Korach Took - Insights on Parshat Korach

First and foremost, when you read the uh Torah, you understand that every word is specifically placed there by a Kadosh Baruchu for specific reasons. Regardless of where, regardless of how you see that every word is there and every word has ex- you know, literally endless meanings from it. Where you uh when you first see it, you think, "Oh, Vayikach Korach, that Korach took. What's What can you possibly learn from Korach took?" A lot of Ephraim Shlita in his uh sefer, most recent that he published, he uh in the beginning in Parshat Bereishit, he uh writes that the Gaon of Vilna once had uh a smile on his face during the prayers, and then a uh a sad face, and then a smile. And his talmid, Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, asked him, "Kvodo Rav, why did you, you know, frown and then smile?" He says, "Because yesterday, I had the siyata dishmaya to learn over 2,000 commentaries on a few words in the Torah, on three words in the Torah, in Parshat Shelach. Literally, three words in the Torah, I learned over 2,000 commentaries on it. But then, I uh in the morning, I uh didn't want to forget these commentaries, these perushim. And immediately as I woke up in the morning, I started thinking about them. But since I pasken myself that you're not allowed to even think divrei Torah before you do the uh netilat yadayim, even though the Shulchan Aruch says that you can think divrei Torah, you just can't speak divrei Torah before you do netilat yadayim, I already started thinking about them, and shamayim, they judged me, and they took away all 2,000 chiddushim. Just imagine having 2,000 ideas in total. Needless to say, over 2,000 ideas on three words in a Torah, and all of it was taken. So, I was crying to Hakadosh Baruch Hu during my prayer, "Please give it back to me. Please give it back to me." That's why I was crying. And I smiled when he gave it back to me, and I remembered all of them. Baruch Hashem. So, now you look at this parshat Korach. You've looked at it perhaps a few times, and you say, "Vayikach Vayikach Korach. What can you possibly learn from Vayikach Korach? Korach Vayikach Korach ben Yitzhar ben Kehat ben Levi with Datan v'Aviram ben uh Bnei Eliav v'On ben Pelet ben Reuven." That uh Korach, the son of Yitzhar, son of Kehat, son of Levi, took with Datan and Aviram, sons of Eliav, and On, the son of Pelet, the offspring of Reuven. What can you possibly learn from those few things? So, certainly, the uh sefarim teach us that each word has a reason. Every name certainly has a reason. And one of the uh sefarim I saw in ArtScroll that uh has uh commentary on the uh on the parshah based on the Talmud, they bring different chachamim. And we saw that. We also had a few of our own. Baruch Hashem. It says, "Vayikach Korach." Vayikach Korach, if you look at the Onkelos, Onkelos says, "Vayikach Korach that Korach uh uh um the son of uh of Yitzhar, he uh took." What does it mean that he took? He took himself away from the community. He separated himself, says Onkelos. He separated himself. He did not consider himself as part of Am Yisrael. He decided that he's going to go his own way. He's going to learn his own way, do his own way. Yeah, but we have Matan Torah. We have halachot. We have leaders. We have gedolei hador. Yeah, yeah, I understand you have all those things. I'm going to do on my own thing. That mindset that came from arrogance is the mindset of unfortunately of heresy. It's a mindset of disaster. And this is what started Korach already on his bad path. But what got him on his bad path? What got Korach on his bad path? So, the second word in the parashah, it says that Vayikach Korach. Korach, the name itself, Chachamim say also spells the word Kereach. Kereach is bald. What ended up happening when Hakadosh Baruch Hu had Moshe Rabbenu prepare the the the people that were going to serve in the Mishkan, he had to shave them. They had to remove all of their hair on their body. So, they had to remove their hair on their head, their beard. So, Korach that's now came home, Kereach came home bald, his wife saw him start screaming at him, "Whoa, what did you do to yourself? What are you doing?" He said, "No, no, this is part of serving Hashem." "This is part of serving Hashem? I told you shouldn't go. I told you you should be separated. It's just Moshe Rabbenu making fun of you because he was jealous of your beard." He goes, "No, no, they they did it also." "Nah, nah, they're just making fun of you." And his wife, the wicked wife that he has, what what what do you what she do? She warmed him up and heated him up against Korach. Heated up against Korach. Now, Korach didn't go by himself. It says that Korach had some friends. Who? Dathan and Abiram and