Korach: The Roots of Machlokes, Seeking Kavod, and Aharon’s Selfless Ahavas Yisrael

Transcript

Here we have that Korach, on one hand, Korach unbelievable, k'Malach Gavriel. On the other hand, we have that Korach was a baal machlokes to the point that he was a kofer, to the point that he was not bikores, ma koreh po, ma koreh po, rabosai? How do we understand all this? Good, he got bad advice. All right, you know, you can't get bad advice to cut off your hand. Would someone come over to you and give you bad advice, you should cut your hand off? How bad advice could you take? How stupid could you be? Now, was Korach smart or stupid? The Gemara says Korach should be keach haya. He was very smart. He was ultimately smart. Mah ra lo lishtut zeh? So was he stupid? So Rav Chaim Kanievsky explains that the smartest person, keshemachnis atzmo lidivrei shtut, matchil ledaber shtuyot. Aval batchalah, batchalah, you can't say Korach was not smart. Good, he put himself into stupidity, put himself into a mekach ta'ut, as the Medrash says, a bad deal. He got himself involved in a bad mess. And because of that, he began to say divrei shtut v'hevelim. Fine. But originally, Korach pikeach. So how could eitzot ra'ot ruin an intelligent mind? I want to tell you something very interesting. We're going to learn further on that Moshe Rabbeinu was gilgul Hevel. Korach is gilgul Kayin. Learn this, learn about this. Yet, I'll tell you something more interesting. There's a medrash over here, Bahi sha'ata d'iskatel mitzri, the mitzri that hit the Jew. Remember that story in Shemos? Yeah. So at the time that the mitzri hit the Jew, and he died, he was killed, nolad Korach. Korach was born. V'hisgalgel bo, his neshama was misgalgel in Korach. Shemitzri? Yes. So it says here, V'hu sha'ata — read to you again — V'hu sha'ata d'iskatel mitzri, that the mitzri was killed, nolad Korach. Korach was born. V'hisgalgel bo, and it went into him, the neshama of this mitzri, whatever the nefesh, neshama of this mitzri. What does Korach have to do with this mitzri? Isn't it strange, Korach, the mitzri? You know, the mitzri hits, hit, hit. What is machlokes? Maybe machlokes is hitting. Maybe making a machlokes against somebody is mamash like being makeh Yehudi. Maybe it could lead, even for doesn't lead. Who says you have to physically hit? Maybe you could verbally hit somebody. You bring up a machlokes against somebody, could be the shoreshim is of the mitzri who hit the Jew. You know, I'll tell you a cute thing. I once heard a pshat from a great giant, okay? And that giant was my grandfather, zichrono tzaddik livracha. And he said that when two Jews fight, it's not the Jews that are fighting. See, the Jew comes. One Jew comes from Romania or Hungary, and the other Jew comes from Poland. So it's the Pole and the Hungarian in them that are fighting, but the Jew in them isn't fighting. Not fighting. So it's the—inside the heart of the Jew, you like that? Inside the heart of the Jew, it's the shtick goy that's in there. Maybe that's what this Chazal is saying. That's what it means, like, he's not fighting, he's not fighting. It's the German and then the Pole. It's the Bukharian and then the Samarkanti that's fighting, the Tashkenti fighting with the Uzbekistani, whatever you got, whatever it is, right? That's what's fighting. Because his wife, he wants his wife. So the mitzri is hitting the Jew. Korach fighting is the mitzri hitting the Jew. It's not the Jew hitting the Jew. Okay, did he hit him? Yeah. So that's the thing, he was hitting. See, you're linking the two together, but the fact is he was hitting him. The fact is he was hitting him. Okay. So this, rabotai, is the yesod. The yesod is, Vahu shaita, hiskatel Mitzri, nolat Korach vizgalgel. Okay. What did Korach do so bad? So there's a very interesting medrash here. Vayikach Korach...

Mai va'ikach, nasit bishl garmei. He took himself a bad deal. Like I told you, the lashon of the Medrash, mekach ra. Says the Medrash like this: Kol d'rodif basar d'lav dilei, whoever runs after what's not his, ihi arik mikamei, it runs away from him. Everybody knows, kol harodef achar kavod, hakavod rodef acharav. Maybe this is what this Medrash, the Zohar, means. I don't know, but all it says is that if you run away, if you run after what's not yours, it'll run away. V'lo oid, and not only that, but even ma d'is bei yadei, what is yours, is avid minei, gets lost, because this Korach, he may not have moishes. So not only didn't he get moishes, what didn't he get? He lost his own. You see that if you run after somebody else's, says the Medrash, then it comes out you lose your own. Okay. So these are pretty simple middos things, pretty simple middos things. Is there anything deeper behind it? Why does a person run after what's not his? So there's a very interesting Even Ezra. The Even Ezra says, Lo tachmod, but I do chamud. What do you mean, lo tachmod? That's what I feel. You tell me not to feel what I feel? Today in psychiatry, if you say that, they would ban you. How could you say not to feel what you feel? You're supposed to express your feelings, and you're supposed to feel what you feel. Says the Even Ezra, Lo tachmod, v'yareisah meElokecha. That if you believe in Hashem, you wouldn't run after what's not yours. So now we're starting to see that the chemdah of Korach, of running after what's not his, does have something to do with being a kofer. It does have something to do with denying v'yareisah meElokecha. Moshe tiken dor haflagah. Right? So we spoke about that Moshe was the tikkun of Dor Haflaga. Why? Because the Dor Haflaga actually, hayu adas Korach. Yeah. Oh yes, that's what it says here in the Midrash. Hayu adas Korach. Dor Haflaga. You know, it's interesting. No. I don't know if you notice, it says, Vayikach Korach. What's