QUESTION
Can a Jew ever be a rasha?
ANSWER
Well, we have to look in the Chumash and ask Moshe Rabbeinu. And Moshe Rabbeinu said about Korach, נָא מֵעַל אָֽהֳלֵי הָֽאֲנָשִׁים סוּרוּ הָֽ רְ שָ ׁ עִ י ם הָ אֵ לֶ – “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.
TAPE # 625 (January 1987)
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