Rebellion Against G-d Always Leads to Bad Outcomes: Lessons from Parshas Korach and Rav Shamshon Rafael Hirsch
If only all of Klal Yisrael would seriously study and take to heart last week’s Torah portion!
BS”D
Korach and his associates met their tragic end deep underground after questioning the Divinity of Hashem’s instruction to Moshe that Aharon be the Kohen Gadol. Korach, who wanted the position for himself, claimed “We are all equally holy!”
The modern rebellion against Hashem makes a somewhat similar claim, in its incredibly blasphemous attempt to “reinterpret” Halacha and equate the gravest sins with mitzvos.
The sheer arrogance of discarding Mesora MiSinai in favor of man-made feel-good “rules” is no different than Reform’s manufacturing of a new “religion” to “fit the times.” A “Judaism” that one twists to fit his desires is not Judaism.
We all know that the “accommodations to the times” instituted by Reform led to the destruction and disappearance of most of Klal Yisrael.
Let us review what Korach said, and what his outcome was: (Sefer Bamidbar Perek 16 - selected pesukim from 3-33.)
וַיִּקָּהֲלוּ עַל־מֹשֶׁה וְעַל־אַהֲרֹן וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֲלֵהֶם רַב־לָכֶם כִּי כָל־הָעֵדָה כֻּלָּם קְדֹשִׁים וּבְתוֹכָם ה׳ וּמַדּוּעַ תִּתְנַשְּׂאוּ עַל־קְהַל ה׳
וַיִּשְׁמַע מֹשֶׁה וַיִּפֹּל עַל־פָּנָיו
וַיְדַבֵּר אֶל־קֹרַח וְאֶל־כָּל־עֲדָתוֹ לֵאמֹר בֹּקֶר וְיֹדַע ה׳ אֶת־אֲשֶׁר־לוֹ וְאֶת־הַקָּדוֹשׁ וְהִקְרִיב אֵלָיו וְאֵת אֲשֶׁר יִבְחַר־בּוֹ יַקְרִיב אֵלָיו
When these had assembled themselves against Moshe and Aharon, they said to them:
“You take too much upon yourselves, for the entire community, they are all holy and G-d is in their midst. And why do you lift yourselves up above the community of G-d?”
Moshe heard and he fell upon his face.
And he spoke to Korach and his company saying:
“Let morning come and then G-d will make known who is His, and who is the holy one, so that He will allow Him to come near to Him. Whoever He will choose, He will allow him to come near to Him.”
וַיַּקְהֵל עֲלֵיהֶם קֹרַח אֶת־כָּל־הָעֵדָה אֶל־פֶּתַח אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד וַיֵּרָא כְבוֹד־ה׳ אֶל־כָּל־הָעֵדָה
But Korach assembled the entire community against them to the entrance of the Tent of the Appointed Meeting - then the glory of G-d appeared to the entire community.
וַיְדַבֵּר ה׳ אֶל־מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר
דַּבֵּר אֶל־הָעֵדָה לֵאמֹר הֵעָלוּ מִסָּבִיב לְמִשְׁכַּן־קֹרַח דָּתָן וַאֲבִירָם
And G-d spoke to Moshe saying:
“Speak to the community saying: Raise yourselves up, away from the environs of the dwelling place of Korach, Dasan, and Aviram.”
