“And Korach ... took along with him Dasan and Aviram sons of Eliav, and On son of Peles —descendants of Reuven They combined against Moshe and Aharon and said to them, “You have gone too far!” (16:1-2)
What did Korach take? Rashi explains, Korach took himself off to the side – he and his group divided themselves from the congregation of Israel, in order to start a rebellion against Moshe’s authority and Aharon’s priesthood. The heilige Shela explains that Korach took himself to look on his side and disregard the other side. This means a wise person understands that another person can also be right. The Shela expands on the Chazal: But Korah who certainly was a clever man, what reason had he to commit this folly? The Shela states that the numerical value of two times the word tzad (side), equals pikeach (wise). This teaches us a powerful lesson that a wise and clever man realizes that there are two sides. With this beautiful lesson, we will relate with this another Chazal:
We recite in the Hagaddah by the Seder night: It happened that Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Elazar Ben Azariah, Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarfon were reclining in B’nei Brak and were telling the story of the Exodus from Egypt that whole night, until their students came and said to them, Our Rebbis! "The time of reciting the morning Sh’ma has arrived."
The Abarbanel asks: Why did the sages uproot themselves from their homes to be together on Seder night when people usually go to great trouble to be with their own household on Passover? Another question is asked: Rabbi Elazar Ben Azariah, holds that the Mitzvah of telling the story of Yetzias Mitzraim is only to Chatzos, midnight, since he is of the opinion that the Korban pesach was valid only until midnight. Yet here he was doing it all night, against his opinion? The third difficulty is: Why did the students have to state “Our Rebbis!”? Their objective was to remind them of Krias Shema. It would have been sufficient to simply state the students came to remind that the time has come to recite Krias Shema? Also from where did the students come from? It would be difficult to say that they were elsewhere?
The Imrei Noam, Harav Meir Horowitz the Rebbe of Dzikov, grandson of the Ropshitzer Rov, Harav Naftali Horowith, author of the Zera Kodesh, explains this fantastically: The Rabbis had an agenda to teach Klal Yisrael that one must respect another opinion too. That is the reason they came together, as it was an important undertaking. Rabbi Elazar Ben Azariah, came to show respect for their opinion, even though his opinion was only until midnight, but here he told the story all night. The Rebbis worked hard and lectured their students all night to come to this level. It worked and all of a sudden all the students reached that level, and all said to the Rebbis “You are our Rabbis” we respect your opinions too. Now the Rabbis were satisfied and were able to recite Krias Shema that Hashem and Klal Yisrael are in unity. The Rebbe concludes: if we all followed this lesson Moshiach would certainly be here.
We also find the same idea by Avraham: And he lifted his eyes and saw, and behold, three men were standing beside him, and he saw and he ran... (18:2). Even though these three men were actually angels, in actuality, Avraham Aveinu saw “three men” standing beside him, and he ran towards them. Who were these three men, and why did Avraham run towards them? We can answer this with a powerful Midrash Rabbah (Bereishis 48): Rav Levi explains who were the three people: one was dressed as a merchant. One was a ship captain, and the other was dressed as a regular Arab. Avraham set a parameter for them. If they would honor each other, and show respect for one another, this would prove to him that they are worthy people, and he would embrace them.
The question arises, why did Hashem send the three men dressed as above? Secondly, what message did Avraham want to teach from this episode? The answer can be, that everything that the Avos did, is a lesson for all generations. In any situation where there are three people, there are three opinions. The objective is to find common ground, and understand that the other person’s opinion is also right. Avraham put the three people to probation to see if they honor each other, and have feelings and respect the others. This test, Avraham placed for all future generations to tolerate and respect the opinions of other’s too, in order to be a worthy Yid. Hashem should help us retain this great value and we shall merit to see Moshiach and the building of the Bais Hamikdash soon, Amein.