There is No Hishtadlus for Positions of Leadership:
Rav Bunim of Peshischa zy”a explained “Vayikach Korach” to mean that Korach wanted to take a position of leadership by himself. That’s why it didn’t work out for him. His intent was that Korach wanted to grab honor and glory on his own. He didn’t want to wait to get it from Hashem. His actions were deemed improper because only Hashem can grant honor to a person (Tehillim 84:12). One cannot take anything on his own and no hishtadlus will help for this, as it is a gift from Hashem.
If One Flees Honor, It Reaches Him When He Gets Old:
Chazal say (Avos) that if one pursues honor, honor runs away from him, but if one flees from honor, honor chases after him. One of the Gedolei Yisroel asked what the ultimate difference is. In both cases, the individual does not receive honor – the one who pursues it cannot reach it and the one who runs away from it doesn’t allow it to reach him. If so, how are they different? He answered that the difference is when they get old and no longer have the strength to run. At that stage in life, the one who pursued honor will have never attained any, but the one who fled from honor will no longer be able to avoid it, and it will finally catch up to him.
Money Acquired Dishonestly Will be Lost:
The Chida zt”l (Sefer Rosh Dovid) explains the pasuk by asking a question that many people have wondered about. Chazal speak very highly about someone who gives tzedakah and say that he gets much reward. They learn from various pesukim that he is blessed with wealth, honor, life, glory, children, serenity, etc. However, the fact remains that we see many people who give a lot of their money to tzedakah but do not merit these blessings. Sometimes, they experience tragedy or lose all of their money. What happened to their reward?
He says that one answer to this question is that one can only see blessing in his money if his entire fortune is obtained honestly and righteously. If some of one’s wealth was obtained through trickery or theft, Hashem does not want his tzedakah and it will not be a source of blessing. He adds that it is stated in Sefer Hachasidim that if someone owes money to others, he should not give any tzedakah until he pays up his debts.
Thus, one of the reasons why people who give tzedakah sometimes do not merit blessing in their homes is because the money they gave was not clean. This is seen from the pasuk (Yeshaya 54:14): “With tzedakah you shall be established, go far away from theft, for you shall not fear.” Although tzedakah can establish a person and set him on his feet, he still must take care to stay away from theft. If the money he has is clean, then he need not fear because no harm will befall him.
He explains that the pasuk is saying that Korach “took”. He accumulated wealth by grabbing whatever he could, without caring if the money was obtained in a permissible way or in a forbidden way. The pasuk is using him as a symbol for people who behave like this. It says that one who takes and takes whatever he can is “Korach” – he will be “cut off” from his wealth and it will not last. Even if he is a “son of Yitzhar”, meaning that he lights up people’s eyes with his tzedakah and makes their darkness turn as bright as the sun in the afternoon (“tzaharayim”), he still will be “a son of Kehos” – his “teeth will be blunted (“yikheh”) from his money because he will lose it all.
It Is Very Hard to Acquire Pure Money:
The Rebbe of Lechovitch zy”a (quoted in Kisvei Ramam, Parshas Tetzaveh) would explain the words (Shemos 25:36) “miksheh achas zahav tahor” (one piece, hammered of pure gold) by saying: “There is one hard thing (the word ‘miksheh’ can be translated to mean ‘hard’). That is pure gold.” Money causes many difficult problems because it is very hard to do business entirely honestly and in accordance with halacha.
Korach’s Wealth Was Not Earned Honestly:
In fact, dishonesty with money was the cause of Korach’s machlokes. This is seen in the Medrash (Bamidbor Rabbah 18:15) that relates that Korach was in charge of Pharaoh’s treasure houses while the Jews were in Egypt, and he had the keys to all of the treasures. When the nation left Mitzrayim, he took all these treasures with him, which Hashem disproved of and said would not last.
The Dubno Magid zt”l (Sefer Mishlei Yaakov) asks what Korach did wrong by taking the treasures from Pharaoh. Pharaoh was a terrible rasha, so why was it wrong for Korach to take his property?
He answers with a moshol of an innkeeper who sold alcoholic beverages to non-Jews for a living. One day, many drunk peasants came to his inn to drink. One thief came in with them, and he tried to steal the money out of the drunkards’ pockets. When the innkeeper saw this, he grabbed the thief and dragged him out.
The thief began to beg him to let him go, saying, “I would never steal from you. I have never stolen a penny from a Jew in my life. I only steal from gentiles.”
The innkeeper replied, “You idiot. If you steal from my customers, you are stealing from me. If they have no money to pay me, I’m the one who loses out.”
The nimshol is that even though it’s true that Korach stole from Pharaoh, he was actually stealing form Klal Yisroel. Hashem had promised that the nation would leave Egypt with great wealth, and if Korach hadn’t taken this money, it would have been part of the booty that the nation took from Mitzrayim and from the sea. Thus, Korach was actually stealing from his fellow Jews.
