Korach - Knowing Our Place

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast with Ari goldwag recorded with hash's nting assistance in r b 5784 2024 this week par par korak and we have the very famous story of the rebellion of korak against Moshe and he and 250 members of the tribe of ruen as well as DUS and airam they all fought against Moshe they all tried to claim that Moshe and Aon not special were not Chosen and that all of the entire Jewish people were special and chosen and therefore they should be the ones to serve in the in the mishon a Tabernacle in place of Aron the Torah describes how they brought there was a test and asfor explained even though they knew only one of them would be the winner and that all the other ones would die nevertheless they all entered into this test of bringing the cus bringing the incense offering they were all killed korak d a they were all sucked into the ground interestingly korak's children they did chuva at the last moment they were saved many many years later we have we had singers Levites who were from korak who did indeed compose beautiful songs for the mission for the bigas for the temple but what I'd like to focus in on is not so much the actual story itself but the aftermath of the story because in the aftermath of the story there's a very deep idea that raai teaches us POS says like this the day after the entire Congregation of the people of Israel complained they said that look you set up the story you knew that if if they would bring this incense offering they would die and you called out to mosu that they should have an unusual death and that's what happened the Jewish people witnessed this situation and instead of taking the lesson of mosha and Aon being the chosen ones they they were still upset they felt that mosha and Aon were still grabbing power and we're not doing things based perhaps having forbid we're not doing things based on the command of now what happens is as they all come and they gather against the motion IR so they see that the mishkan the Tabernacle is covered with the cloud which means that hes God himself is showing that he's present he's aware of what's going on and it was a call from they came in front of the Tabernacle and they had a conversation with with with God God speaks to M and he says up so says to mosha separate yourself from this nation I'm going to destroy them and I'm not going read the whole the whole uh story inside but basically there's a plague that immediately attaches itself to the Jewish people 14,700 people die huge number 14,700 people die as a result of this complaint and Aon selflessly runs with the incense offering which has the power to save lives he runs between the and the Mas he prevents the MAA from spreading say at the end of the section in chapter 7 verse 15 comes back to mosha having gone out to bring the incense offering amongst the people and the plague is stopped the story doesn't end there Moshe and Aon still need to prove Pro to the Jewish people and it's truly a Wonder we're going to see together ra is going to explain to us what's going on here but he goes and there's a obviously he's standing up for the Jewish people but at the same time they still are questioning whether or not mosar are chosen once the poison of korak went into the Jewish people it didn't go out so easily even with a M for death of 14,700 people hasem says like this God instructs Mo and says take a staff from each of the 12 tribes and you're going to take the the staff of their of their of their prince you're going to write the name of the Nasi it seems the the the prince of the tribe and you'll write the name write the name of each of the tribes you also write on the staff of Ley you're going take the staff of you're going to write his name on it here's the test God says this is AEM speaking it's not asking of God right Hashem says take these 12 stabs place them in side of the Alo which it's going to be another test of who is the chosen one who do I want who does God want to serve him once again says I will prove again to the Jewish people that it's Aron that I choose that it's the tribe of Ley that I choose to serve me I'll will dispel any questions that the people have about who is the chosen one so mhe set over this entire instruction from hem to the Jewish people and they indeed brought a staff from each of the leaders of the tribes mosha places the stabs in the sanctuary the following day came Moshe came in to the sanctuary there was no mistaking it the staff that belonged to Aon which represented himself and the tribe of the Levites it had produced instead of being just the stick it started to flower and it had almonds it had have flowers the proof the final proof the final convincing proof was there for the Jewish people he took it out he brought it and showed it to the entire people everyone can see it said Aron's name on it everyone else took back their own staffs and it was proven clearly in front of the Jewish people that iron is the chosen one the tribe of Ley is the chosen one the final final thing here is God says to Moses I want you to take that staff of iron and I want you to place it with the AR the AR inside of the holy of holies and it will be something there to remind these people the Jewish people who have rebelled against me so that their complaints should stop and there should be no cause of their death so mosha did that and uh that's the closing of this story now I'd like to read to you