Transcript
Good morning, Boker Tov, welcome back to Parsha Perspectives for today. As always, a big thank you to our generous sponsors, our series sponsors Becky and Avi Katz and family in memory of Becky's father, our learning is לעילוי נשמת דוד בן מנחם מנש, David Grossman, and the series co-sponsor, the Dyckman family in memory of their daughter and sister, Danielle רכה בת שלום עזרא, our learning should be in the zchus, in the merit of this very special neshama. We have the privilege this week of learning and reading Parshas Korach, page eight hundred and twenty in the Artscroll Stone Chumash. And again, it's a parsha we are so familiar with, a parsha we know its storyline, and yet each year, every time we learn it, we're meant to learn it anew, to learn it from the beginning, from the start, to learn it with a fresh slate, to learn it and to go deeper than we've ever gone before and to consider other angles of it than maybe we haven't earlier. ויקח קרח בן יצהר בן קהת בן לוי ודתן ואבירם בני אליאב ואון בן פלת בני ראובן. These individuals, beginning with Korach, the leader of this band, and Korach is identified, the son of Yitzhar, of Kehas, of Levi. Rashi notably points out stopping short of associating him with Aaron, not with Aaron, yes, associating him with Aaron, going all the way back as well to Yaakov, to not identify him with his origins and to spare and save: לא הזכיר בן יעקב שביקש רחמים מעצמו שלא יזכר שמו עם מחלקותם. Yaakov Avinu wanted to be spared not to be associated that his horrific divisiveness and his introducing this infighting would not be associated with his name. ויקומו לפני משה ואנשים מבני ישראל חמשים ומאתים נשיאי עדה. Two hundred and fifty men came, they stood up, they challenged Moshe. And what was their argument? ויקהלו על משה ועל אהרן ויאמרו אליהם רב לכם. Enough! You've taken too much power. You've centralized too much power. You've consolidated the power just among you. כי כל העדה כלם קדשים ובתוכם ה׳ ומדוע תתנשאו על קהל ה׳. The truth is all of us are holy and we all have God in our midst. So why are you putting yourselves over all of us? This is a very compelling argument. It's a very persuasive argument. We understand why it was a successful argument. The democratization of Judaism. Why should there be hierarchy? Why should there be a power structure? Why should anyone consolidate? Why should anyone carry greater influence than another? We're all equally holy. God dwells in each and every one of us. And therefore, why do you have so much power? You should diversify it. It should be spread across many. It's my turn. וישמע משה ויפל על פניו. Moshe hears and he collapses on his face. He understands just how dangerous this is. וידבר אל קרח ואל כל עדתו. Moshe speaks to Korach, he reacts, he gathers himself and he tells him: בקר וידע ה׳ את אשר לו. In the morning, in the morning, and Hashem will make known what's happening here. ואת הקדוש והקריב אליו ואת אשר יבחר בו יקריב אליו. And the holy one will draw himself close. The one God chooses, it's all going to resolve itself and the story goes on and on. But let's go back to the beginning. The word Vayikach. Vayikach Korach. And much of what we're going to examine we've studied, we've learned before, but we're not simply repeating what we said before. We're going to take the same sources, come at it from a little bit of a different angle. Says Rashi: Vayikach Korach, פרשה זו יפה נדרשת במדרש רבה תנחומא. This Parshas Korach... Rashi makes a very peculiar comment. Yafa nidreshes. It is well expounded. It is studied. It is extrapolated. The exegesis, every fancy word I could think of, is done very well on this... What is Rashi like, you know, Siskel and Ebert? Who were the reviewers? Two thumbs up to the Midrash on this parsha, says Rashi. And he's giving some review? Ooh, yafa nidreshes. Oh, they did a good job. The drush on this parsha, oh, well done. Rashi doesn't make comments like that. Rashi doesn't give a review of the Midrash on a parsha. What's Rashi getting at? We're going to come back to. Vayikach Korach. And Korach took. Rashi's bothered by a question. Again, we've studied this before. Every time you read Parshas Korach, you read this Rashi. What was the question that bothered Rashi? Vayikach Korach. And Korach took. Wait, let's just go on a tangent. Korach the son of Yitzhar, the son of Kehas, the son of Levi. And who else joined him? Dasam and Aviram, co-conspirators, Bnei Eliav, On ben Peles, was recruited. Thank God for his wife, Bnei Reuven. And they came to Moshe, two hundred and fifty men. They gathered. They challenged. One second, you never got back to the opening word of the parsha. What was the opening word of the parsha? Vayikach. And Korach took. Now what do you expect the text to tell us? What he took. What did he take? Torah never tells us. Vayikach Korach and Korach took. What did he take? What did he take? He took hold of the capital? He took hold of what did he take? So Rashi tells us: ויקח קרח לקח את עצמו לצד אחד להיות נחלק מתוך העדה לעורר על הכהונה. He took himself. He took himself. לקח את עצמו לצד אחד. He took himself to one side. Korach felt the position of Nassi should be his. He envied his cousin Elizafan ben Uziel who got the appointment. And so lokach es atzmo, what, he did take something. What did he take? He took