Patience Is Key

This contains an important lesson in a person’s care for another Jew:

Although Korach gathered the entire assembly in dispute with Moshe, nevertheless, the “wrath has gone out from before Hashem” did not materialize. Furthermore: As long as Korach conducted his argument solely in verbal protest, without it spilling over into any tangible action, even Korach and his cohorts were not deemed worthy of punishment.

Only after they took action (after being sternly warned against it) and nonetheless offered incense, was there “wrath”; beginning as a punishment for them, and then extending into a plague upon the entire nation.

This teaches us an important lesson:

• Even when a Jew, for an assortment of reasons, lacks the proper vigilance from negative matters, as long as this lack of vigilance does not lead him to actually “argue against the Holy One, Blessed is He,” he still remains in Divine favor, and there is no “wrath,” G-d forbid, toward him.
• On the contrary: Hashem deals with him patiently and “the Holy One, Blessed is He assists him” in a graceful and loving manner, to help him do teshuvah and once again be “beloved and desirable before the Creator....”

— From a talk delivered on motzei Shabbos parshas Bamidbar, 5739 (1979)