Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan Parshat Korach 1

good morning um we are learning we are on page 8 21 of the art scroll kumash and parashat Kodak continues the sad story that we read about last week in parashat shalach where the Jewish people sent the spies right before coming into the land but the spice brought a bad report they slandered the land and they discouraged the Jewish people from going into the land of Israel and because of that the Jewish people cried they complained they accused Hashem of not caring for them and wanting to kill them and Hashem decreed that if you wish to die here in the desert I will grant your wish and he said I will be kind to you and I will wait until each one of you reaches the age of 60. at which point um every man who was between 20 and 60 when they came out of Egypt died and now after the Jewish people here of this decree that now they have to stay in the desert for the next 38 years they are very um prone to being convinced to rebel and that is what korach does he uses the opportunity that people are dissatisfied with the moshe's leadership and with the situation and he forms a rebellion chapter 16 page 821 son of it's hard son of kehat son of Levy separated himself Korah was a levite Levy had three sons Gershon and mirari and kehat was the the main son from him came Miriam kohen and Kodak came from also so korach and Moshe were first cousins so he separated himself he separated himself from the general trend of following Moshe and he said why do we need to follow Moshe let us make a different uh group and in fact he said why do we need a leader at all every Jew heard God speaking on on Mount Sinai every Jew received the Torah every Jew became a prophet and let us just uh all be the kohanim let us all be the leaders as uh when Ben Gurion once spoke with an American president American president told him I'm greater than you because you are a a prime minister over 2 million people and I am a president over 200 million people 100 times more and Ben Gurion ends answered him you are a president over 200 million people and I am a prime minister over 2 million prime ministers because every Jew thinks that he is the prime minister himself every Jew has an opinion every Jew wants to change the world and therefore um it's much harder to guide and lead the Jewish people and it was very difficult for motion and Kodak said um yeah we don't need the leader each one of us is a leader we all know the truth we all heard God we don't accept um any boss over our head only God so he separated himself but our sages say he did it with an ulterior motive he was proclaiming to the masses that he is doing it for them that they don't need a leader Let each man be the leader of his house but in fact he wanted to remove Moshe from leadership and he wanted to become a leader himself and together with datan and aziram Sons of eliav and on son of pellet children of reuven together with him were three more men they were from the tribe of ruven aviram we have met elsewhere they were the two evil people two Jews who always fought against each other and they fought against other Jews they always did trouble for the Jewish people all the way from Egypt even in Egypt they were very argumentative they fought and they went against moshel they slandered him to to Paro and because of them part of decree death on Moshe because although Moshe was protecting one of them when he was uh being bitten by an Egyptian and Moshe killed the Egyptian then when it was convenient for them they went and they told Paro who did it and they said you know that Egyptian that attacked me I know who killed him and his own savior he sent to death um so they joined korach and together with them was a man called whose name was on and he was confused he wasn't sure who to follow so in the meantime he followed them but later we will see that he removed himself from their evil group thanks to his wife his wife convinced him not to join them and he was saved but later we will see that Korah and the tanen aziram will die together with their entire family um now verse 2 on page two eight two eight twenty one they stood before Moshe with pride and uh boldness with 250 men from the children of Israel and they gathered 250 elders from all the tribes but mainly from ruven and they were all leaders of the assembly those summoned for meeting men of renown so here Kodak assembled over 250 people great people not simple simpletons and he is going against Moshe they gather together against Moshe and against aharon and they said to them it is too much for you they said you moshen Aron our two brothers how is it the two brothers from the same family got two highest positions in the Jewish Nation Moshe became the king the leader and aharon became the kohen gadon the spiritual leader of the Jewish people is that a coincidence or Moshe maybe you appointed aharon to be the kohen gadol of your own choice because he was your brother and that's why he says it is too much for you why should both of you occupy two highest positions for the entire assembly all of them are holy and Hashem is among them why do you exalt yourselves over the congregation of Hashem the entire assembly all of them are holy and Hashem is among them I will say just say that any lie that does not have truth mixed in with it will not survive and therefore the greatest Liars what they do is they mix a little bit of truth among great deal of Lies and people notice the truth and they say okay if this is true maybe the rest is also true and they believe them and that's what Kodak did as well he said great things great truths about the Jewish people he said the entire assembly all of them Are