himself. And he created this division. And he put himself on one side of the issue as opposed to the others. In other words, vayikach, what he took is he took himself and made himself an adversary of the others. Mishnah Avos tells us that this jealousy, this envy of Korach, took him out of his world. Took him out of this world. And the Mishnah tells us it literally because what happens in the story, spoiler alert, I’m about to tell you, what happens in the story is the ground opens up and swallows him inside. The ground literally opens, a miracle. G-d intervenes and supersedes the laws of nature, an earthquake. The ground opens up and swallows Korach and his colleagues, his co-conspirators. So that’s a literal understanding of the Mishnah Avos in the fourth perek of Avos, that jealousy took him out of the world. But the Rambam in his commentary on the Mishnah, the Rambam explains the Mishnah a little bit differently. The Rambam says jealousy, desire, and honor take a person out of the world. Kinah, taivah, ve-khavod מוציאין את האדם מן העולם. That’s the Mishnah in Pirkei Avos. Kinah, jealousy, envy. Taivah, lust and desire. Kavod, the pursuit of honor and influence. They take a person out of the world, writes the Rambam. The reason for this is that possessing these three middos or even a single one of them causes a person to lose emunas ha-Torah. The Rambam understands that those three things remove a person from the world doesn’t mean literally the ground opening up and swallowing you up. Doesn’t mean a person expiring or dying. Leaving this world means you forfeit emunas ha-Torah. The world means emunah. Emunah. Our whole life. צדיק באמונתו יחיה. To be alive is to live with emunah. To not think ego, I am the center of the universe, but in there’s two ways to live and only two ways to live: ego versus Elokus. Either I am the center of the universe, I take credit, I’m to blame, it’s all about me, my honor, my ego, my need, my desire, my life, what I want, my rights, my entitlement, ego, or Elokus. I’m here for a mission. I’m here for a purpose. I’m here to serve. I’m here to repair. I’m here to redeem. I’m here for a mission. There’s a reason I’m here because there’s someone and something much greater than myself. Ego versus Elokus. צדיק באמונתו יחיה. If you’re living for ego, you’re dead even while you’re alive. The person who’s living for ego, their need, their want, their arrogance, their identity, their independence, their sense of self, their pursuit of honor, such a person is dead even while they’re alive. They’re not really alive. It’s only the person who’s living for Elokus. These three things, writes the Rambam, remove a person from the world. And Rav Wolbe, the great mashgiach, zecher tzadik livracha, in his עלי שור חלק א, he elaborates how. So number one is jealousy, kinah. A person’s ability to see Hashem’s divine providence, to understand that everything Hashem does and provides and gives is what’s meant for us. If we really believe Hashem gives us what we need and calculates everything down to its last detail, I’d never be jealous or envious of what you have. I don't look in your driveway, I don't look at the square footage of your house, certainly not trying to look into your bank account, and I'm not jealous of your spouse or your children or your vacation. I'm not jealous of your place in the community or how many followers you have online, because I have what's meant for me. And I'm here for a mission and I refuse to be distracted trying to compete or keep up with you. A person who has jealousy lacks emunah. A person who has jealousy is nourishing their ego. Emunas ha-Torah is belief that what I have is what I need, that Hashem gives me what’s necessary for the pursuit of my mission. And number two is taivah. Stands diametrically opposed to ability to connect to spirituality. Rav Wolbe quotes the Chovos ha-Levavos in Sha'ar ha-Prishus that the purpose of Torah is to, quote, \"enable one's logic to reign over his desires.\" The purpose of Torah is to elevate us and empower us to not indulge our instinct and our desire, to not give in, to not get caught up in that moment in the pleasure, but to be in control, to be sovereign, to be disciplined, to regulate ourselves. That’s the koach ha-Torah, that’s emunah, that’s when we live for Elokus. Of course, we're not just going to indulge and give in to that animal instinct. And finally, kovod, the third thing that removes us from this world is kovod. Lacking in belief that it's really all Hashem. If I need honor and I need influence and it's all about me, that's the ultimate of ego. When I'm willing to recognize I don't do it for the honor, but I'm here for a mission, I'm here to serve. Rabbeinu Yonah writes in Sefer HaYirah, the honor one receives in this world might detract from the world reward we get in the next world. The Rambam is telling us that what is our world? There are two worlds we can be living in. We can live in the world of ego, or we can live in the world of emunah. If we live in the world of ego, then it's a very lonely place and we're dead even while we're alive, and our relationships are inauthentic and counterfeit and not real. But if we live in the world of Elokus, we're living to be of service, we're living to pursue a mission, we're