Separate from Them: The Tzaddik as the Channel of Life

1“Separate yourselves from the midst of this congregation, and I will consume them in an instant.”¹ Why did Hashem command Moshe and Aharon to separate from them? After all, the Holy One, blessed be He, could have destroyed Korach's company even with Moshe and Aharon standing beside them. We find this with the plague of the firstborn in Egypt: He passed over and skipped Bnei Yisrael, who were mingled among the Egyptians.² We must also ask what is meant by the words “in an instant”: why in an instant? [The holy Ohr HaChaim dwells on this, and these are his words: “We must understand why He said ‘in an instant.’ If it was to make known that He is great in power, able to kill six hundred thousand in an instant, He had already made this known earlier, as it is written, ‘If for one instant I were to go up in your midst, I would destroy you.’”³]

2The passage goes on: “They fell upon their faces and said, ‘O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and will You be angry with the whole congregation?’”⁴ What do these words mean?

3We can explain this through the words of my holy father and teacher, zt"l, on Korach's dispute. As is well known, the holy sefarim explain the idea that “the tzaddik is the foundation of the world”:⁵ the tzaddik of the generation must raise up all the prayers and good deeds of everyone in his generation. In this vein the Baal Shem Tov, zt"l, is known to have said that he had raised up prayers Israel had offered several hundred years before. In this light my holy father explained Chazal's teaching “One who prays must direct his eyes downward and his heart upward.”⁶ “Downward” refers to the prayers that lie below and must be raised up through the tzaddik, who is the heart of Israel. That is “and his heart upward”: the tzaddik, the foundation of the world, raises them on high. It was against this that Korach made his claim, “Why do you raise yourselves up over the congregation of Hashem?”⁷ Korach meant: Why do you say that it must be this way, that the tzaddik, the foundation of the world, has to raise up Israel's prayers? Those are my holy father's words.

4The whole matter can be explained as follows. This is a great foundation of the ways of Hashem in the teaching of the Baal Shem Tov. The tzaddik is the channel that raises up the Torah study, prayers and mitzvos of all who are attached to him, and draws down upon them every flow of good. As Chazal said, “The whole world is sustained for the sake of Chanina My son.”⁸ In other words, all the abundance drawn down into the world, material and spiritual alike, comes through the tzaddik. This is how the Holy One, blessed be He, established it from the days of creation.

5Yet the true tzaddik feels no credit due to himself, and claims none, for drawing down all this abundance for the community. On the contrary, he always thinks that he is, Heaven forbid, spoiling the community's abundance. For this is the way of true tzaddikim: they blame whatever goes wrong on themselves alone.

6This lets us explain the verse here, “Separate yourselves from the midst of this congregation.” The Holy One, blessed be He, was telling Moshe and Aharon: All the strength and good abundance of Korach and his company come only in your merit, through their connection with you and your being bound up with them. But they claim, “Why do you raise yourselves up?” If so, why should you stay bound to them any longer? Rather, “Separate yourselves from the midst of this congregation”: remove yourselves from your areivus, your bond of responsibility for them. Then, of itself, they will have no vitality at all in Torah and mitzvos, with no one left to raise them up before our Father in Heaven. In this way “I will consume them in an instant” will be fulfilled: in a single instant they will have no vitality whatsoever in this world, since they are not bound to you. It is in the spirit of what Chazal said about R' Akiva: “Whoever separates from you is like one who separates from life.”⁹

7aBut the way of tzaddikim, as we saw, is to blame every shortcoming on themselves. That is why “they fell upon their faces”: they were sure that they themselves were to blame. They imagined this affair had happened because they had not been able to bear with the outlook of each and every person, to go along with each one and guide him according to his spirit and his outlook, as the leaders of Israel must. So they fell upon their faces in great shame and brokenness of heart, ashamed and guilty in their own eyes.

7b“And they said, ‘O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh.’” We find this phrase used of a leader of Israel, in the verse “Let Hashem, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation.”¹⁰ With these words Moshe and Aharon sought to defend Klal Yisrael. The guilt, they said, lay with themselves, since they had not acted as a leader of Israel should. As is taught on that verse, “Let Hashem, the God of the spirits, appoint,” a leader must know how to go along with the spirit of each and every one, and bear with each one according to his outlook.¹¹ That is why they addressed Him as Kel, the Name rendered here “O God”: as is well known, this Name denotes the attribute of mercy. And they said “the God of the spirits of all flesh,” as if to say: To lead Your children, we should have gone along with the spirit of each and every one. In their great lowliness of spirit they took all the failings of Korach's company upon themselves, and in this way they spoke in favor of Hashem's people. They went so far as to say, “Shall one man sin,” meaning themselves, “and will You be angry with the whole congregation?” Such was Moshe Rabbeinu's reasoning, in his great humility.

8But the Holy One, blessed be He, answered Moshe, “Get away from around the dwelling of Korach …”¹² Hashem was telling him that it was not so: the fault lay with Korach, who wanted to cut himself off from the tzaddik of the generation. This was the point of Korach's claim: “For the entire congregation, all of them are holy,” and Rashi explains: “All of them heard from the mouth of Hashem, ‘I am Hashem your God.’”¹³ At first glance, what does this have to do with his dispute over the priesthood? But this was in fact the heart of his dispute. He claimed that a person could cut himself off from Moshe, and that each one could be bound to Hashem and to His abundance on his own. Hashem showed how great Korach's error was, for the tzaddik is the foundation of the world, both materially and spiritually.

9May the Holy One, blessed be He, help us cleave to Klal Yisrael and to the tzaddikim of the generation. Through this may the prayers of Israel rise up, and in this merit may we be privileged to see the redemption. Amen, may it be His will.