QUESTION: Can a Jew ever be a rasha (wicked man)?
ANSWER: Well, we have to look in the Chumash and ask Moshe Rabbeinu. And Moshe Rabbeinu said about Korach, ֶ– “Move yourselves away from the tents of these reshaim” (Bamidbar 16:26). So, he called them resha’im. So, we see that sometimes a Jew could be a rasha. There’s no such thing as saying “There’s no reshaim”. This liberal attitude that everything is excusable cannot be accepted by us. We have our principles and sometimes you have to call a thing by its name. And a person who is disloyal to the Torah certainly deserves a certain rebuke. And if he deserves the name of rasha – it doesn’t mean you have to say it – but you could certainly categorize him in the category of rasha.
Reprinted from the Parshas Korach 5784 email of Toras Avigdor, based on the teachings of Rav Avigdor Miller, zt”l. Adapted from (Tape #625 – January 1987)
