Korach's Blind Eye: Humility and the Need for a Leader

1“It is too much for you, sons of Levi.”¹ Rashi cites a teaching of Chazal: “Korach was clever; what did he see that led him to this folly? His eye misled him.”² But why did Chazal speak of his eye? Why did they not say that his intellect or his understanding misled him?

2aLet us first cite the Tiferes Shlomo on the verse “It is too much for you, sons of Levi.” He writes that from the very beginning of the world, creation was designed so that the world cannot exist without a leader of the generation. In the inner teaching of the Kabbalah, the tzaddik is called “the foundation of the world,”³ for all the flow of blessing goes to him, and from him it is drawn to the whole world. At the time of creation there were Kayin and Hevel, and Hevel was the foundation. This angered Kayin, for he understood that Hevel was the fruit and he himself only a shomer, the shell that guards the fruit. So in his anger he said, “Am I my brother's shomer, his keeper?”⁴ He meant that he did not want to look to Hevel for his flow of blessing. We find the same with Lot, who thought he had no need of the blessing that came through Avraham's power. That is the meaning of “And the land could not bear them to dwell together”:⁵ the “land,” ha'aretz, is the artziyus, the earthiness, within them, which did not let them submit to Avraham. For Lot considered himself the rav, the master, with no need of Avraham's flow of blessing, and so he went to ruin.

2bThe same thing happened with the tribes of Kah, the brothers of Yosef.⁶ Rashi writes that “they went only to pasture themselves,”⁷ meaning that they thought they did not need Yosef as their shepherd and leader; they would shepherd themselves. This was also Korach's mistake when he said, “For the entire congregation, all of them are holy”:⁸ all of them received the Torah at Sinai, and they need no rav or leader. That is why Moshe told them, “Rav lachem, sons of Levi.” The words mean “It is too much for you,” but they can also be read “You have a rav”: you need a rav, even if you are all holy. That is the gist of the holy words of the Tiferes Shlomo.

3In light of this we may explain “his eye misled him.” It rests on what the holy sefarim, among them the Chedvas Simchah, say about Chazal's teaching “One who is blind in one of his eyes is exempt from re'iyah,” the mitzvah of appearing at the Beis HaMikdash on the festivals.⁹ A person, they explain, must look at two things: the greatness of the Creator, and his own lowliness. If he is “blind in one of his eyes,” meaning that he does not see his own lowliness, he is exempt from re'iyah, from appearing before Hashem. For to come to the place of the Beis HaMikdash, a person must be submissive and lowly and must feel the holiness of the place, as the verse says, “For I, Hashem, dwell with the crushed.”¹⁰ That is what Chazal meant by “his eye misled him.” Korach did not see his own lowliness, and so he sought honor for himself [and would not accept a rav over him].

4a[The same idea lies behind another comment of Rashi,¹¹ on the verse “And Korach took”: “He took himself to one side, to separate himself from the congregation.”¹² The commentators, among them the Ramban and the two classic commentaries on Rashi, the Mizrachi and the Gur Aryeh, discuss what Rashi means by this.¹³ The Kedushas Levi explains that there are two kinds of tzaddikim. One tzaddik serves Hashem only to give the Creator nachas ruach, satisfaction. So it makes no difference to him whether he himself brings about this satisfaction Above or others bring it about through their service; what matters is that the Creator has satisfaction. Another tzaddik, however, intends to receive reward for his service, and so he wants to be the one who serves the Creator. That is the meaning of “he took himself”: Korach's intent was for himself alone. He wanted to be the Kohen Gadol, the High Priest, himself, so that the Name of Heaven would be sanctified through him. That is the gist of the words of the Kedushas Levi.]

4b[Yet in this very thing Korach caused a blemish. We know from the holy sefarim why the reward for a mitzvah is not given in this world; the Torei Zahav teaches it in the name of the Maggid of Mezritch, the Baal Shem Tov's successor, and so does the Arvei Nachal.¹⁴ If the reward were given here, a person would do mitzvos out of ulterior motives; he would then be serving himself, and so would no longer deserve any reward. Rather, the right intent in avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem, is to do the mitzvos only to increase the glory of Heaven. May Hashem grant, then, that we be privileged to serve the Creator and give Him satisfaction, and through this bring near the appointed time of the redemption.]

5May the Holy One, blessed be He, help us serve Hashem in lowliness and accept guidance from the tzaddikim until the Redeemer comes. Amen, may it be His will.