Holy and that's true Jewish people are holy all of them and Hashem is among them God is with us but then he added a lie why do you exalt yourselves over the congregation of Hashem and Moshe heard and fell on his face in prayer he realized that it is very dangerous if there will be another Rebellion Hashem might carry out his previous decree of wiping out the entire nation and starting the Jewish people again with Moshe as their forefather and he said Hashem please let Nadi let it not happen the Jews already sinned so many times in the last year another Rebellion might destroy them he spoke to Korah and to his entire assembly so first he tried to make peace and reason with them and he said in the morning Hashem will make known the one who is his own and the Holy One and he God will draw him close to himself and who and whomever he will choose He will draw close to himself so Moshe is telling him why should we fight you say that I appointed myself and my brother I tell you that I was just following God's command let's ask God let's wait until tomorrow morning we will do an experiment which he will describe and whoever whomever God chooses that will be the sign for all the Jews to know for sure that he is the chosen one so they mainly are testing aharon because if aharon is the true kohen gadol then we know that Moshe acted with God's um command and then we know the Moshe is true also on page 8 23 verse 6 he told them this is the test that we're gonna do tomorrow morning do this take for yourselves fire pans and his entire assembly and put fire in them put coals and play place incense the ketora the spices upon them before Hashem tomorrow in the mishkan in front of um The Altar let's all serve God and we know from the past that when two people simultaneously bring offerings Hashem favors one over the other and we can see who is greater that's what happened with kind and heavily kind and Hazel broad offerings and Hashem chose heavil's offering and not kinds and we know that La Yahoo the prophet made the same test with the false prophets of the idol bowel and they offered a cow and he offered a cow on two separate altars and they said whoever God desires or whichever God is true fire will come down from heaven and consume that offering and the fire came down and consumed eliyahu's offering and all the people understood that Hashem is the true God so Moshe said the same thing let all of you Cora the 250 men who are also vying to become a coin gadol and aharon who is the real coincado let all of you come and uh bring the same offering let's see whose offering will be accepted the then the man whom Hashem will choose he is the Holy One it is too much for you all offspring of Levy mausi here spoke to the entire tribe of Levy trying to persuade them not to follow Korah and he reminded them it's too much for you which means you already have greatness you already were separated from the rest of the Jewish people to become Servants of Hashem in the temple and he was also reminding them that in service of Hashem there's only one Cohen gadol and he tried to tell them that out of people only one will survive the rest are gonna die so you have a chance of one in 250 that you will survive and 249 or the full 250 because around is 251st you have a 250 out 251 chances of dying and only one chance of surviving would you take such a risk and nevertheless all of them took that risk verse 8 Moshe said to Korah here now or offspring of Levy is it not enough for you that God of Israel has segregated you from the Assembly of Israel to draw you near to himself to perform the service of the Tabernacle of Hashem and to stand before the assembly to minister to them and he drew you near and all of your brothers The Offspring of Levy with you yet you seek priesthood you're not satisfied with being a levy you also want to be a Cohen therefore you and the entire assembly that are joining together or against Hashem and as for our own what is he that you protest against him he didn't upon himself God chose him so leave him out of it verse 12. now Moshi is trying to reason with by the way did not um try to become kohanim I guess they were not interested in service of Hashem they stayed at home while these 250 people said give us a chance to be a coin gadol so motion now goes to the Tana naziram first he sends them a message he's he sent forth to summon the tananaviram the sons of Elia but they said we shall not go up they refused his message and they said is it not enough that you have brought us up from a land flown with milk and honey that's how they call Egypt the land where their wife the one of their wives was abused that was the story where an Egyptian man uh tricked a Jewish woman and pretended to be her husband in the middle of the night and she didn't know and he slept with her and then when her husband found out um he protested and the Egyptian beat him up and Moshe defended um the Jew and um killed the Egyptian so their wife one of their datan or aviram I'm not sure which one um his wife was was raped he himself was uh about to be killed by this Egyptian they were in slavery the Jewish people were being killed and tortured and they call Egypt the land flowing with milk and honey and you took us out with evil intent to cause us to die in the wilderness they're accusing Hashem that he wants to kill them even though he's sending them water from a rock and man bread falling upon them from heaven with clouds of Glory around them and they are accusing Hashem of not loving them and trying to hurt them yet you seek to dominate us you talk you took us out of good place and you brought us to bad place and now you want to be a leader of us even to don't dominate further