Parashas Korach: How Machlokes Can Lead to Kefirah

Transcript

We talked about Korach. You'll ask yourself, Korach was last week's parsha. The truth is, Korach is not last week; it's every day. There's a mitzvah in the Torah, Lo siyeh k'Korach v'adaso, right? Lo siyeh k'Korach v'adaso, which means anytime you take part in machlokes, you're over the aveirah of lo tihyeh k'Korach v'adaso, that you're involved in the same sin, the same misbehavior of Korach. And the mitzvah is, lo tihyeh — don't be like that. Lo tihyeh k'Korach v'adaso. So that has nothing to do with last week. That has to do with every day. And we're going to soon learn, particularly, especially on Shabbos, there's a unique meyuchad for Shabbat, this inyan of lo siyeh k'Korach v'adaso. Don't forget, it's a good time to be like Korach. You come to the shul, a lot of fighting could happen. Who gets the shlishi, and who gets the revii, and who prays and who doesn't pray, and who you make Haskarah for and who you made Mishaberach. Ah, don't ask, right? Great times, futile. In English there's a word called futile. Futile means it's ripe just for Korach v'adaso. So we're going to learn about lo siyeh k'Korach v'adaso. We're going to learn about it. A, we're going to learn what it is. B, we're going to learn how to prevent it. And see, we're going to learn what happens if you are part of it, the tremendous, the tremendous punishments that are awaiting the person that's involved in Korach va'adato. So let's begin, and like I said, I know it's last week's parsha, and everybody's thinking, Ah, we just read it. No, no, no, no. Pay close attention. Vayikach Korach. Korach, who was Korach? So the truth is, you would say he's a big baal machlokes, right? The ultimate, as they call it, the pinup boy. He's the semel, the semel of machlokes. I'm going to teach you a Yerushalmi. The Yerushalmi in Sanhedrin, daf chof-zayin, says, as a matter of fact, Korach was a lot worse than just a baal machlokes. He was an apikores. The Yerushalmi says, Rav amar, Korach apikores haya. He was an apikores. We all know the story with the tzitzit, that he came and he put on the techelet, and he said, Talis shekulah techelet, what does it need tzitzit if the whole thing is already techelet? So too, the analogy was, what do you need a manhig? Ki kol ha'eidah kulam kedoshim, which he's right, they are kulam kedoshim, so what do they need a manhig, just like techelet shouldn't need tzitzit. So the Gemara says, b'otah sha'ah, at that time, amar, he said, Ein Torah min haShamayim, v'lo Moshe navi. V'loi Aharon Kohen Gadol. So he became an apikores, yeah. He said there was no Torah min haShamayim. Korach said that. Yes. Sit down, we're discussing that Korach is not last week's parsha; it's every day parsha. Because people, you know, there's a cute thing, they say, Bnei Korach lo meitu, it says. Oh. So they say over, you know why Bnei Korach lo meitu? Because machlokes lives on and on and on. Machlokes is not an old story. Every day, every day there's machlokes. I do have to point out that Rav Chaim Kanievsky shlita says in his sefer that you're not allowed to say that vort. He says that someone told him this vort, but you're not allowed to say it. Why? Because they did teshuva. So you're not allowed to say Bnei Korach lo meitu, ki'ilu they're still holding in the machlokes. All right. But it's a famous, famous vort: Bnei Korach lo meitu because machlokes never dies. It lives on and on and on. Okay. Right, machlokes never dies. That's how they say Bnei Korach lo meitu. But the point being, therefore, is Korach is not parshas HaShavua, but Korach is what? Parshas hayom-yomi. It's every day. Korach lo meitu. Quiet, quiet, we'll talk about it. Now, so we have over here parshas Korach, which is parshas—