In this vein, the Zohar Hakadosh (176A) states: “And Korach took. He took a bad idea for himself. Anyone who chases after what isn’t his will have the thing he is chasing run away from him. Furthermore, he will even lose what he had before. Korach pursued what wasn’t his, and he also lost what was his, without gaining anything.”
One Who Opposes Peace Will be Destroyed:
The Zohar Hakadosh goes on to speak about the destruction caused by those who engage in machlokes like Korach did. It says that anyone who causes a split in the world, will be lost from both this world and the next world. It explains that engaging in machlokes is the same thing as opposing peace, and one who opposes peace is the same as one who opposed Hashem’s name, as His name is Shalom (peace). Furthermore, the world exists in the merit of peace; therefore, one who opposes peace will be lost from the world.
One Who Causes Strife Will be Bound to Evil:
Rashi states: “Korach took. He took a bad deal for himself.” The Ben Ish Chai (Sefer Aderes Eliyahu) asks why it is necessary to say that he took the bad deal “for himself”. Who else would he be taking it for?
He answers that it is known that when a person does an aveirah, the bad influence of that sin sticks to him and sullies him, as is stated (Yechezkel 32:27): “And their iniquities were upon their bones.” However, there is a way to remove one’s sins from one’s bones. The Sefarim say (see Chovos Halevavos, Shaar Hachniah, Perek 6) that if one speaks lashon hara about his friend, he takes upon himself all of his friend’s aveiros, and gives him all of his merits. This means that the way to have one’s sins removed from him is to have someone speak lashon hara about him.
There are, however, some people who cannot benefit from this concept and can never rid themselves of their sins. Those people are individuals who engage in machlokes, as Chazal say (Yerushalmi Peah 1:1) that it is permitted to speak lashon hara about baalei machlokes. Therefore, those speak badly about them do not take on their sins, and they have no way of ever being freed from their aveiros.
Accordingly, Rashi is saying that Korach took a bad deal for himself, meaning that because he engaged in machlokes, he took all his own sins as his own eternally, with no possibility of having anyone else taking them from him.
Yichus:
Sefarim Hakedoshim write that the reason the pasuk delineates Korach’s lineage by saying that he was the son of Yitzhar, the son of Kehos, the son of Levi, is to teach us that a person should not rely on the yichus he inherited from his forbearers. Rather, one should realize that, in addition to the yichus of his fathers, he also needs to make his own yichus.
They compare a person who is proud of his fathers’ yichus without doing anything to add to it to a villager who had a pet dog as his constant companion. When the dog got old and sick, he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want to kill the dog after it had served him faithfully for so many years but, on the other hand, he didn’t want to keep paying for its food now that it served him no purpose. So, he came up with a solution. He took a bearskin and put it on one half of the dog. He then took a lionskin and put it on the other half, and sent the dog out into the forest.
At that exact time, all the animals of the forest were having a big party, with the mighty lion leading the party. Suddenly, the lion saw the other animals running excitedly to see the new beast that had appeared in the forest. They were all scared of the strange animal and wondered what it was. The lion sent the fox to check out what was going, and the fox came back and said, “My king, your leadership is in jeopardy. A new beast has entered the jungle that is half lion and half bear, and all the other animals are ready to accept it as their new king.”
The lion called to his advisor, the owl, and asked it to find out if his rulership was really in danger. The owl flew off and met the old dog. It asked him, “Tell me, who are you?” The dog answered, “What do you mean by that? My grandfather was a lion!” As he said this, the dog roared like a lion that is about to pounce on its prey. The owl then asked, “Okay, but who are you?” The dog then reared up on its hind legs like a bear and said, “My father was a bear!” The owl then screamed at him, “I get it, but who are you?” The dog replied, “Me? I’m just a dog.”
One should only be proud of his yichus if he is following in the ways of his fathers. However, if he isn’t doing anything good on his own, he is adding nothing to his yichus and has nothing to be proud of. This is as Chazal say (Tana D’bei Eliyahu 25): “One is obligated to say: When will my actions touch the actions of my fathers.” Rav Bunim of Peshischa zy”a explains this to mean that even if one cannot be as great as his forefathers, he should at least try to “touch” their ways.
It is related that when the Minchas Elazar of Munkatch zy”a was a young man, he once traveled to Poland dressed in the garb of a “binshak” (the son of a Rebbe). One man whom he met asked him in a mocking way, “Who are you? Who is your father? Who was your zaida?” The Minchas Elazar answered, “I am the zaida!”
Those Who Speak Lashon Hara Distort the Truth:
Rav Bunim of Peshischa zy”a asks how Korach and his assemblage could possibly claim that Moshe was raising himself above others. They could have found ways to distort the truth and make false claims against Moshe, so why would they choose a claim that was so clearly untrue? The Torah testifies that Moshe was the humblest of all men, and everyone could see this. Why would they claim otherwise?
He answers that this is the way of people who speak lashon hara. They are so used to telling lies that they even say things that have no connection to the truth, even when it is clear to all that they are lying.
