HaRav Dov Begonis Head of Yeshivat Machon Meir.
Cain and Korach — both failed due to their lust for honor and jealousy. Both brought offerings, but since their inner selves did not match their outward appearances, God did not regard their gifts. Cain indeed brought an offering, but his heart was filled with jealousy and hatred — even to the point of murderous thoughts toward his brother. Therefore, it is written: “But to Cain and his offering He did not turn. Cain became very angry, and his face fell” — and he carried out his thoughts by murdering his brother, as it says: “Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him” (Genesis 4).
Korach too was afflicted with the pursuit of honor. His jealousy drove him to madness and ultimately led to his demise. Although he offered incense and presented himself as a righteous man, justifying the people with the words “For the entire congregation is holy, and the Lord is among them” (Numbers 16:3), inwardly he was filled with jealousy and hatred toward Moses and Aaron. Therefore he too was punished, as it is written: “The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, and all the people who were with Korach, and all their possessions. They and all that was theirs descended alive into the pit” (Numbers 16:32-33).
Rabbi Kook zt”l saw in the mindset and approach of Cain and Korach the essence of a deceptive religiosity — an outward display of piety while being inwardly consumed with jealousy and hatred. He compared this to the Christian religion, which outwardly presents itself as serving God and preaching the “religion of love,” but is in truth filled with jealousy and hatred toward the people of Israel — as we have experienced through centuries of pogroms and bloodshed (see Orot, chapter 32).
Even today, in the generation of Israel’s national revival, antisemitism and Jew-hatred have unfortunately not ceased in the world. Jealousy and hatred of the Jewish people still find fertile ground, even after the horrific Holocaust which reached unprecedented extremes in the murder of one-third of our people. Not only in the Christian world — which claims to represent the religion of love — has the hatred not been extinguished, but also in the Muslim world, which claims to serve “Allah,” we constantly hear calls of “Itbach al-Yahud” (“Slaughter the Jews”) in the name of religion — such as from present-day Iran and its leaders who seek to destroy the State of Israel, God forbid.
The blind instinct of the enemies of Israel, from both directions, cannot reconcile with the existence and revival of the Jewish People — the nation that God chose from among all the nations to proclaim His praise, as it is written: “This people I have formed for Myself; they shall declare My praise” — a people whose inner being matches their outer deeds, who not only believe in the existence of God, but also walk in His ways and follow His Torah.
But the day is not far off when the words will be fulfilled: “Saviors shall ascend Mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s… And the Lord shall be King over all the earth; on that day the Lord shall be One and His name One.” All of humanity will come to recognize and know that the Lord is King, and His kingdom rules over all. As the prophet Samuel said: “For the Lord will not abandon His people for His great name’s sake, for the Lord has been pleased to make you His people” (I Samuel 12:22).
We await the complete victory over our enemies who are the enemies of Hashem. And we yearn for full Redemption and do what we can to work with Hashem to bring it about.