Every day, right? Every day. So let's talk, like I said, A, what is the chet of Korach? Two, how do we save ourselves from it? How do we protect ourselves from it? And C, let's see the tremendous onesh that comes. Oy yoy yoy, there's a lot in the Zohar and in the Rabbeinu Bechaye and the Rishonim talk about the Gehenom this parsha. If anybody likes to talk about Gehenom, they better learn Parshas Korach with all the Rishonim, because the Gehenom is detailed to the point exactly what's going on up there. So get ready and get scared. Now, so we said that Korach, we think, is a big baal machlokes. The Yerushalmi tells us that actually Korach was not b'koires. It's Yerushalmi. Yerushalmi says, Korach ha'pikores. Rav amar, Rav says, Korach ha'pikores. After he brought the tzitzit and everything, he said, Ein Torah min haShamayim, v'lo Moshe navi, v'lo Aharon Kohen Gadol. The Brisker Rav explains that's what pshat in the pasuk, Atah teida, now you will know, ki Hashem shelachani, ki lo milibi. Says the Brisker Rav, there are two things: ki Hashem shelachani v'lo milibi. What does that mean? One is for the shlichut, because he denied the yud-gimmel ikrim that Moshe was the shliach, and he also denied that the Torah was min haShamayim, ki lo milibi. I didn't make it up; it came from Shamayim. So that's why Moshe Rabbeinu stresses that now you will know ki Hashem shelachani, which is one of the yud-gimmel ikrim he was kofer on, and also ki lo milibi. Another one of the yud gimel ikrim which he was kofer, that he said Torah is lo min haShamayim. So this was to prove both points. That's how the Brisker Rav says, beautiful pshat. The question that the Rishonim—I shouldn't say Rishonim, but the Acharonim, the mefarshim ask—is a very famous Rambam in Iggeres Teiman. The Rambam writes in Iggeres Teiman that any person that stood on Har Sinai has a havtachah, not him nor his children, would go off the derech of emunas Hashem. He'll always believe in Hashem. Emunah is rooted in Ma'amad Har Sinai. Anyone who stood there, says the Iggeres, the Rambam, in Iggeres Teiman, will never have kefirah. So the question is, Korach stood on Har Sinai, so how did Korach become a kofer? So Rav Shach writes two important points. One is, he writes that there's nobody in today's generation that knows enough to answer these type of questions. He says we lost those knowledgeable talmidei chachamim who have knowledge in all of the Torah who can give us answers in these inyanim, which was an interesting thing to me. I thought it was an interesting piece of information, that we don't have those great giants anymore. Rav Shach says that we don't have people who know kol haTorah kulah in such a way that they can answer such a question. Nevertheless, says Rav Shach, possibly the answer might be that whoever stood on Har Sinai has siata dishmaya to have emunah. But does that mean that if he ruins it on his own with his bad middot, that means he'll always have emunah regardless? No, he could ruin it. If a person has negiut for sheker and bad middot, he could ruin the havtacha. He could ruin the siyata dishmaya that's opposing, that's going to keep him on, that he should have emunah. So what the Rambam just meant to say was that Ma'amad Har Sinai is a given that you'll have emunah, but you can ruin what's given to you also through bad middot and through your behavior and through your, you know, your desires. Okay. So now we have to explain that obviously Korach was a twofold issue. Issue number one was machloket, but ultimately it led to apikorsus, and that's part of the theme. That is going to be the starting point in understanding machloket, because you see that machloket is not just machloket, but machloket is so evil that it ends up where? It ends up with apikorsus. That's what you see from here, that losia k'Korach va'adaso is not simply the machloket, but according to the Yerushalmi, it begins with machloket. Be'otoshah, which means the result of that, it leads a person to say what? Ein Torah min haShamayim.