וַיְדַבֵּר אֶל־הָעֵדָה לֵאמֹר סוּרוּ נָא מֵעַל אָהֳלֵי הָאֲנָשִׁים הָרְשָׁעִים הָאֵלֶּה וְאַל־תִּגְּעוּ בְּכָל־אֲשֶׁר לָהֶם פֶּן־תִּסָּפוּ בְּכָל־חַטֹּאתָם
וַיֵּעָלוּ מֵעַל מִשְׁכַּן־קֹרַח דָּתָן וַאֲבִירָם מִסָּבִיב וְדָתָן וַאֲבִירָם יָצְאוּ נִצָּבִים פֶּתַח אָהֳלֵיהֶם וּנְשֵׁיהֶם וּבְנֵיהֶם וְטַפָּם
וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה בְּזֹאת תֵּדְעוּן כִּי־ה׳ שְׁלָחַנִי לַעֲשׂוֹת אֵת כָּל־הַמַּעֲשִׂים הָאֵלֶּה כִּי־לֹא מִלִּבִּי
אִם־כְּמוֹת כָּל־הָאָדָם יְמֻתוּן אֵלֶּה וּפְקֻדַּת כָּל־הָאָדָם יִפָּקֵד עֲלֵיהֶם לֹא ה׳ שְׁלָחָנִי
וְאִם־בְּרִיאָה יִבְרָא ה׳ וּפָצְתָה הָאֲדָמָה אֶת־פִּיהָ וּבָלְעָה אֹתָם וְאֶת־כָּל־אֲשֶׁר לָהֶם וְיָרְדוּ חַיִּים שְׁאֹלָה וִידַעְתֶּם כִּי נִאֲצוּ הָאֲנָשִׁים הָאֵלֶּה אֶת־ה׳
וַיְהִי כְּכַלֹּתוֹ לְדַבֵּר אֵת כָּל־הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה וַתִּבָּקַע הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר תַּחְתֵּיהֶם
וַתִּפְתַּח הָאָרֶץ אֶת־פִּיהָ וַתִּבְלַע אֹתָם וְאֶת־בָּתֵּיהֶם וְאֵת כָּל־הָאָדָם אֲשֶׁר לְקֹרַח וְאֵת כָּל־הָרֲכוּשׁ
וַיֵּרְדוּ הֵם וְכָל־אֲשֶׁר לָהֶם חַיִּים שְׁאֹלָה וַתְּכַס עֲלֵיהֶם הָאָרֶץ וַיֹּאבְדוּ מִתּוֹךְ הַקָּהָל
And he spoke to the community saying: “Depart, I beseech you, from near the tents of those wicked people and do not touch anything that is theirs, lest you perish along with them in all their sins.”
And they raised themselves up, away from near the dwelling place of Korach, Dasan, and Aviram, from every side. But Dasan and Aviram stepped out and stood upright at the entrance of their tents, with their wives, and their children, and their little ones.
And Moshe said: “By this you shall know that G-d has sent me to do all these deeds and [that I have] not [done them] of my own mind.
If these [men] will die as all men die, and if a date like that of all men will be visited upon them, then G-d has not sent me.
But if G-d will create an entirely new thing, and the earth will open its mouth and swallow them up with all that is theirs, so that they go down into the grave alive, then you will know that [it is] these people [who] have scorned G-d.”
And it came to pass when he had finished uttering all these words that the ground under then split;
the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up and their houses and all the men who belonged to Korach, and all the property.
They and all that was theirs went down into the grave alive, and the earth closed over them and they vanished from the midst of the community.
Not only did Korach and his group - even the small children - meet a terrible end as a result of conceited denial of the truth of Toras Moshe, but his rebellion twice resulted in actions by Klal Yisrael which almost caused the destruction of the entire Nation, were it not for Moshe and Aharon’s tefillos. Our people did not emerge unscathed from Korach’s movement. The harm he caused was enormous - the day after Korach was swallowed up, 14,700 people died in a plague because they blamed Moshe and Aharon for the events - rather than having learned the critical lessons of the Ikarim of Emunah.
Let all the fools who seek to “adapt the Torah to our times” take pause from the holocaust that Korach wrought on our people. Rather than being “merciful,” remodeling the Torah is extremely cruel, as it brings only tragedy in its wake.
It is also highly instructive to note that the thinking of those who seek to twist Halacha has been ruined by their personal motives. Since they are leading lives of sin, they look to find justification to “kasher” their actions and thereby assuage their guilt. They “see” what they want to see - as the Steipler zatzal explains on the Parsha of the Meraglim. The spies saw large funerals in Eretz Canaan, and came back with the report that “It is a land that devours its inhabitants.” Simple logic escaped them, because they had a predetermined notion of what they wished to conclude. If the Meraglim would have thought coherently, they would have realized that if people routinely died in droves in Eretz Canaan, as they were claiming, then funerals would have been such a typical occurrence, that they would not have drawn the huge crowds they did.
Personal motives do not allow for objective thinking.
