Weighing the Opponents
Now all of these are our opponents, no question about it. They always were and in one form or another they always will be. And yet there’s another opponent, one that we overlook, that is the worst one of all.
Worse than avodah zarah? Worse than the Muslims and Christians? Worse than the mushchasim, the degenerates, who want to spoil our children? Even worse than the academicians, the atheists who are out to destroy our emunah in a Borei? Which opponent could be worse than all these?!
So pay attention now. The Gemara says as follows: The Jewish nation speaks to Hashem and says, “Master of the World! We wish to do Your will.” We’re the Jewish Nation after all; we like to fulfill the word of Hashem. “Only, what prevents us? What stops us? Two things. The yeast in the dough, and the influence that the gentiles have over us.”
First on the List
Now, the second thing on the list, ‘the influence of the gentiles’ – that’s a sheim klali for everything we spoke about already. It’s a long history of opposition, an opposition to all of our emunah, that still continues today. And yet it seems like that’s the minor one; it’s second on the list, the second problem. What’s the first one? The first on the list – is ‘the yeast in the dough’.
What’s that? The yeast in the dough is the yetzer hara that’s within us. That’s worse than all the other opponents. That’s what Am Yisroel says: “What’s our biggest problem? What’s most holding us back from our potential in Your service? The yeast inside the dough.” The yeast doesn’t let the dough rest – it’s producing gasses and the dough is bubbling and rising.
That’s the yetzer hara within us. It’s the first and most dangerous opponent. The influence of the goyim? Oh yes, that too; that’s also a very big factor. But it’s not as big as the yeast in the dough. The opponent within us, that’s the biggest opponent and it’s that enemy that will be our subject tonight.
Korach the Maamin
Everyone knows that there was a gentleman named Korach and we all know what happened, the story of his downfall. But Korach, you have to know, was a man who had participated in all the great experiences of the Jewish nation. He was present in Mitzrayim and he saw all the miracles, all the makkos of Mitzrayim. The people believed (Shemos 3:41) and Korach was there too. He was one of the people.
He saw with his own eyes how Hakadosh Baruch Hu came and redeemed us from slavery and he marched out together with the nation singing the song of redemption. He saw the Yam Suf split, he walked through it on dry land. He saw how the Egyptians were drowned when the water came crashing down on them and he sang Az Yashir along with everyone. Korach believed in Moshe too!
Then he stood at Matan Torah and heard the Voice of Hashem and together with the rest of the nation he shouted ‘Naaseh v’nishma’. It says there at Har Sinai they believed forever in Moshe Rabbeinu.
Korach Was 100%
So what was left already? Korach was 100%. Nobody today has as much emunah as Korach had. It’s common sense. He knew that Hakadosh Baruch Hu was overhead. He saw ananei kovod every day. He ate lechem min hashamayim every day. He saw Hashem feeding the nation mann every day. And so Korach was a maamin without any blemish in his emunah. He was more convinced than we’ll ever be.
Was there any question of the smallest doubt of emunah in the mind of Korach? Of course not. To Korach, avodah zarah didn’t exist at all. Any other ideology was botel u’mevutol. He would have split his sides laughing at the New Testament and the Koran. Evolution?! He would absolutely think that the scientists escaped the asylum. Call the police! The meshugenehs are loose!
Materialism? The foolishness, the pulls of Olam Hazeh? To go to a movie or a baseball game? It would have been nothing him; not a test at all. After all, Hashem is right here in front of him. None of the external opponents could budge Korach from his rock-solid emunah.
The Puzzle
So how was it that Korach tripped up? It’s a big puzzle. How was it that such a great man became an enemy of Moshe Rabbeinu and went lost from the nation? What happened? He didn’t lack any emunah so what was the opponent that overcame him?
The answer is this: More than all of our opponents, the greatest one, the most difficult one to overcome, is the yeast in the dough. What’s bubbling inside you, your character traits, your middos, that’s the biggest of all nisyonos.
And so, despite all the knowledge that Korach had, despite the fact that his emunah was ironclad in Hakadosh Baruch Hu – you couldn’t move it; you couldn’t melt it; nobody in the generations of today has as much strong loyalty as Korach had – and yet, when he was faced by the test of seeing somebody who was from his own shevet of Levi being elevated to the office of kehunah while he, Korach, was overlooked, that ruined him.