Moisha Navi, the ultimate sin, yeah? It leads you to the lowest point, that you mamish kofer b'ikar. So we have to explain what is machlokes. We have to talk a little bit. There's an interesting psikta. The psikta says that Korach had a big problem. You know what his problem was? Bad advice. He surrounded himself with people who gave him very bad advice, his wife included, right? Everybody knows the Chazal, right? ... right? So, bad advice, bad advice. The psikta does not say he surrounded himself with anashim resha'im, but the lashon is anashim ra'im. Here, noisnim lo eitzot ra'ot. Vayehi ka'korach lachach imo anashim ra'im, noisnim lo eitzot ra'ot. What's the pshat in the psikta? The pshat in the psikta is ra, bad, meaning, you know, people don't have to necessarily be resha'im to be bad friends. If they have bad middot, they see the world not in a good way, and then they give you negative, negative advice. You don't have to be a rasha to be a bad friend and a bad influence. You have to be anashim ra'im, bad people, bad. A person does not have an ayin tovah, doesn't have a good eye. He's a jealous person, not a rasha. It could be a person comes to learn and to pray, and yet, bad friend, bad advice. Korach obviously was not friends with the low lives. He was friends only with the... Tzadikim, yet they were not anashim tovim; they were anashim ra'im. Anashim ra'im give eitzos ra'ot. I want to show you a little bit more, something very interesting. We're going to learn, on one hand, Korach was a baal machlokes to the point that he became apikores. On the other hand, you have to know that Korach was a great man. Korach, in the Zohar and the Rishonim, it's brought down that Korach was almost on the level of Moshe Rabbeinu. There was greatness there, and I'll show you a very interesting medrash. The medrash says, Terufat haLeviim al yedei Aharon, k'ein asiku nachsu ha'am b'Yitzchak. The fact that the Leviim were picked up—you know, the Leviim were picked up by Aharon before the ceremony of inauguration—it's just like Akedas Yitzchak. It's on the same level as Akedas Yitzchak, says the medrash. V'ilu haya Korach maskim b'nafsho, if Korach would have agreed, and if Korach would have been—he would have made it part of himself, this that he was picked up as a Levi, you hear? K'shem shehiskim Yitzchak b'Akedaso, just like Yitzchak who agreed, and don't forget, says the medrash, it was much less of what to do. Yitzchak had to give up his life. Korach didn't have to even give up his life for it. As a matter of fact, he would have lived a beautiful life as a Levi. But what? He should have accepted and been happy with it, but he wasn't, right? Lakach, says the medrash, therefore, hinei bli safek. Had he agreed to the position, to the aliyah of being a Ben Levi, he would have been kegavriel lematah, haya korach lematah kegavriel, which means in heaven there's a malach, and on earth they put down a person who is the like. How would I give it? Who? Give me a better word in English. The counterpart, a counterpart in heaven. So Korach would be lematah kegavriel, just as shakul Aharon neged Michael. You understand how great we're talking about? I want to tell you a little bit more. It says in the pasuk, Tzadik katamar yifrach. Now I'm sure all of you know this. There's a very famous Midrash. You'll learn it a little bit later, all the mefarshim bring it down. Tzadik, kuf, katamar, reish, yifrach, ches, right? The sofei teivot, it's talking about Korach. The tzadik will eventually sprout out when Mashiach comes. He will be the beautiful, the beautiful flower that will sprout from the ground. Tzadik katamar yifrach. He fell into the ground, chayim she'olah, but when Mashiach comes, we call him—what do we call him? Tzadik. Tzadik katamar yifrach. Don't sound like an evil guy to me, huh?

Trust me, I would say, ooh, that's some tidings you give a person, yeah? I'll tell you even more. There's a very interesting medrash that says, Amar Reb Rachia. Reb Rachia says, Sha'al haMashiach. They asked Mashiach, what would he like? Ma eten lach? Hashem, Hashem, excuse me, not they, meaning Hashem asks Mashiach, Ma eten lach? What should I give you? What do you think Mashiach answered? Here it is. It's a Yalkut Tehillim. Amar HaKadosh Baruch Hu leMashiach, Sha'al me eten lach. Ask of me what I should give you. So you would think he would ask who knows what. Reb Rachia omer, oisan sheyardu chayim she'olav, eilu heim korach vadaso. I want Korach. That's what I want. I want to bring back Korach. That's what I'm looking for, to bring back Korach. You hear? Oh, wow, potential. Korach. Gotta give me a second.