Rav Shamshon Rafael Hirsch zatzal comments in the same vein on a subsequent pasuk in Parshas Korach, Perek 18 Pasuk 7. Rav Hirsch’s words - a rebuke to the Reformers of his time - deliver a stinging slap to those who seek to modify the Torah to their personal whims today.
וְאַתָּה וּבָנֶיךָ אִתְּךָ תִּשְׁמְרוּ אֶת־כְּהֻנַּתְכֶם לְכָל־דְּבַר הַמִּזְבֵּחַ וּלְמִבֵּית לַפָּרֹכֶת וַעֲבַדְתֶּם עֲבֹדַת מַתָּנָה אֶתֵּן אֶת־כְּהֻנַּתְכֶם וְהַזָּר הַקָּרֵב יוּמָת
Hashem instructed Aharon:
“But you and your sons with you must attend to your priesthood, with regard to everything pertaining to the altar and to anything behind the cloth partition you are to do the service; I am giving you your priesthood for a service of free-willed giving; the stranger that comes near shall die.”
Rav Shamshon Rafael Hirsch comments:
“… as regards both its motivation and the manner in which it is to be performed, this free-willed act of giving to G-d must not in any manner be guided by personal whim. It must conform with strict standards; it must be nothing else but an act of completely free-willed obedience on our part – avodas matana – an act of completely free-willed dedication to the fulfillment of life’s purpose as set down in the Law of G-d. We must keep in mind not only that the things we give, namely, the possessions we call our own, are in the fact the possessions of G-d, so that we are merely giving back to G-d that which we have received from Him, but also that the very fact of our giving, and the quantity, quality, and purpose of our gift, symbolize our obedience to a Divine dictate. Thus, in truth, our matana becomes a nesina (an act of giving) from G-d, an act accomplished by G-d’s will through the medium of our own free-willed obedience.
This free-willed obedience to the will of G-d is the basis of Judaism. It rejects the mere inner impulse of “piety” or “devoutness” that seeks expression and gratification in self-devised practices, presumed to be “pleasing to G-d,” and calls these a “Divine service.” G-d has told the Jew what is good and what G-d requires of him (Micah 6:8). His avoda, his Divine service, consists in “serving G-d,” in obedience, in the faithful performance of G-d’s expressed will. The most sacred object in the Jewish Holy of Holies is the Law of G-d, which in turn regulates the acts that symbolize the Jew’s devotion to the Law. The individuals who perform these acts are Divinely-appointed servants of this law and of its Sanctuary. They accept, in the name of G-d and of His Law, the tokens of our free-willed devotion to the dictates set down in the Law. And the fact that the Aaronides were appointed, to the exclusion of all others, to perform the avodas matana in the Sanctuary of the Law, imparts to the Law itself and to its Sanctuary the final stamp of Divine origin, showing that the fulfillment of our lives must be identical with the fulfillment of G-d’s will.
Basically, Korach’s statement, “the entire community, they are all holy and G-d is in their midst,” with which he proclaimed his uprising against the appointment of the Aaronides as priests, was a denial of the Divine origin of Moses’ mission and of the Law transmitted by him. Korach sought to replace the Law with the personal, subjective wishes of the individual. In his view, the individual needed only to follow his inner stirrings of “holiness” in order to obtain G-d’s nearness and approval.
As opposed to such subjectivism, which would undermine the whole of Judaism, the Word of G-d concludes with the words: “I am giving you your priesthood for a service of free-willed giving; the stranger that comes near shall die.” And the comment in Sanhedrin 84a to this statement is – misa bidei Shamayim (that such a person will be punished by “death at the hand of Heaven.”)
Credit: The translations of the pesukim and the commentary of Rav Shamshon Rafael Hirsch zatzal are quoted from “The Pentateuch,” which is an excerpted version of Rav Hirsch’s peirush on the Chumash, published by The Judaica Press in 1986 and 1990. See pages 580-581 there.
It may be impossible to save the rebels themselves, but the rest of Klal Yisrael can be saved only by completely separating ourselves from the sinners - as Hashem instructed Moshe to have Klal Yisrael do.
Remember, Rav Shamshon Rafael Hirsch’s kehilla followed this model. The original group of just eleven men which separated themselves from the Reformers ensured the continuation of the German Jewish community.
Those who remember history are not doomed to repeat it.