy against Moshe and specifically Aharon. Further, he turned his personal jealousy into a lofty ideology. The Ba’al Shem Tov and Rebbe Nachman preach a perspective that is in fact the opposite of Korach. The leadership of these Chassidic masters emphasized a deep, spiritual demand of themselves and acceptance of difference and otherness. We can see this when looking at the disciples of both. The Ba’al Shem Tov attracted chassidim andtsadikim, whereas Korach attracted Datan and Aviram who expressed impertinent claims of their own, specifically that Moshe took them out of a land of milk and honey to rule over them.
In Rebbe Nachman’s Likudei Maharan (172), he writes “Most of man’s shortcomings come from his children or his parnasa or his health, it is all from his side (or perspective), because the light of Hashem emanates on him/her always, therefore man, via his wrongful actions creates a tsel (shade, blockage) for him/herself, so the light of Hashem does not emanate upon him/her.... But if man nullifies himself… he does not create thisblockage, and receives the light. The essence (ikar) of His light is kavod, because everything that Hashem created is for His kavod as it says, “the land is filled with His Kavod”. We would think that if He filled the land with “all His Kavod”, there would be no space in the world… but “wisdom is found from nullification’” (Iyov 28 - My translation)
The idea that man, imitating Hashem at creation, must remove himself in order to make space for otherness and creativity, is central to Rebbe Nachman’s teachings. This, I believe, is where Korach went wrong. Leadership is necessary. Not everyone can go into the holy of holies. The Ba’al Shem Tov and Rebbe Nachman understood that to elevate others, they must negate themselves, whereas Korach began from a place of elevating himself to elevate others. He began from a self-serving pedestal.
When comparing Aharon Hakohen to Korach, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach said:
“When Aaron Hakohen walked into the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur, what did he say to G-d? He didn’t even ask for forgiveness, he didn’t even say one word. You know what he said; he walked into the holy of holies and said ‘Master of the world, it's all my fault because I am the high priest. If I would be better they would also be better’. This is what the holy of holies is all about… Whenever we see something wrong in the world it should be clear to us it may be our fault. We have to fix it...I beg you, whenever you see something wrong in the world,think about it, maybe it's our fault. If we would be better the whole world would be better” (Thank you to Rabbi Shlomo Katz who provided this source)
We all do this unknowingly. It is far easier to point fingers than to look within ourselves. I bless us all that when we see churban (destruction) in Israel and in our own lives we begin to repair ourselves and in turn, reveal Hashem’s kavod in this world.