from because ra addresses important Point as to what exactly were the Jewish people thinking saying how can we keep making the same mistake over and over again how can you keep you know barking up the wrong tree and saying oh m is taking uh unnecessarily taking leadership and iron is taking leadership I'm saying let's think about it for a moment mosu had been leading the Jewish people okay for a year and a half two years iren was there in Egypt with them leading them for 80 years for 80 years maybe a little less cu he was he was 83 at this point 84 at this point 70 years so what's going on here what is the what is the exact issue what is the exact issue so I like to read to you what says because it's very important brings the as well the the congregation of the people of Israel complained the question is the the ground swallowed up korak there was a fire that burned up all the 250 people of of Ruan who wanted to and think about Ruan is the first born right that's what we're going to see to do with the first born but what's uh what's there to complain about what is there not to believe so he brings the says the thing was like this they understood that AR was the K they understood that he was chosen the Jewish people didn't come so much out of a place of jealous they came out of a place of a desire to be able to serve has in the mishon think about it the who were originally meant to be the ones to serve Hashem in the mishkon the first born they came from each and every tribe the firstborn of each and every family would be the ones who would serve in the mishkon they were swapped out by the Levites but the by the L as a result of what as a result of the fact that the Jewish people sinned with the golden gaff the Levites were chosen they were the ones who stood up for the honor of hasem the were the ones who sinned but still the Jewish people said we want our Representatives why shouldn't there be individual representatives from each tribe they weren't interested in them being switched out that's why they complain they said look the the test that you gave them was not right was not appropriate because the test was with Theus but Theus we understand the garus is brought by the high priest by by we admit it's Aon but it's brought by the high priest we the the Jewish people were saying look you gave them a test that had to do with kunun had to do with the priesthood but that's not what we are interested in we want them to be like the Levites serving in the temple yes not bringing a higher level of of of offerings that are not appropriate for them they should be there to the perhaps of the corbon of the sacrifices they should be there to the should be the ones to play the music in the mishon should be the singers Etc they shouldn't be replaced by the and this is an explanation of what was necessary in the continuation of the story it was important that the Jewish people recognized not just the significance and the importance of Aron himself but the Levites themselves were chosen in place of the firstborns I'd like to read to you again from from the and this is in the continuation of where it says that the this this very verse where it says that the one who will be chosen by Hashem the the their mat their staff would would flour and produce fruit produce almonds which we'll see what's the significance of the almonds they were still complaining after the third proof right the first two proofs were the fact that korak and and D was swallowed up with their families and the 250 people were burned alive they're spiritually burned the third thing was that there was a Maga there was a plague and that killed out 14,700 people but after and that was after their complaints but they still weren't convinced that's why after these three signs these three proofs so there was another proof a fourth proof which had to do with his staff that was going to produce flowers when they died so it proved that was not interested in the as we explained above the second sign was all the fact that God chose and his son so the only one left is AR and this complained that they didn't want things to be switched from the to the plague came to respond to that says I have to get rid of these complaints they're still complaining so in the simple understanding of the of the of the P we think of this staff that it's growing flowers so it's a very it's like a finally a positive uh symbol a a positive symbol you know Iron is the chosen one but the is actually in this symbol there was a very strong a judgmental aspect what is it and he explains it teaches us that there's going to the the growing of the flower and as we'll see the growing of the almonds which are a tough fruit which are a hard fruit they're not soft they're not light they're they're something which has a hardness to them they represent an aspect of D this shows that whoever argues whoever comes against the chosen one of Hashem so negative situations will sprout in their lives heaven forbid and this is a sign of a covenant between God and the Levites chose the Levites over the first born Le that's why it's saying was chosen to the house of of of Ley all these signs come to prove that the n the prophecy of Moses is true and it's established and it's it's absolutely real and broken are the claims finally that Moshe is making it up on his own no it's very clear it's coming from God okay so yeah I'm not going to read inside the the last point about the because I already said the idea to