The Invisible Opponent
Now Korach didn’t imagine it was something wrong inside him, jealousy or desire for glory. “Glory?! Chas veshalom! I just want the zechus of worshiping Hashem in the Mishkan! And Moshe Rabbeinu is taking away from me what’s rightfully mine, what rightfully belongs to my family.” Korach was a great man in Torah after all, with very great children. He had beautiful children, Korach. “So why shouldn’t I have the opportunity to serve Hashem?!”
So Moshe said, “Look, it wasn’t my decision. Hashem sent me to do it. It wasn’t from my own choice” (Bamidbar 16:28).
The Theory of Korach
But Korach had arguments. “I know Hakadosh Baruch Hu told you to do it, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu did it only because you pressured Him into doing it.”
You hear that argument? “Hakadosh Baruch Hu favored you because you did so many good things for Him, so therefore He allowed you to pressure Him. But if you hadn’t put the pressure on Him, He wouldn’t have done that.”
Now, we might smile at such a thing but that’s only a sign of our lack of emunah. They believed so much in Hashem, to them Hakadosh Baruch Hu was a Chai – He’s very very real – and therefore He reacts! It’s true that He is full of the greatest Wisdom but because of the services that somebody rendered to Him – Moshe Rabbeinu after all took the Jews out of Mitzrayim and he persuaded them to accept the Torah – so Moshe Rabbeinu had earned so much credit in the eyes of Hashem that when he asked, “Hashem, do me a favor and make my brother Aharon the kohen,” so Hashem said, “Alright.”
That was Korach’s theory. And he brought a proof. “You see!” he said, “Didn’t Nadav v’Avihu die? You see they died. It’s a sign Hashem wasn’t pleased with that family.” You hear that? He had a proof for his theory.
Innermost Theories
So the theory of evolution, all of the shibud malchiyos, that was nothing to Korach because it came from the outside. But a theory about why I’m doing this or that, why I’m arguing or making machlokes, that’s already from inside my own self. That’s an opponent worthy of Korach.
Now to us it seems silly because we already know the truth. We remember from last year’s kriyas haTorah what happened to Korach at the end. But he didn’t know! And his mind was already aimed in a different direction. Middos makes a person think in a different way and it’s a very big job to oppose your own way of thinking.
A Helping Wife
All the traits of character are concealed behind a veil of a person’s own self. It’s so concealed within him that he doesn’t even begin to realize what’s doing. Now sometimes, if he’s fortunate, so his wife might tell him something. You know, when a wife criticizes a husband, the husband should consider himself very lucky. After all, nobody else will criticize him. Who’s going to tell him the truth outside the house? And after a while he begins to think, “Maybe I really am a pretty decent fellow.”
So he comes home and right away his wife deflates him. She puts a pin in his balloon and it bursts. Oh, is that an achievement for him! Because now he found out something about his most dreaded opponent. Now he begins battling – not against his wife; against himself.
But Korach didn’t do that. I’m sure he did but he didn’t do it enough. And so when Moshe said, ‘Don’t blame us. Blame Hashem,” Korach didn’t believe him. Because to recognize your own bad middos, that’s the hardest battle of all. Korach’s seichel worked in a different way now and he studied the subject and he came up with this theory that Moshe Rabbeinu was able to persuade Hashem. “You’re at fault here. You’re limiting the opportunities of the Am Yisroel! Why did you persuade Him?”
Can You Answer Yourself?
That’s a lesson to remember: The yetzer hara of character traits inside you makes your seichel work in a different way, to see things the opposite of the way they are. And that means the biggest of our opponents is the middos in ourselves!
And so, it really is a waste of time to think about external enemies when the internal enemy is the biggest. Of course, it’s a mitzvah to overcome the external enemies. It’s a mitzvah to know how to answer back every one of them. At least in your own mind you should be fortified with an emunah of steel against all the external opponents. But of all the opponents, the one you can’t answer back so easily is yourself.
To discover the truth about yourself is the most difficult of all the things in the world. Many things you have to learn in this world but to learn about yourself, that’s most difficult of all. After all is said and done, the great milchama of the middos is the battle that makes a person great; that’s the enemy you should focus on most.