moreover you did not bring us to a land flowing with milk and honey you promised to bring us to the land of Israel and now you said we're gonna die in a desert Lord give us a Heritage of field and wine and Vineyard now on page 825 and they continue even if you would gouge out our eyes we shall not go up very boldly they spoke to Moshe this distressed motion greatly he realized that not korach not 250 men and not that anaviram are listening and it might cause destruction of the entire Jewish people and he started praying to Hashem he said to Hashem do not turn to their gift offering said Hashem please tomorrow when they offer uh ketoric in front of you please don't accept it perhaps the Rebellion will stop there the Jewish people will see that Aaron is chosen and the Rebellion will die down by itself and then Moshe is showing his righteousness I have not taken even a single donkey of theirs I as their King as their leader I have the right to confiscate their property or to charge them taxes to pay for my expenses because I am a public servant and yet I don't get a salary and even what I need for my own transportation I don't have a driver I don't have a car I have my own transportation nor have I wronged even one of them I did not hurt them with words I did not hurt them physically and I did not hurt them financially how can they not be happy with me Moshe said tukora again you and your entire assembly be before Hashem tomorrow now verse 18. the next morning arrives so they took each man his fire pen and they placed fire on them and put incense on them and they stood at the entrance of the tent of meaning with motion Arun Cora gathered the entire assembly to the Ancients of the Tanto mini he made a whole big show let's see how we are going to prove Moshe wrong and all of a sudden the glory of Hashem appeared to the entire assembly Hashem spoke to motion Aaron saying separate for yourselves from amid disassembly and I shall destroy them in an instant and what Moshe was afraid of is happening Hashem says you motion are all separate and I'm gonna destroy the entire Jewish people in an instant fell on their faces and said oh God God of the spirits of All Flesh shall one man sin and you be angry with the entire assembly emoshi is trying to reason with Hashem and say Hashem the Jewish people don't know right from left is falsely convincing them and they don't know who to believe please do not destroy the entire Jewish people just destroy the sinners so I would say just say that this sentence can be read as a question as we read it now but at the same time it can be read as a statement one man shall sin and you will be angry with the entire assembly that such a thing also happens that all the Jews are responsible one for another and if one Jew sins Hashem is angry with the entire Jewish people because since he allowed himself to behave like this to um transgress it means that there was a spirit of rebellion in the nation if one Jew desecrates Shabbat it means that among the religious Jews there is a certain weakness in keeping Shabbat just like in an organism in a body if one cell is sick it will affect the entire organism it will infect and kill the entire organism so too it is with the with the Jews one Jew sends and the entire Jewish people can be punished and just like in the body if the body is healthy then each individual cell will be healthy the fact that one cell became sick is a sign that the the body the entire body is weak so Moshe is asking Hashem please don't destroy the entire Jewish Nation only kill the sinners and in verse 23 hashems spoke to Moshe saying speak to the assembly saying get yourselves for up from All Around The Dwelling Places Hashem says Okay I accept your advice and I will only destroy the families now the Torah doesn't tell us what happened to the 250 people yet it's going to tell us a little bit later that they were burnt alive and they all died right that instant when they brought the ketoret just like the two sons of aharon who also brought the kitoret who also wanted to serve God without permission they were burnt their souls were burnt out of their bodies so do these 250 people were burned um so now Hashem tells tells them tell the Jewish people to leave the neighborhood where houses of course are the rest of the Jewish people will be spared verse 25 Moshe stood up and went to the aviram trying to give them another chance to repent and the Elders of Israel followed him he spoke to the assembly saying turn away now from near the tents of these wicked men and do not touch anything of theirs lest you perish because of all their sins so they got themselves up from near the dwelling of course from all around went out erect at the entrance of the tents with their wives children and infants again they stood up and they did not think of repenting they were still rebellious in the face of gehinam as our sages say that someone who is evil through and through even at the entrance way to gehinam to hell even though he sees it coming he still does not repent now page 827 verse 28 now Moshe says to himself if they just drop dead people might question me maybe it was just a coincidence maybe there was poison in their food maybe they were um agents snipers that shot them so Moshe said through this shall you know that Hashem sent me to perform all these acts that it was not from my heart and he said let us ask Hashem to perform an open miracle to show that their death is not accidental if these people die like the death of all men and the destiny of all men is visit upon them then it is not Hashem who has sent me the doubt will still remain in people's hearts but if Hashem will create a phenomenon and the Earth opens its