Sicha Summary Chelek 18 | Korach | Sicha 1
The Question:
Chassidut explains that Korach was a deeply spiritual person whose ambitions were ahead of his time. He wanted to implement divine service according to the future reality of the Messianic Era. But reading the narrative literally, it is hard to find any redemptive quality in Korach or his 250 followers. Shouldn't we also be able to detect this inner dimension of Korach’s rebellion in an external, literal reading?
The Explanation:
Korach and his followers wanted to be Kohanim Gedolim. (Bamidbar 16:10) At Sinai they heard G-d say, “You shall be to Me a kingdom of Kohanim.” (Shemos 19:6) They understood that, in essence, every Jew can be close to G-d as is the Kohen Gadol. (Ba’al Haturim, ibid.) This potential was frustrated only due to the subsequent sin of the Golden Calf. But through supplication and prayer, they reasoned, they could reverse this state of affairs and truly become Kohanim Gedolim.
Moshe emphasized with their desire. “I, too, want this.” (Rashi, 16:6) But this desire had to remain just that — it could not be fulfilled practically. G-d wanted there to be only one Kohen Gadol.
Still, Korach’s followers forged ahead and agreed to Moshe’s test. They were so consumed by this desire to become Kohen Gadol that even the potential of death could not deter them. This is similar to the Kohanim who bribed Roman officials for the chance to be Kohen Gadol in the Second Temple era, even though each unfit kohen would die within the year on Yom Kippur. (Yoma 9a) They, too, wanted the chance to be alone with G-d in the Holy of Holies just once — even if it meant that they would die.
Thus, in Korach’s rhetoric, “for all of the community are holy, and G-d is in their midst” (Bamidbar 16:3), we hear the spiritual undertones of his intense, albeit misplaced, thirst for unity with G-d.
For this reason, the Torah portion is named “Korach” alone, and is not named after the first words of the portion, “Korach took.” We want to preserve Korach’s desire, but we do not want to perpetuate the division he sowed by “taking” part of the community aside in his rebellion.
In olam ha’zeh, the avodah of the Jewish people is carried out in two ways: the avodah of the person with himself, and the avodah of the person within the world. In general, the distinction between these is the same as the distinction between the “masters of Torah” and the “masters of good deeds.” The main avodah and lesson for every Jew is to be involved in doing mitzvos, because this is the way to go about making a dwelling-place for Hashem.
But if someone’s “spirit generously motivates him,” then his main avodah can also follow the footsteps of the “masters of Torah,” who are utterly divorced from worldly affairs. The avodah of the Kohen Gadol, cleaving and connecting to Hashem in a way of mesiras nefesh, is not meant to be a routine, daily practice in everyone’s service of Hashem.
Nonetheless, there needs to be a desire for this. In both types of avodah {of Torah study and the performance of mitzvos}, a person needs to want to cleave to and be connected with G-dliness with mesiras nefesh. However, Hashem’s essential intention and will is for a person to remain “a soul vested in a body,” involved in the material world, and while there, to fulfill Hashem’s will. Therefore, in this lower world, a person performs his avodah in one of the two modes described above: His avodah either focuses on {transforming} material things by performing mitzvos, making this world into a home for Hashem; or at any rate, as with a minority of people, his focus is like that of the “masters of Torah,” and he disengages from materialistic matters.
Only when we exemplify Moshe’s wish, “I also want this,” when our desire and passion is to cleave to Hashem, do we completely fulfil each one of these two types of avodah. Because the world is not an end in itself and neither is asceticism.
