Parshat Korach 5777-the truth and nothing but the truth......

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June 21 2017
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Parshat Korach 5777-’The truth and nothing but the truth…..’


 


 



א  וַיִּקַּח קֹרַח, בֶּן-יִצְהָר בֶּן-קְהָת בֶּן-לֵוִי; וְדָתָן וַאֲבִירָם בְּנֵי אֱלִיאָב, וְאוֹן בֶּן-פֶּלֶת--בְּנֵי רְאוּבֵן.


1 Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men;



All the commentaries are perplexed by the first words of our parsha. What exactly did Korach ‘take’?


 


In the Mechon Mamre translation (above), it states:’he took men’,referring to the characters mentioned in the verse, who were all taken(in) by Korach and his propoganda message against Moshe and the leadership of the Jewish people.


 


In the translation found on the Sefaria website it says:


 


וַיִּקַּ֣ח קֹ֔רַח בֶּן־יִצְהָ֥ר בֶּן־קְהָ֖ת בֶּן־לֵוִ֑י וְדָתָ֨ן וַאֲבִירָ֜ם בְּנֵ֧י אֱלִיאָ֛ב וְא֥וֹן בֶּן־פֶּ֖לֶת בְּנֵ֥י רְאוּבֵֽן׃Now Korah, son of Izhar son of Kohath son of Levi, betook himself, along with Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—descendants of Reuben


 


'He betook himself ‘ meaning that the object of the ‘taking’ is himself,i.e. that there was some sort of self awareness here, in the form of self delusion, on the part of Korach.


 


Rashi comments:


 


ויקח קרח. לָקַח אֶת עַצְמוֹ לְצַד אֶחָד לִהְיוֹת נֶחֱלָק מִתּוֹךְ הָעֵדָה לְעוֹרֵר עַל הַכְּהֻנָּה, וְזֶהוּ שֶׁתִּרְגֵם אוּנְקְלוּס "וְאִתְפְּלֵג" — נֶחֱלַק מִשְּׁאָר הָעֵדָה לְהַחֲזִיק בְּמַחֲלוׂקֶת, וְכֵן "מַה יִּקָּחֲךָ לִבֶּךָ" (איוב ט"ו) — לוֹקֵחַ אוֹתְךָ לְהַפְלִיגְךָ מִשְּׁאָר בְּנֵי אָדָם. דָּ"אַ: ויקח קרח, מָשַׁךְ רָאשֵׁי סַנְהֶדְרָאוֹת שֶׁבָּהֶם בִּדְבָרִים, כְּמוֹ שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר "קַח אֶת אַהֲרֹן" (ויקרא ח'), "קְחוּ עִמָּכֶם דְּבָרִים" (הושע י"ד)


lit., AND KORAH TOOK — He betook himself on one side with the view of separating himself from out of the community so that he might raise a protest regarding the priesthood to which Moses had appointed his brother. This is what Onkelos means when he renders it by ואתפלג — “he separated himself” from the rest of the community in order to maintain dissension. Similar is, (Job 15:12) “Why doth thy heart take thee aside (יקחך)”, meaning, it takes you aside to separate you from other people (Midrash Tanchuma, Korach 2). — Another explanation of ויקח קרח is: he attracted (won over) the chiefs of the Sanhedrin amongst them (the people) by fine words. The word is used here in a figurative sense just as in. (Leviticus 8:2) “Take words with you” .Midrash Tanchuma, Korach


 


‘He took’ means: ’he divided the camp,taking himself to one side, or he ‘won over’ the group who supported him, with his use of words.


 


All of these ideas do not seem to address the heart of the matter.How did he win over the supporters with his words? What did he say? What method did he use?


 


There are well known Midrashic ideas in terms of his use of Talitot made totally with Techelet, as to whether an extra blue thread is really needed. (Also, a house full of  sefarim as to whether it needs a mezuzah) ,hence the juxtaposition to the last parsha of Tzizit).



I want to suggest an interpretation which gets to the heart of the story, (even though it sounds ‘chassidic’ in nature).I heard this idea over 50 years ago in cheder in London and it has always stayed with me.


At the end of last weeks parsha is the paragraph of the mitzva of Tzizit, which we say every day in our tefillot. In the tefilla we add at the end of the Shema the word ‘emet’-truth, which is repeated by the chazzan (and the community, in the sefardic tradition). However, in the paragraph in the Torah the word ‘emet’ is noticeably missing.The answer to the missing word is found in the first words of our parsha:’and Korach took…..’.What did he take? He took the truth, by manipulating it and using it to his own ends.He was a Levi and a worthy individual at one time(the Kotzker called him the’heiliger Zaider’) but his view was that his claim to leadership was a ‘true’ one and this quickly spiralled into an argument which lead to tragedy.


 


I recently acquired the latest book by Prof.Marc Shapiro, dealing with issues of truth in the religious community. He shows many examples of how the truth has been ‘doctored’ in order to teach a lesson, even if the event described never actually took place. Surely the lesson from Korach is that when we use the ‘truth ‘ for our own ends we are playing with a dangerous concept, as manipulation of truth is something we should reject and not condone in any circumstance. If we allow the ‘story’ to teach us, without being authentic, our students can rightly doubt every story they have ever read about Gedolei Yisrael and question the veracity and the lesson being conveyed.This is the ultimate lesson from Korach, to fight for the truth but not to doctor it to suit our means.Many teachers will testify to the fact that some parents have formed their educational goals after reading certain biographies, such as those from the Artscroll series of Rabbinic leaders. If any of these great Rabbis finished Shas at 3-4years old, why can’t my child at least start the Talmud study at age 6 or 7? This is where the truth gets used as a distortion and it does not serve the interests of the child(or the teacher) for any good purpose. I am still amazed at the pictures of children at religious summer camp spending many hours every day in the Bet Midrash, instead of gaining important outdoor exercise and recharging of the ‘batteries’ which is surely what a summer vacation is really all about.


 


In the famous story(TB Bava Batra 74a) of the Arab who showed Raba Bar Bar Chana the burial place of Korach’s congregation, the Rabbi  put his ear to the ground and heard them say:’Moshe is true and his Torah is true’. This is surely one of the great teachings of our parsha:to respect the truth and seek it at all times, not as a means of control/manipulation but as a goal in life, to be a true Jew and faithful to the word and command of God.


 


Shabbat Shalom.


Rabbi Ian Shaffer Cherry Hill NJ

Venue: Stern College Stern College

Parsha:
Korach 

Description

An insight I gained over 50 years ago as to how korach influenced his followers and the lessons for us from this story.

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    Learning on the Marcos and Adina Katz YUTorah site is sponsored today by Judy & Mark Frankel & family l'ilui nishmos מרדכי בן הרב משה יהודה ע"ה and משה יהודה ז"ל בן מאיר אליהו ויהודית