you which is that theim the almonds represent a certain toughness a certain D he he brings other other places in t where we find that that's the that's the representation of theim something that's constantly something that you have to be worried about constantly the word the root of the word is Shak which means a shakan is someone who's consistently working on things someone who consistently studying learning Etc it's called a shakan it means something that's tough you got to be tough you want to succeed in learning you got to be tough and uh what's the bottom line and why am I sharing with this you for to with you and what does it teach me and what can we take out of this and what can we how can we apply this to ourselves because it's a very important idea and the idea is that sometimes or many times in life we want to being greater and that's and that's really an important idea it's an important thing to have sh in life to have to have desires I also want to serve in the mishkon I personally I hope that when mhia comes they'll identify me I'm not a Ley I'm a regular Israel but I hope that maybe they'll identify me as having levite blood so I can sing in the base of English in the temple but be that as it may we all want to serve Hashem to the best of our ability and to do it in the most uh how how do how do I say it to do it in the most obviously successful way we want our service of God to be successful if we speak if we put out a partial podcast we want it to be heard by as many people as possible if we are teachers we want our students to to succeed as many as possible we want to be able to serve God it's a spiritual Jing to want to be able to get in there and be in the mishkon to be in the Tabernacle and to to be from among those who are called whose God's name is called upon and that's a wonderful sh It's a Wonderful aspiration to have but the mistake of korak and the mistake of the Jewish people is sometimes God says no sometimes we yearn for a relationship with Hashem that we're not Z to we're not we don't Merit it we're not there we have to know who we are it's like I mentioned in the name of that you know a person needs to have their own way in life they have to make sure that they're doing what's right and sometimes they may not agree with those around them they may choose a path in life that maybe it's the high road maybe it's something that's unusual but you know just yesterday I was in Jerusalem with my family for we went to the cotel a nephew on T for the first time and I mentioned to my kids you know there were people walking around there with their on with on their tias and I said here they're not afraid to do it you know they they do what they think is right and there's a group of them the zilber the zilberstein zberman cover up and they're not afraid to do it and sometimes trying to do something which is not really where the person is holding you hit a brick wall you hit a brick wall and you see it's not working and the lesson of our para is that yes we need to have shus yes we need to strive yes we need to have aspirations yes we need to rise higher and higher in our service of God but we also need to know our place where and she would say do what you think is right but make sure it really is right and make sure that the place that you want to be the place that you choose for yourself really is who you are and where you belong that's not to say that a person should be limited but we need to hear from our G from our from those outside of us korak comes to mosha and says hey I want to be the Mad Moshe responds and Moshe is the voice of Hashem Moshe has the voice of hasem speaking through his through his voice we need to know we need to hear we need to understand that sometimes we strive higher and sometimes K who says that's it and we need to know where those lines are we need to respect them it's a very important thing CL has Kan and we have priests they're on a higher level they get the first Aliyah they're the ones who go up and they they give the blessing to the people there are the Levites they're the singers they are the ones who pour the water on their hands they get the second alyah then there's the Israeli when each every each and every one of us has a place a role in CLA we need to understand what our role is and we need to we need to respect our role we need to also know that is exactly who we are in CL is exactly who we're meant to be I'm not meant to look at the Coen and say Hey I want to be a PRI priest I'm not meant to say I want to be a levite maybe unless I really am this really is my place need to know who I am need to understand the Levites were chosen because they stood up by the by the golden calf and they they responded and the failed so they lost a certain level but it was indicative of the essence of who they were so we need to search for the essence of who we are we need to always strive to be greater but also recognize exactly where we are in the constellation of types of people who serve Hashem and how that manifests in our service of Hashem and the Jewish people I want to bless you ask you to bless me should help us to indeed find and understand exactly who we are exactly where we belong should help us to have the shifas to have the aspirations and to become the best people we are meant to be thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabas this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.wag.com or search on iTunes Ari goldwag [Music]