Korach's Dispute: Separating from Moshe's Light

1“Korach, son of Yitzhar, son of Kehas, son of Levi, took …”¹ Why does the whole parshah never use a word for quarreling or dispute, such as “Korach quarreled” or “Korach disputed”? Why does the Torah say only Vayikach Korach, “Korach took”? Rashi comments: “He took himself to one side, to separate himself from the congregation in order to contest the priesthood. This is what Onkelos renders ve'ispeleig, ‘and he separated himself’ …”² What do these expressions mean? [We must also understand Korach's dispute with Moshe.³ Surely it was not simply what it appears to be on the surface, a quarrel over authority, Heaven forbid, especially since the Torah itself testifies that Korach's company were people of stature, as the verse says, “summoned to the assembly, men of renown.”⁴ As is well known, our master the Chozeh of Lublin, zy"a, used to speak of der heiliger zeide Korach, Yiddish for “holy grandfather Korach,” for the Chozeh was of the tribe of Levi, one of Korach's descendants.]

2The Midrash says: “Rava expounded: What is meant by the verse ‘Sun, moon stood still in zevulah’? It teaches that the sun and moon went up to Zevul and said before Him: ‘Master of the world, if You do justice for the son of Amram, we will go out; and if not, we will not go out.’”⁵ Why did the sun and moon take this stand only over Korach's dispute, and not over the other sins of the wilderness?

3aMy holy father and teacher, zt"l, taught on the verse “Why do you raise yourselves up over the congregation of Hashem?”⁶ He began with a teaching of the Be'er Mayim Chaim on the verse “A ladder set upon the earth, and its top reaching to heaven.”⁷ The tzaddik, it explains, is a kind of ladder between earth and heaven. Through him all the prayers, the Torah and the mitzvos rise upward, and through him all the blessings and the flow of abundance come down below. There the Be'er Mayim Chaim explains at length the idea of “the tzaddik is the foundation of the world.”⁸ Through the tzaddik every “arousal from below” rises upward: the stirring that begins with man, through his engagement in Torah and mitzvos. The Kabbalah calls this raising mayin nukvin, “feminine waters,” its term for the human striving that reaches upward. The tzaddik is truly the intermediary between the world below and the world above. Those are the holy words of the Be'er Mayim Chaim.

3bIt is also known that the Baal Shem Tov, zt"l, raised up prayers of Israel that had been said as much as several hundred years before his time. On this basis my holy father explained Chazal's saying “One who prays must direct his eyes downward and his heart upward.”⁹ “Downward” hints at the prayers of Israel lying below: the tzaddik must set his eyes on them in order to raise them on high. “His heart” hints at the Holy One, blessed be He, Who is the heart of Israel.¹⁰ This is also the spirit of “loving people and drawing them close to the Torah”:¹¹ the tzaddik draws their Torah and mitzvos close, bringing them up on high. Korach argued, “Why do you raise yourselves up?” Why should it be you who must raise up the Torah and prayers of Bnei Yisrael? Why must everything pass through the tzaddik? Better that each person be complete in himself, so that people do not need the leaders to raise their prayers on high, “for the entire congregation, all of them are holy”:¹² each and every one can raise his own Torah and mitzvos by himself. Those are his holy words.

4It seems that all this can be explained as follows. As is well known, Chazal said that Moshe extends into each and every generation.¹³ Similarly, we find several times in Chazal the expression “Moshe, you have spoken well,” said by one sage to another.¹⁴ The holy sefarim explain the idea: everything that Torah scholars in every generation learn and newly discover in the Torah comes from the power of Moshe Rabbeinu, through whom the Torah was drawn down into the world.¹⁵ That is how Moshe “extends” into every generation: in any generation, the Torah can be revealed and spread in this world only by the power of Moshe Rabbeinu. This is also why Chazal say “Moshe, you have spoken well”: when the Amoraim, the sages of the Gemara, came to reveal new insights in the Torah, the power of Moshe Rabbeinu was revealed in them.

5This is the meaning of Chazal's saying “The face of Moshe was like the face of the sun, and the face of Yehoshua like the face of the moon.”¹⁶ As we know, the sun casts its light on the moon, and only by the sun's power can the moon shine. In the same way, Yehoshua's power to give light and teach the Torah came only from Moshe's power, just as the moon's light comes from the sun. So it is with every Torah scholar who reveals new insights in the Torah, to the end of all generations: his power comes only from Moshe Rabbeinu. Whoever does not believe this blemishes his faith in the holiness of the Torah's source.