the first lashon of the Targum? V'yispaleg. V'itpaleg Korach. Isn't it interesting that he's the Dor Haflaga? It's very interesting. I always found that fascinating. You hear? I find it fascinating that v'itpaleg, Vayikach, Dor Haflaga. It says clearly in the Midrash, and the Galamukah speaks about it. Lefi shehadas Korach. Here you go. You ready, rabosai? Hayu anshei Sedom. Hadas Korach actually was Sedom. That's where it came from. Nice. Very interesting stuff. Veheim hayu Dor Haflaga. And who says all this? Rabbeinu Bechaye. Rabbeinu Bechaye learns anshei Korach were actually stonemites, all right? And being that they were stonemites, so the shoresh of them was the Dor Haflaga. Now what does that have to do, Dor Haflaga and Sedom? It sounds like you're putting together apples and oranges, and then beans and barleys and what? Dor Haflaga, Sedom, Korach, what? What's going on? So I'm going to explain to you what's going on. You ready? Do you think Sedom was a country of lawlessness? Do you think Sedom was a country... Of decadence, do you think Sdom was a country which you would say, like Africa? No, no, oh no, most definitely not. Sdom was a very high-class society, extremely high class. As a matter of fact, it reminds me very, very much of Washington, D.C. It reminds me very much of the Hamptons in Long Island. It reminds me of the highest, the French in Francois in Paris, extremely, extremely high class, lawless people—lawful, excuse me, lawful people. But let me explain to you the difference. You see, our Torah is based on laws, and their societies are based on laws. But there's a very, very big difference, and that is our Torah is based on the law, sheli v'shelcha is shelcha. You see, what's mine could sometimes be your's also. If I'm mevater, if I'm mochel, I could let you have what's mine. Their societies are based on the opposite, sheli v'shelcha, sheli, because everything is about me. You see, I come first. So you could have tremendous rules that when I beat you up, you should pay me. I did you a service, you see, because if you look at it from my end.

The thing, I, I, I don't know about you. I mean, you walked out half dead. It doesn't make, it doesn't make—I mean, I don't look at you. It doesn't—what happened to you is irrelevant to me because I don't even see you. Yeah, but I put hours of work into it. Yeah, but you put hours of hurting me. Who? You? I don't know. I don't know who you are. So all you see is the amount of time and effort that you placed into the situation. You don't notice? Stone was a very interesting place. Stone was rules based on one thing only, and that is that there's only me and no you. So therefore, even if you come out losing on the deal, but I should have to come out winning no matter what, right? So if I beat you up and you're bleeding, so then we could have the way of making me making money because I'm a makeis dam. What's so hard to understand? You don't understand this. This is American society. The whole idea of suing people comes from that. What is the whole idea of suing a person? What's the whole idea of bankruptcy? Even bankruptcy. What is bankruptcy? I can't pay you. Yeah, but what about me who lost all the money by you not paying me? So? So what? I don't owe you. Who are you? That's bankruptcy. You see? But there's so many rules and judges and laws and books and colleges. Yeah, but it's all based on ani v'lo atah. It's not about you. It's about me. It's unbelievable. It's not chutzpah, it's not chutzpah. It's yashrus when there's only one person involved. It's not even a kamut. It's very simple. Let me ask you: if a person hits a table, right, so the table is responsible? No, because it's only a table. Who cares, right? So they look at when a person hurts another person, it's like hitting a table. What's the difference? Because there's no other—it's just me. So come on. What's so hard to understand? You don't think—I'm saying a very simple thing. Digest this point. When you have two people, and the two people is the pshat, two people, so it has to be good for both people. But if only one person is involved, and the other thing is fresh air, okay? So could you ever be wrong against the fresh air? If it's you against a moth or an ant, right? So someone's going to say, well, the ant has rights, and therefore he could sue the person. No, he doesn't count, right? It's irrelevant. That's dumb. Sdom is rules and regulations based on self. Vayikach Korach. Korach was very much about Korach. That's what Korach was really all about. Sdom was all about Sdom. You know what dor haflagah was? I'll tell you what dor haflagah is. Dor haflagah was pilug. Each person not joined together with the other. That's why it's called dor haflagah, haflagah, right? They weren't—they lo ra'ah ish—they didn't speak their own; each one didn't speak the other one's language. So he tells me, give me a hammer. He takes a hammer, he hits him over the head with it, right? That's dor haflaga. Vayikach Korach. Let me explain to you a little bit about Korach. There's a very interesting Chazal. Chazal say that when Korach was in Gehenna, the only thing that protected him was the zechus avosam she'amru naaseh v'nishma. I'm going to read you this lashon. I'm going to read it to you inside. Vayakumu lifnei Moshe va'anashim, anshei dor haflaga she'amru, hava nivneh lanu, nizgalgelu b'Zdoin. Yeah? The anshei dor haflaga went into Sdom. V'zeh shekasuv, and that's what's pshat in the pasuk, anshei ha'ir, anshei Sdom. Remember? Anshei ha'ir, anshei Sdom. And by Korach it says, anshei... no? Shem. Ah, you hear? Anshei, anshei. You hear? Sounds very familiar. Says the Medrash, anshei ha'ir, anshei Sdom. Anshei ha'ir, anshei Sdom, and by Korach it says, anshei Shem. Same people. Me'osam, v'zeh shekasuv she'amru, naaseh lanu shem.