Never Questioning Hashem:
Rashi states: “Korach was a very smart man. What led him to do such a foolish thing? His eyes fooled him. He saw a great chain (of descendants) coming out of him, including Shmuel who was equal to Moshe and Aharon. He said, ‘I will be saved in his merit’.”
Rav Meir of Premishlan zy”a asks why this is called “foolish”. He answers that making “cheshbonos” and thinking one understands the ways of Hashem is foolish in and of itself. When one serves Hashem, he should do so with no questions and no calculations of his own. Rather, he should completely annul himself to Hashem’s will and obey His commands with simplicity. Doing anything else is simply foolish.
One Who Considers Himself Extremely Intelligent is Blemished:
The Chidushei Harim zy”a discerns a similar lesson from the pasuk (Shemos 4:11): “And Hashem said to him, ‘Who gave man a mouth, or who makes him mute or deaf or smart or blind? Is it not I, Hashem?” He notes that the verse is saying a list of disabilities – mute, deaf, blind – but, in the middle, it says “smart”. Why is this word found in the middle of a list of blemishes?
He answers that a person who thinks he is of superior intellect is a ba’al mum (a blemished person).
The Punishment for Throwing a Rock at Yirmiyahu Hanavi:
The following story about the danger of machlokes is found in Sefer Maasoh Chiya:
There was a young man in the city of Krakow who was both the son and son-in-law of very wealthy men. As a result, he was very wealthy himself and was able to dedicate all his time to learning Torah. He sat and learned all day with diligence in an isolated room, behind a locked door, not associating with anyone else or even leaving his home.
One day, the Kaiser came to visit Krakow, and all the residents of the city came out to greet him. Everyone ran to catch a glimpse of the king and to make the appropriate bracha. This young man, however, did not want to lose a moment of learning. He stayed in his room and only looked up when the procession was passing by his window in order to make the blessing that is recited upon seeing a king.
At that exact second, a rock suddenly came flying from the direction of the young man’s house and struck the king’s horse. This created a great outcry, as everyone wanted to know who dared to throw a rock at the Kaiser. The guards ran to the house, and the only person they found there was this young talmid chochom. Of course, he claimed he was innocent, but the king was certain that he was lying and he sentenced him to death.
The Jews of the city were heartbroken. They knew he was not guilty but there was nothing they could do. They sent letters to every government official asking for them to beg the king for leniency. Ultimately, the Kaiser became somewhat unsure of his decision and he decided to consult the Rov of the city and see what he thought.
When the king came to the Rov and asked him his opinion, everyone was shocked to see that he remained quiet and did not say a word. The young man was taken out and executed, and no one could understand why the Rov had not spoken up on his behalf.
After the man was killed, his body was being prepared for burial. The Rov then asked for the body to be brought to the bais knesses. When the body was brought into the shul, the Rov turned to it and said, “I command you to get up and tell everyone why you had to die so that people should not have complaints against me.”
The dead man suddenly sat up and said, “I am a reincarnation of the neshama of the man who thew the first stone at Yirmiyahu Hanavi. I have been sent back to this world ten times in order to atone for my sin. In this gilgal, I succeeded in rectifying my sin and purifying my soul. Therefore, it was decreed from Above that the Rov would be unable to say a word in my defense so that I could go to my final resting place.”
From then on, the people understood that the Rov was a holy man and they had no complaints against him.
The Reward for Making a Kiddush Hashem:
Sefer Yalkut Hagershoni quotes the Kol Aryeh zt”l as explaining the Rashi that describes Korach’s mistake by saying that, in truth, Korach only merited having Shmuel Hanavi as a descendant because of the Kiddush Hashem that came about as a result of his aveirah. Since his downfall led to everyone recognizing Hashem’s greatness, he merited having a great man descend from him. This is similar to Chazal’s statement (Sanhedrin 96B) that the descendants of Sancheriv – Shmaya and Avtalyon – taught Torah in public, and the descendants of Haman learned Torah in Bnei Brak, because they had the zechus of causing a Kiddush Hashem to occur as a result of their downfall.
Thus, Korach’s mistake was that he didn’t realize that his downfall is what led to Shmuel descending from him.
He Did Not See His Own Lowliness:
Rav Yisroel of Husyatin zy”a was seven-years-old when he learned this Rashi with his teacher, R’ Yochanan of Skolet. He asked him why it says that Korach’s “eye tricked him” in the singular tense, rather than saying that his “eyes” tricked him.
The teacher replied, “Do you have an answer?” The boy answered by saying that the reason a person is born with two eyes is because he needs to use one eye to look up to the greatness of Hashem, and the second eye to look down on his own lowliness. Korach, who had the important position of carrying the Aron, certainly used one eye to look up to Hashem. However, he did not make use of the eye that was meant for him to see his own lowliness. He was fooled by this eye, as he used it to see the greatness that would come out of him, rather than to see his own lowliness.