6This idea is hinted at in the verse “And Moshe went and spoke these words …”¹⁷ Although Moshe “went,” departing from this world, whenever anyone in later generations learns or teaches the Torah of Moshe, it is always a case of “and Moshe spoke these words,” for all Torah learning comes from the power of Moshe Rabbeinu. That is why Targum Yonasan says there that he went to the beis ulpana, the house of study, that is, the beis midrash.¹⁸ For every beis midrash, in every generation, that engages in Torah draws all its strength from the power of Moshe Rabbeinu.

7This was Korach's claim. He surely knew that it was the Holy One, blessed be He, Who had commanded Moshe and Aharon to be leaders, and he could not dispute that. What he came to dispute was the need for everything to come through the power of Moshe in all the generations to come. He argued that every tzaddik and leader who arises, in his own generation or in later ones, can be a true leader in his own right, without depending on Moshe's power. That is what he meant by saying, “All of them heard at Mount Sinai, ‘I am Hashem your God.’”¹⁹ Since Hashem spoke to each and every individual with no intermediary, “why do you raise yourselves up over the congregation of Hashem?” Why must everyone depend on Moshe's power to raise up their Torah and prayer? And why can there not be a tzaddik and leader whose power does not come from Moshe?

8With this we can understand why the Torah says “Korach took.” Korach did not, in fact, dispute Moshe's office and leadership. He disputed the foundation itself: that Moshe's power is eternal and indispensable, needed always by every person in every generation. This is what Rashi means by “He took himself to one side,” and it is also the meaning of the Targum's ve'ispeleig: Korach set himself apart and cut himself off from his bond with the power of Moshe Rabbeinu. He argued that one need not always depend on Moshe's power, and that a person can reach every level on his own.

9This also lets us understand the Midrash's teaching that the sun and moon demanded justice over Korach's dispute. We know that everything the Holy One, blessed be He, implanted in nature corresponds to some spiritual idea and order, which we are meant to observe and learn from. The way the sun and moon function, with the moon receiving all its light from the sun, teaches that the same is true of spiritual light. All the spiritual light given to us in every generation reaches us only through the power of “the great luminary,”²⁰ the light of the Torah of Moshe Rabbeinu. Since Korach disputed this foundation, the sun and moon argued that he was thereby also disputing the very purpose of their existence and of their functioning in the world, which is only to teach this idea. That is why they said that if Hashem did not do justice for the son of Amram, they could not go out and fulfill their task in this world, which is to teach this foundation.

10This lets us understand the Tikkunei Zohar's teaching that the first letters of Mah Shehayah Hu sheyihyeh, “That which has been is that which will be,” spell Moshe: just as he was the first redeemer, in Egypt, so the final redemption will come through him.²¹ At first glance this is hard to understand, for we know that the final redemption will come through Moshiach ben Yosef and Moshiach ben Dovid! But in every generation the power to learn Torah comes only from the power of Moshe Rabbeinu. As the Tikkunei Zohar explains there, Moshe extends into each and every generation, into every tzaddik and sage who engages in the Torah, and through this power the redemption draws near. So it is accurate to say that the future redemption too will come through him, since the power to learn the Torah and keep its mitzvos, which bring the redemption, comes through Moshe's merit and power. This is all the more so since the Zohar says there that the soul of Moshe, with his power to reveal the secrets of the Torah, will be clothed in King Moshiach.

11This is also the meaning of the verse “And no man knows his burial place.”²² Burial applies to a person who has completed his task. It also applies to one who did not complete it himself, when his children complete and fill in what his task required of him, as one who “fills the place of his fathers.” But this does not apply to Moshe, for his power is present and continues in every generation, in every Jew who learns the Torah of Moshe.²³

12We must always keep this foundation in mind. When we learn and engage in mitzvos, we must bind ourselves to the earlier generations, and know that on our own we have no power at all to reach completeness. Then our Torah and prayer will be able to rise on high, and in this merit we will be privileged to see the redemption. Amen, may it be His will.