So this is the same people. Says the Medrash. Wait, should we do a lashon of Medrash here? B'medrash shlishi, that we're going to learn a little bit later that there are seven medoires. There are seven, I guess, compartments or levels of Gehenna. You knew that? There were seven levels of Gehenna, you know that? Now I want you to understand that Korach went down to the seventh level. But you know how big that level is? It goes and goes and goes, and it doesn't stop going. And you know how I know? Because Reb Elie Dushnitzer told me that. And you know how Reb Elie Dushnitzer knew that? He never went to Gehenna, believe you me. He don't belong there. So then how do he know that it's so? He brings a beautiful Yerushalmi. Yerushalmi says that Korach was falling and falling and falling in Gehenna. Who stopped him from falling in Gehenna? Chana. Chana came, and we're going to learn this a little bit later on, that Chana was mispallel, because it says in the pasuk, Morid sheol vaya'al. That's one of the shiras in the song that Chana sang to the Eibishter: Lifted up. It's referring to Korach. So this is a Yerushalmi in Yevamot. Says Rav Dushnitzer, one minute. From the time Chana davened, many, many years later, from the time Korach fell into the ground, and yet he was falling and falling and falling till Chana came and said, Okay, he could stop falling. Says Reb Elie Dushnitzer, you see from here. What are you smiling for? It's funny. Not to Korach vadasai. No, it's not. Oh no, it's not funny. It's an endless pit, and that's the Medor Shvii, because he fell in originally right into the Medor Shvii. He fell right into the Medor Shvii, to the Sheol. And that Sheol went and went and went till the time of Chana, where Chana was mispallel he should stop. Pretty good, huh? You see how gedoylim Yisrael, lu chazal, eh? Okay. So we have over here the Medor Shlishi. What's the Medor Shlishi? The Medor Shlishi says the Medrash, Nidonim sham esrim alfei ribo revavos me'akum. You know how many goyim are there? Esrim alfei ribo revavos me'akum. Vedonim oisam b'shevet shalesh. Not pretty. But I want to tell you that that's only the Medor Shlishi, because the Medor Shvii, we're going to learn later from the Rabbeinu Bechaya, is not eish, but rather it's barad and eish, which means that it's hailstones of— no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no— sheleg and eish, which means... You know, I think in the banyas, I once read somewhere in the banyas, what they do is they first put you in boiling hot, and then they take you and throw you into cold water. Russian gehinnom. They've been preparing the oilam for the Gehinnom over there. You don't feel anything. Of course not, you're dead. So they took it right out of a page from the Gehinnom. That's where they took it. Rabbeinu Bechaya explains the Medor Shvii— he explains the Medor Shvii that way, that it's fire, yeah. It's eish and it's sheleg, and the eish and the sheleg here, and they take you from one to the other. There's a certain malach here, and I'll find you the name of the malach, since you guys are so interested in all this. I'm rather scared of all this, but if you're interested, here, I'll tell you. It's Rabbeinu Bechaye. He says there's a malach called— no, I thought it had the name of a malach. No, I'm sorry, I thought it had a name. It just says malach. He hits them with the stick, Let's go, let's go. Now you're in the fire, okay, get to the cold, and from the cold, get to the hot. Oy vey, it's not good. That's madur. That's the zayin madur shel Gehenna, the deep one. That's the deep level. You know, like in a pool, you have the beginners, and then you have the deep swimmers. The deep Gehenners, the deep Gehenners are the seventh Gehenna, and over there it's fire. And I didn't make this up. Rabbeinu Bechaye, you guys learned Rabbeinu Bechaye, you heard of him. All right. So now we've learned that the Gehenna of Korach, yeah, the Gehenna of—

So this is what Rabbeinu Bechaye says, that the bistayin was actually the adas Korach. And I explained to you—oh, I want to show you the Natziv in a nishma. Excuse me, I knew what I was looking for. Oh, here it is. Says the—oh, I found it here. Medrash shlishi—I was going to read each of this. This is where we got off of here. Medrash shlishi, because we got excited about the Gehenim, so we started talking about Gehenim. All right. Medrash shlishi shel Gehenim, nidonim sham esrim al pi ribo revavos me'akum, nedonim oysam b'shevet shel eish. V'hamalach hamemuneh aleha—who's the malach that's memuneh? You see, I told you there's a malach that's memuneh, sh'mo Shaftiel. Shaftiel. And you know why he's called Shofet Kel? Shaftiel, that's his name, Shofet Kel. V'Korach va'adaso niftarim min hadin. How does Korach va'adaso get off the din? Bizchus she'amru avosem naaseh v'nishma. What does naaseh v'nishma have to do with this? And the answer is beautiful. Vayikach Korach, rabosai, I believe the pshat is as follows. Vayikach Korach—it was about himself, like Dosan was all about themselves. Naaseh v'nishma is the bitul of himself. There's no me. I'm batel l'gamrei. Everybody knows that when Klal Yisroel said naaseh v'nishma, complete bitul. It wasn't about me, because if it's about me, then I have to first see if it's good for me. When you want to להיות מקיים mitzvah, you have to first see if it's good. Naaseh v'nishma is the pshat, rabosai: I don't care about me at all. Hamitpatel legamrei to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and therefore the tikkun, the zechut, is in the naaseh v'nishma. That's the tikkun for Korach. Okay. Now we're going to learn something very interesting. Davar acher. There's a Midrash that says, Boteach ba'ashro, ze Korach. You know what went wrong with Korach? He was boteach ba'ashro. He was very secure with his riches. How is a person, and why is a person? As a matter of fact, something interesting. Do you know that when they fell into the ground, what fell in with them? Everything. Their possessions. Their possessions. Why? So the Meshech Chochmah learns, because they had a din of ir hanidachat. Since they were ovdei avodah zarah, so they have a halachah of ir hanidachat. Ir