Ben Pelet, they came with them also. Dathan, what do we learn from Dathan? Dathan, dat. Dathan is a also comes from the word dat. Dat is religion. Dathan is the one that wanted to go against the dat of Hashem, the religion of Hashem, just like the reformers, just like the Zionists, just like the different types of heretics that are out there that simply decide what to keep and what not to keep. He calls himself an Orthodox rabbi that's homosexual. He calls himself an Orthodox rabbi, that is LGBTQ AWCE AIDS. He calls himself all types of things. This is Dathan. Dathan wanted to change the law. He didn't accept the law as it is. He wanted something new. What about his buddy Aviram? Aviram comes from the word "eebir". Eebir is that he made a fortification. Fortification and in essence, fortification around his heart. He hardened his heart that even though he had all the reasons in the world to do teshuvah because he's the one that got beat up by Dathan in Egypt and Moshe Rabbeinu saved him. So, he had all the reasons in the world to follow Moshe, but he also didn't like to follow Moshe because Moshe told him to put on tefillin. Moshe told him to eat kosher. Moshe told him to protect his wheat. He didn't like that, so he ended up following the same people that hurt him in the past. Dathan. Now, On On ben Peleth, that comes from Onenut. He In Onenut he is a mourning. On ben Peleth initially went with with Korach, but after he started realizing that he's you know, his his wife told him that you're making a mistake. You're going with Korach instead of just staying out of it. He realized he made a mistake. He started mourning. He started crying to Hakadosh Baruchu to do teshuvah and that's in essence what saved him. And Peleth, his last name Peleth comes from word "plaot" miracles. It's a miracle that On did teshuvah just like it's a miracle anyone today does teshuvah. So, here we see Rabbotai Yekarim that just within the first verse we learn that every single word, every single name that Hakadosh Baruchu instilled into the world, into this holy Torah, obviously has many many reasons, but one of the things that many people never realize that all of it is relevant to their life is when they actually think about how did this all transpire? Meaning, having a heretic is one thing, but how did this heretic get everybody to follow him? Not just these the town of on Ben Peles, but also the 250 biggest rabbis of their day with the exception of course of Moshe Rabbeinu, Aharon Hacohen, Yeshua bin Nun, Caleb bin Yefuneh, and and a few others. But he had 250 leaders that Moshe Rabbeinu himself put in leadership. How did Korach do it? Says the Gemara in Maseches Shabbos, Korach was very rich. Korach was very rich and that's why it says Vayikach Korach, that Korach took. What does it took? Took also means bought. Korach took all ownership of all of these people because he gave all of the money. In essence, he bought their opinions. He bought their minds. He bought their lives. Because he had so much money, he bought all of these rabbis, which of course is very relevant to the world today where many times you go to a synagogue 20 years you see people are driving to the synagogue 20 years people are talking during tefillah. 20 years people are going against the Kadosh Baruch Hu and sometimes the rabbi doesn't say a single word. Why? Vayikach Korach. Korach bought him. Korach bought the rabbi. He doesn't want to say a single thing. Or sometimes he's a good rabbi, but he's afraid that the reshaim that are running the shul, that are the board of directors are going to fire him. So he says it's no use. Which again, if you're in a position like that, you have to leave the synagogue all together. Why stay in the shul if you can't say what you have to say? But of course it's a very big test, but nonetheless a person needs to know that if you were bought because of money, you are you you have to find yourself a different job. You have to find yourself a different job. I heard a story from a rabbi once that had an issue with somebody in his community and he went to a different rabbi and asked them, you know, what does he think? He said, "Oh, you're concerned about saying the truth?" He said, "Yeah, a little bit." He says, "Oh, you want people to like you." He said, "Yeah, I do want people to like me." He says, "Okay, so you should quit being a rabbi and go sell ice cream." Go sell ice cream. If you want to be a rabbi, you have to tell people the truth. You have to go tell people the truth. You can't just say say what's going to make them like you. And unfortunately, what would have ended up happening is that Korach knew exactly the price, the number everybody had on their head. And that's in essence what brought all of this disaster.