hanidachat, the halachah is that even the rechusham has to get burnt and destroyed. So when it got swallowed up, it got swallowed up with all its possessions, like an ir hanidachat. Meshech Chochmah. But the way we're learning, and I saw Gra recently, Rav Chaim Kanievsky in his Derech Sichah explains the same thing, because since he was boteach ba'ashro, so therefore his osher had to go get swallowed up, because that was the gorem of his gaavah. Okay. What does that mean, boteach ba'ashro? And I'll tell you what it means. You know, geiut is the yesod of machlokes, which is the yesod of kefirah. Geiut. When a person's osher, he has a certain geiut. Geiut, you ever notice, ... rich, huh? You ever notice that the biggest baalei machlokes in the synagogue are those that have a few George Washingtons. They have a few George Washingtons in their pocket, and all of a sudden it's Franklin these days. Benjamin Franklin. What's the hundred-dollar bill? Benjamin Franklin. See, I don't even know. Look at that. It's a one-dollar. A Washington one-dollar. Sorry. I'm living from 1920. Well, maybe my salary's been a dollar. Dollar acher, beiter ba'asrai. Yeah. He was beiter ba'asrai. And since he was beiter ba'asrai, it led to machlokes. It led to kfirah. Now I want to show you a little bit further. Kol mi she'oseh, a Tanna d'Bei Eliyahu, kol mi she'oseh merivah al talmid chacham, ki'ilu asah merivah al Mi she'amar vehaya ha'olam. When you make machlokes against talmidei chachamim, don't think it's actually the talmidei chachamim you're fighting. The shoresh of it is actually that you're fighting Hashem. Now, he could be he means because the talmid chacham represents Hashem. Yachol lihyot, yachol lihyot. Or maybe it's deeper. The facade, the excuse is the talmid chacham, but really who is it? What is the shoresh of that chet?

That actually means, let me smoke less. You could say mimenu, me and min Hashem, that they're stronger than us, but actually, I mean Hashem. You could talk against the Talmud Chacham, but you know who you really want to fight? You really want to fight Hashem. So either it's because the halacha is that the Talmud Chacham represents Hashem, could be. That's all the Tanna d'Bei Eliyahu means. Or it could be the Tanna d'Bei Eliyahu is saying deeper. It's going into the shoresh of the chet. You know what the shoresh of the chet is? The shoresh of the chet is that you really want to fight Hashem. Is that a bad thing? That you want to fight Hashem? Not very pretty. You know that that's a good thing, to want to fight against Hashem? You like that? So you want a machlokes with halacha? You mean we're going to talk about machlokes. We're not holding there yet. In about three and a half hours, when we get to like the last part of the shiur—just kidding, but it's close, it's close to it—we're going to talk about how machlokes, even l'shem Shamayim, nevertheless is still machlokes. Hil l'Shamayim is a good thing, you would say. I'm going to show you that the Megaleh Amukot says—and we'll say it right now because you brought it up—the Megaleh Amukot says an unbelievable thing. I'm going to read it for you, and I almost fell off my chair when I read it because I was so—no, I was shocked. No, I'm not kidding, I was shocked. But it taught me a tremendous thing. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. You're going to hear something which is very, very interesting. You ready? Oh, you know what? Guess what? I don't have it. It's not in these papers. Okay, I'll read it to you by heart. Megaleh Amukot brings down a Midrash or a Zohar or something, I don't know where it comes from, but he says the following: Ra Moshe Rabbeinu, the machlokes of Hillel and Shammai. He saw the machlokes of Hillel and Shammai, v'hayah oto hayom kasheh l'Yisrael kemo yom shel asiyat ha'egel. It bothered him so much. To him, it was just as bad as the day the Jews made the egel. You have a Megaleh Amukot over there? You have it? Ayin zayin, ofen ayin zayin. Huh? Megaleh Amukot was written by a mekubal many years before the Baal Shem, many, many years before the Baal Shem. So we have over here, gevaldig, gevaldig a zach. We have over here that hayah oto yom kasheh l'Yisrael. It was so difficult. It doesn't go l'fi ofen mem-zayin, whatever. This is brought down in the Alkut Reuvein. So he brings like this, you hear? Oto hayom was kasheh l'Yisrael kiom asiyat ha'egel, like the day that the egel was made. You hear? Ah, so we have to talk about that, right? Says Moshe Rabbeinu, HaKadosh Baruch Hu, you have to let me go into Eretz Yisrael, because if I go into Eretz Yisrael, then the Torah that I'll teach will be so clear that there won't be any room for machlokes. There won't be any differing opinions. Differing opinions won't happen if I go into Eretz Yisrael. So please let me into Eretz Yisrael. Says the Ribono Shel Olam, you hit the rock, you don't go into Eretz Yisrael. Rav lach. Remember? Rav lach al taisef daber elai od badavar hazeh, rav lach, riv lach, says the Megaleh Amukos, b'shem a Zohar, I think it is, riv lach, that the fights are because of you. Since you hit the rock, you can't go into Eretz Yisrael. Not clear-cut to the point that there can't be machlokes, and this, rabosai, was a yom kosheh l'Yisrael, kiom asiyas ha'egel, no? I'll tell you more. Reb Shneur Kotler, zecher tzaddik livrachah, once wrote a beautiful letter. I have it in my house. He wrote it to a person that was getting divorced. Fine, not alive anymore. Kitzur, the letter is written there that don't feel bad that you're getting divorced, because sometimes pirud makes shalom. Pirud makes shalom. And what's the proof? Avraham Avinu was the ultimate baal chesed, the ultimate man of peace, yet what does he tell Lot? Hipared na me'alai. When the time comes, the best thing to stop machlokes, because there was a fight, there was a fight between the ro'im, so he told him, Get away. So you see, pirud, separation, sometimes is the greatest form of shalom. I told people, l'maaseh, if you look, the Sifri on the pasuk over there by Avraham Avinu says the exact opposite: Ein shalom yotzei mi'merivah. No peace could ever come from any fight. Nothing good ever came from it.

The Charayah says it's a seferi, because you see that Avraham Avinu said, Hipared na me'alai, and what happened? Lot, because of this, went into Sedom. So you see nothing good could ever come, could ever come from machlokes, which is not like this vort. And I think Reb Shnei even said over, I believe, if I remember correctly, this vort. But you see from the seferi not like that. As a matter of fact, there's another medrash that says, Eizehi machlokes l'shem Shamayim? So everybody knows Shammai and Hillel. I lose for you. Shammai and Hillel might be l'shem Shamayim, it's true, but it's still machlokes. At the end of the day, it's still what? It's still machlokes, yeah? It's still machlokes. If it's a machlokes, then it's machlokes l'shem Shamayim when it's Shammai and Hillel, but it's still machlokes. So what's a machlokes l'shem Shamayim which maybe is yesh good? I'll tell you a medrash. Medrash says, Rochel and Leah is a machlokes l'shem Shamayim. They both didn't want to fall into Esav. What does it say in the medrash? Hashem said, You know what? I'll give you both Yaakov. Both of you will end up with Yaakov. You know, there's a very famous statement that they say in the yeshivot: fighting is good, because from one yeshiva turns right away into two yeshivot, and from two yeshivot the fighting makes it four yeshivot, and it keeps on getting more and more Torah. What do we see? This we see not so good. Beit Shammai, Beit Hillel was a split, two yeshivot. It's machlokes. It's still called machlokes. Yom kasher l'Yisrael kiom asiyat ha'egel. What is a good machlokes? The opposite. Rochel and Leah, instead of becoming two families, separated, they came together into one family. What are you saying? Beautiful. I said a beautiful... That's right. Taira, Taira makes it. Taira, Taira, yes. Why? That's what we're saying. That's exactly what we're saying. We're saying that whenever there's merivah, even if it's l'shem Shamayim, and even if the intentions are good, nothing good ever comes from machlokes. So people who are baalei machlokes, people who enjoy fighting, will always bring you fifty Chazalim to prove that they're right for killing the other guy. But they should know that this is brought down, that what's the proper machlokes l'shem Shamayim? When you come together. You know, I was thinking something interesting. Why do we have—I'm sorry, not why do we have—how do we, what zechus, what zechus do we use to get ourselves out of the galus? And the answer is the zechus of Rachel, the zechus of Rachel that she gave her husband to Leah. Yeah? You like that type of machlokes? Wonderful machlokes, because they were all fighting who gets it. Could you imagine, they say, Rav Gifter used to say this, Rav Gifter zatzal used to say that in Europe the machlokes was, they came to the Torah, two people, the money's yours. No, the money's yours. No, the money's yours. In America it's the other way around. They come, the money's mine, the money's mine. No, it's mine. Yeah? Different type of din Torah, they used to say. Tzadikim of yesteryear used to fight over that it's yours, while here they used to fight over what? That it's mine. You hear? Rachel v'Leah, what were they fighting? No, it's yours. No, it's yours. No, you take it. No, it's yours. Yeah? This, rabosai, is the zechus of Rachel. That's called machlokes l'shem Shamayim. When it's machlokes, it's enough for both. It's enough for everybody. Now, now let's see a little bit further here. So we have over here a new understanding, a new understanding of what machlokes is really all about, yeah? So let's see a few more points here, which I think is כדאי to see. Okay. If you take a look, separation is havdalah, yeah? It's interesting to note that Bnei Korach are attached to the havdalah that we make Motzei Shabbos. I don't know if you know that. Ah, you don't know this. Okay. Bnei Korach and the Zohar are attached, are affiliated with the havdalah that we make on Motzei Shabbos. How? How? So first I'm going to read you a Zohar in Bereishis. Kad nafik Shabbos, salik miGehinnom chatzitra me'eina bisha. There's a whole group of eina bisha, yeah, that wants to come out and mix itself on Klal Yisrael, u'leshalta alayu. How do we get rid of that eina bisha? How do we get rid of this?

From Gehenim, we get rid of it. V'Yisrael avdu avdaiut b'hadasu b'yayin, v'amru havdalah. They come and they make havdalah. So that goes and pushes it away. Me'eicha hu sitra v'olu duchtai b'shoel, ratu d'kairach v'siyati tamon. So then comes a group from Korach's group here, like it says, Vayerdu heim v'chol asher lahem chayim she'olah, v'einu lo nachsin ad Yisrael avdei havdalah. And they don't go back to the Gehenim till Klal Yisrael makes havdalah, yeah? So when we make havdalah, that's why we say v'Hu rachum. Why do we say v'Hu rachum with a song? Another second, because after the time that we say we make havdalah, which we daven Maariv and we let out Shabbos, right, this group goes back into Gehenim. So we want to wait — Chassidim have a minhag, you know, the Chassidim have a minhag — v'Hu... they sing it for an extra second. Why? To show — why one more second for the Gehenim? Because the doors of the Gehenim, you hear? Okay. Why? Because when we make havdalah, like it says, hibdilu mitocha edah. So havdalah has something to do with what? Havdalah, right? Separation. Havdalah, separation. You know, there's a very famous point. The Medrash speaks about how come the Eibishter needed that people should stay away. You know, if the Eibishter wants, He can have a precision directly on you, and the guy sitting next to you doesn't have to fall to the ground. The Medrash asks this first question: why did the Ribono Shel Olam need it that they should go away from the edah? Hibdilu mitocha edah ra — what did He need it for? Why? Because Hashem can crack the ground here, and then if you're a tzaddik, you would fall in. No, He can crack the ground for you, and for you not. By Mitzrayim, when the Jews drank, right, by the water, it was dam for the Mitzri, and it was water for the Jew. And even when the Jew took the Mitzri's, it turned into water when he drank it, and the opposite by the Mitzri. When he took the Jew's water, it turned into dam. Fragt the Medrash, so you don't think the Eibishter can make it that the land opens up only and swallows up one person, yeah, one person not? So why hi batlu? What do you need it for? It says, hi batlu mitoch ha'eidah. What do you need it for? Great question. You know what the answer, rabosai, is? The answer, rabosai, is ... You hear? You listening? You hear the question? Here, I'll read it to you. Rabbeinu Bechaye asks, מה שהוצרך לומר יבלעו? Here, Rabbeinu Bechaye's question: Why do you have to have yibale'u? What do you need it for? יש בידו להמית ולהחיות. Hashem is able to make a person live and die. כמו שאמרו ז"ל, שניים ושלושה היו משכסין בטלית אחת, השניים מתים, שניים could die, והאמצעי ניצל, and the one in the middle could be saved. כענין שכתוב, like a pasuk, ואם כן מה צורך לומר יבלעו? So he says a very big chiddush, Rabbeinu Bechaye: אלא כדי שלא ידבק בהם אויר הרע. There's some kind of bad, diseased air around Korach. שממכה זו דבקת שנאמר באשתו של לוט, just like by Lot, ותהי נציב מלח. Right? What happened to Lot's wife? Some kind of a bad air. Got her from zdayim and made her die. So the same thing, there would be some kind of bid. All right. I would say more simply, you know what I would say? Lulei divrei Rabbeinu Bechaye, the inyan of hiddur, badel, havdalah, havdalah. You know where havdalah works? Havdalah works when there's daas. Im ein daas, havdalah minayin? That's why we say atah chonantanu, we say havdalah. To separate between good and bad, you need a lot of daas. Korach couldn't separate. He didn't know the difference. He didn't know the boundaries. Yeah. As a matter of fact, he was mavdil between Moshe Rabbeinu and Klal Yisrael. He separated himself. It was shtut. Mah raah Korach? And what was the shtut? The shtut was himself, eino hitato, his ayin. As a matter of fact, it's brought down a very interesting Zohar: Loisisgadedu, v'lo sisimu korcha bein eineichem. Loisisgodedu, make agudos agudos. V'lo sisimu korcha is Korach, bein eineichem. You see? Loisisimu korcha bein eineichem. You think I made this up? It's a Midrash. Want me to read it inside? Yeah, read it inside for you. They think I make this stuff up. All right, we'll read it inside.

Yalkut Parshas Re'eh. Lo sisgodedu, v'lo tasimu korchah bein eineichem. Lo tidgodedu — you hear? Lo tidgodedu, lo sa'asu agudos agudos, which means groups, machlokes. Lo tasimu korchah bein eineichem, shelo tasimu, kemo she'asu l'korach shenivla. It's a korchah, it's Korach. You see, it's lo tasimu korchah bein eineichem. The ay, right? Eino hitato. What? Agudos agudos. Pshat, because when a person is lacking, lacking daas — you know what happens? Havdalah. The wrong havdalah. He makes wrong separations. You want to hear an interesting Zohar? I'll tell you an interesting Zohar. There, by havdalah, the ner of havdalah is what? Reish nun. Ner backwards. What was 250 in this week's parsha? The people who took — Korach took 250 people, yeah? So the Medrash says that the tikun in the havdalah for the reish nun is the ner. Here, havdalah, v'ner letaken reish nun ha'nashim shel Korach. No? You like it, ah? And this is — what's samim? Samim. Maybe the Torahs, maybe, maybe, maybe. Say good, say good. No? Say very good. You know something? Next week you're gonna say the shiur. Little by little I'm training you. I'm grooming you to say the shiur. Sitting very close. You hear? Havdalah, ner. Ner is the reishon. So we have over here a tremendous yesod. Havdalah, that when it's not done properly, Havdalah is machlokes, and the tikkun is in Havdalah with daas. That's the eino yotzei. Okay, now let's go further, rabosai. So we have over here, and I want to show you a little bit further. Vayar Elokim es ha'or ki tov. Vayavdel Elokim bein ha'or uvein hachoshech. Bein ha'or, דא כהנא, says the Medrash. Bein hachoshech, דא קורח. You hear? Hibdilu mitoch haeidah zois, says the Medrash, v'raza de'mila, vayavdel Elokim bein ha'or uvein hachoshech. You hear? That the Ribbono Shel Olam was mavdil between or and choshech. Kohanim, ha'or; Korach is choshech, says the Medrash, that the Ribbono Shel Olam was mavdil bein ha'or uvein hachoshech. Havdalah. Very interesting. The yesod of Havdalah is l'hasi'a k'korach kadas. Now let me tell you further. Do you know that Shabbos is Moshe Rabbeinu. You know that Shabbos, if you look at the Zohar, is all about the tzaddik. Shabbos is about bechinas Moshe Rabbeinu. That you know, right? Every Sefardi knows this, right? Shabbos— no, Shabbos is Moshe Rabbeinu. Shabbos is Moshe Rabbeinu. Shabbos is Moshe Rabbeinu. The Sifsei Shalom has books and books. Whoever is a chassid of the sefer of Sifsei Shalom knows that all his Torah on Shabbos is this yesod, that Moshe Rabbeinu is Shabbos. Tell me, when are you allowed to make machlokes? The worst time of machlokes is Shabbos. Says, Leisavaru eish b'chol moshvoseichem, says the Zohar. It means machlokes. Very interesting. Shabbos is Moshe. You hear? You hear? You hear, rabosai? Machlokes is on Shabbos. And Avdalah is motzaei Shabbos, Avdalah is all the tikkun for Korach. It's meirdike stuff, meirdike, meirdike stuff, meirdike, meirdike stuff. This is not mekubalim; pashut Zohar. Okay. Now, let's see what time it is. I can give you a little more. I can give you a little more, rabosai. You hear? You understood all this? All right, all right. Okay. Now, when Korach went down, it says like this in the Medrash: Melamed that Korach did not go down the way we think he went down in one shot. The Medrash says, Melamed shehaysa eretz niftachas kefi avov shel adam. He went down like sand, like quicksand. Enough for his feet; his feet fell in. Then it opened up a little less; his foot fell in. His stomachs, it opened...

He went down slowly. Lashon the Medrash is melamed, shehoisa ha'aretz niftachas k'fi avuv shel adam, b'prasos adam, niftachah k'mo raglayim, la'shachayim v'habeten, v'heim yordim me'at me'at. They fell in little by little. V'ha'aretz chonekes, and the land choked them. V'heim tzo'akim, Moshe emes, v'Toraso emes. Okay. Let me ask you a question. Why? Why does it have to be—maybe chenek, maybe because they want them to be chonek otam? Nah. I would say a different pshat. Gimel dvarim, hataiva, v'hakinah, v'hakavod, motzi'in es ha'adam min ha'olam. What is the word motzi'in? Don't say horigim oto. Motzi'in. You know what motzi'in is? It swallows you up. You know, kinah is a little cancer. It's a— it begins with a dot, slowly, and then what it does is it consumes the whole person. Koreches mei nekudah yet kinah against Moshe. Tremendous. I told somebody, I know a person that 30 years ago, 30 years ago, he showed symptoms, symptoms of kinah. Every now and then a p'sak kinah came out. Today, there's not one word that doesn't come out of this person's mouth that has nothing to do with kinah. Every word is— every single word. It consumed the person completely. Even when they say hello, it's— yeah, it's with kinah. You know what they do? Hello. I don't understand. How come the other guy says hello, and the other guy gets more hellos than I get, and how come that— And I look at the person, I go, You're completely consumed with Gehenna. All you see, your eyeballs see just Gehenna. That's all they see. They don't even see that. That's what I'm saying. Even the hello is, but the other guy gets more hello. So how? It's really plain. You can do them a favor. Yeah, but take a look at the favor you did the other guy. Yeah. Thirty years later, it took thirty years for this person to be consumed, consumed completely, that the cancer of Gehenna ate them up completely. And like I explained to you, Gehenna will eventually lead the person to be a tremendous, tremendous apikores, will be a tremendous, tremendous apikores. There's an interesting Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer. Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer says, That the fire that consumed Korach, no person that dies does not first get a taste of that fire. Why, rabosai? What is this oto esh? What is it? What is this fire? So I'm going to tell you something very interesting. What is Gehenna? So we spoke a little bit about Gehenna, and I'm sure you guys know better than me, because the rabbis in your communities like to talk about this very much. And where I grew up, nah, we talked very little about it. Oh yeah, there was no talk in my house at all about Gehenna. My house, meaning my grandfather's home, all we spoke about was Gan Eden, chesed, and tzaddikim. No bad man. They never scared us. You know, some people have a shita. Chassidishe yeshivos have a shita to scare the living daylights out of you. No, be'emes, a lot of, and some Sefardim have this shita also, to scare the living daylights out of you. Then some people have a—they never spoke about Gehenna, very little. As a matter of fact, in my home, my grandmother used to tell us all the time that when she comes to Gehenom, her rav, which means her husband—she used to call her husband with respect—my rav will stand there and say, Don't you dare touch my rebbetzin. She's coming with me to Gan Eden. So she said she's not worried. So she used to tell us all the time. That's how we grew up, not to worry about Gehenna. Whatever, she talked, belonging to Gehenna. That's not the point. The point being, the point being, she would say, Don't worry, okay. So what is Gehenna? What is Gehenna? You want to hear something gevaldik? I saw a ma'amar, Yalkut Tehilim. Yalkut Tehilim says that they take tzaddikim and they bring them to Gehenna and they show them empty places in the Gehenna. So Yalkut Tehilim—and they take resha'im and they show them that there's empty places in Gan Eden. Biur ha-devarim l'aniyas da'ati, I believe the pshat is as follows: You know the greatest Gehenna? When you show a person what he could have gotten. That's such sad Gehenna.

Shown their empty places. You could have been here. This could have been your place, and now look where you are. And the tzaddikim, we give them Gan Eden by showing them, you see where you could have been, and look where you are. I believe maybe that's what it means: Oto esh, sisaraf adat Korach, ein adam niftar min ha'olam ad sheta'avor alav me'oto esh. You know what the fire is? The fire of Gehenna is where you could have been. There's a certain thing that a person, at some point of his life, it's going to hit him: Look what I could have accomplished. Look what I could have done. Look what I did accomplish. Ay, ay, ay. Oto esh, sisaraf adat Korach, ein adam niftar min ha'olam ad sheta'avor alav me'oto esh. Now we could talk a little bit about the psamim. There's a very interesting medrash over here that's brought down. Hapsamim kulam hayu yedu'im l'Moshe Rabbeinu, bizgulot v'kochot b'samim, u'lekulam hayu kochot u'sgulot b'madregah u'ma'aleh, ulot zu mizu, asher heim morim rachamim, heim morim din, lefi seder hapsamim v'haktoret. The kitzur, who told Moshe Rabbeinu about all this? The Malach HaMaves told this to Moshe. The Malach HaMaves went—that's what it says—the Malach HaMaves went and taught Moshe Rabbeinu the psamim. You know about this? That the Malach HaMaves, the Malach HaMaves taught it to him. V'zeh Moshe la'aron kaches hamachta, v'sim aleha ketoret, oto koach sherumez. B'kitzur, the psamim has to do with this. Okay. So I want to show you a davar shel פלא. There's a very interesting p'sikta here, which I was very moved by. The p'sikta says, אמר אהרן למשה. When Moshe Rabbeinu told Aaron to take the psamim, so Aaron tells Moshe, לארגני אתה מבקש? You're trying to kill me? בני, מפני מה שקריבו אש, הדית נשרפו? What happened? They took out the ketores and they got killed because of it. ולי אתה אומר, קח לך המחתה? You want me to take the psamim? You think I'm crazy to do that? Who would do a thing like this? אלא... בקיצור, אמר להם—sorry, אמר ליה. So you know what Moshe tells Aaron? עד שאתה מדבר, while you're talking, הם מתים. It's precious time. Time is of the essence. While you're talking to me, they're dying. אלא, הילך מהר, do it. כיון ששמע אהרן כך, אמר, אפילו אני מת על ישראל, איני חושש. It means I have to die for Klal Yisrael. I'm ready to die for Klal Yisrael. ... כן. It's unbelievable, unbelievable. Rabosai, you hear what it says here? Korach was about Korach, and Aaron was about Klal Yisrael. The opposite. That's how he stopped the mageifah. Rabosai, listen to me carefully. Machlokes is about you. Shalom is about Klal Yisrael. Shalom is when you think only about the other person, then there's shalom. Again. is about Korach. Was Korach a great person? Yes, he was. Ultimately, when it's about you, you'll begin with machlokes and you'll end up being a kofer. When a person lives not for himself, he lives about Klal Yisroel. Vati'atzar hamageifah. Vati'atzar hamageifah. Such a beautiful Chazal. Aharon HaKohen says, Ki ima shesham Aharon kach amar, afilu ani meis al Yisroel, eini choishesh, eini choishesh. I'm not worried. Worth it. That's vati'atzar hamageifah. This is, rabosai, the great Korach. As great as he was, vayikach Korach. Korach took. It was about taking and not giving. Aharon was about giving and not taking. Vayikach Korach. What is vayikach? A taker is not a giver. It's about himself. Aharon is a giver and not a taker, okay? Aharon is about Klal Yisroel. Vati'atzar hamageifah. That's how he stops it. Kayin and Hevel. Kayin was a taker, and what was Hevel? Hevel was a giver.

Staim was about the person themselves. It was about staim, not taking. It's about me. Dara flaga was kefirah, based on me. Naaseh shem, naaseh lanu shem, make a name for ourselves. I asked you, what does the dor haflaga have to do with it? The answer is, naaseh lanu shem. We'll make an anshei shem, a name. Anshei kairach were anshei shem. People were looking for a name. It was about themselves. Nothing's changed. Nothing. It's the same thing, the same thing, the same thing. Anshei shem. Naaseh lanu shem, v'nivneh, we'll build a big tower. We'll go down in history. Anshei shem, anshei shem. So who is the machlokes against? Moshe. Who was Moshe? Moshe was the lowest. Moshe was a person, was anav mikol adam. Kairach was all about himself. Moshe was—there was no Moshe. There was no Aaron. The machlokes of Kairach was very deep. It was deep. It started with Moshe, but actually, where was the machlokes? Against HaKadosh Baruch Hu. It was actually against HaKadosh Baruch Hu. That was the yesod of the machlokes, and that's the pshat, rabosai, that kefirah, kefirah is the ultimate end of this machlokes. Havdalah, to separate. Separation with daas brings people together. Separation without daas, separation for one's own self, takes people apart. And on Shabbos, Shabbos is a zman, atah echad, v'shimcha echad, mi k'amcha Yisrael goy echad ba'aretz, echad. Shabbos is a zman of achdus, of togetherness, of Klal Yisrael being one. Lo sevaru eish. Don't make machlokes. B'yom haShabbos, the fight against Moshe is the fight of Shabbos against Shabbos. And the havdalah is the tikkun. When it's havdalah with daas, rabosai, have a good week.