living with humility, we're living knowing what we have is what we need, we're living with control over ourselves and refuse to indulge desire, we're living without needing to get honor. So now we're living in the world of Elokus, that's the place of Hashem. So vayakach Korach says Rav Wolbe, vayakach, lokach es atzmo, he took himself. And what does it mean he took himself? מוציא את אדם מן העולם he took himself out of the world. You want to be in a world with relationships, you want to be in Hashem's world, you want to be part of Hashem's reality? Elokus not ego. Korach was driven by ego. Menachem Tzion we've been learning the beautiful sefer Menachem Tzion by Menachem Tzion Zacks, the new edition. He says vayakach Korach and he alludes to Rashi: פרשה זו יפה נדרשת נושא זה שמחלוקת שנאת חינם ותמיד דבר בעתו. So he gets back to answer, what did Rashi mean? All of a sudden Rashi is giving reviews, two thumbs up to the medrash on parshas Korach. No, no. 9.2 for the medrash on parshas Korach. No. What does he mean? He means that the medrash on this parsha, the lessons that we're learning are so timeless, so necessary, so relevant, are such a parsha perspective for today and every day. Because these issues of machlokes, enmity of division, of in-fighting, unfortunately they're ubiquitous, they're universal, they're in every age, and they're all time. יפה לדרוש על זה בקהילות כל זמן ועידן and therefore it's good to elaborate, and it's good to, it's good to offer droshes. Yafa nidreshas what Rashi was saying was not I'm giving a positive review of the medrash on our parsha. What he's telling is all of us: get up and expound, talk about this parsha, dive deep, learn it, promote it, teach it, so that we can finally repair damage done by machlokes. It's not a coincidence we're reading parshas Korach as we begin Chodesh Tammuz. Today is Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, the month of shiva asar b'Tammuz we're going to begin the three weeks. And what led to the destruction, what led to this churban, what led to this reality that we're living in, is machlokes, sinas chinam, it's baseless hatred and it's division and it's in-fighting. So פרשה זו יפה נדרשת, Rashi is telling us this is a good place to darshen. This is a good place to expound, to learn, to teach. דור הולך ודור בא מחלוקת לעולם עומדת writes Rav Ben-Tzion, רב ציון מנחם זקס. He says the generation goes and a generation comes and machlokes is still here. הסטן של שנאת חינם the evil satan of baseless hatred עושה שמות בעמינו עדיין ממשיך לרקוד בינינו it still dances among us, it still dances among us. And that's the message: ויקח קרח לקח מקח רע לעצמו. He made a bad purchase. What was it? מקח הרע היה שלקח כנשק למרידתו את יחוסו הגדול. What is this purchase? He looked at his yichus and he said, 'Do you know who I am? Do you know where I come from? Do you know what it says on my shidduch resume?' בן יצהר בן קהת בן לוי הביא צוהר ואור לעולם קהת לא יקהת עמים לוי נלווה אל ה' נלוו גויים רבים. Each of those names, each of those words is a description of a great yichus, of a great background, of great prominence. And he thought that defines who I am: 'I'm superior, I'm greater than you'. It thought it put him in a position to be critical of others, to be feel greater than others. Vayakach, lokach es atzmo, מחלוקת לא היתה לשם שמים הוא רוצה לקחת מקח טוב של כבוד לעצמו. Essentially what I've been telling you, the theme of my forthcoming book, if I keep saying it maybe it'll happen, the one I want to write and I think it's written in my head, that all of life these two worlds, ego or Elokus. What's lokach es atzmo? He went to the world of ego. Vayakach Korach, lokach es atzmo. kavod le'atzmo. He lived for ego, he lived for himself. ולא ידע שכבוד אינו לסחורה שמקח וממכר שאדם יכול לקחת לעצמו. He didn't realize, honor's not a commodity. You don't trade in honor. You can't buy it, can't order it on Amazon, you can't invest in it, can't go long on it or short on it on the stock market. Honor is not a commodity that you trade or you buy. Honor is something that you earn. כל שאדם בא לקחת כבוד לעצמו הכבוד בורח ממנו. In fact, we have the opposite tradition that the more you run after, the more you pursue honor, the more it runs away from you. כל מי שרודף אחר שררה, שררה בורחת ממנו. So that's what Korach didn't get. He was living in a world of ego, not a world of Elokus. And when you live for ego, not Elokus, lakach es atzmo. Atzmo means ego. He was living for ego, not Elokus, he wasn't living even at all. That was the source of the machlokes, and that was the source of his downfall. But in two days it'll be Gimmel Tammuz. Gimmel Tammuz, the Yahrtzeit of the Rebbe Zatzal. And I want to share with you an insight my dear friend Rabbi Volvovsky gave the shiur this past Shabbos. And the theme of his shiur was how if you look through the Sichos of the Rebbe, the Rebbe looked at different characters of Tanach and of Shas, people that we saw as villains and we vilify and we demonize and we see as negative, bad actors on the stage of Jewish history. And the Rebbe would look at them and say, \"No, you're misunderstanding them. It's true, they did something wrong. It's true they went wrong, and we need to learn from that, and they were accountable for it. But it's not who they were. You see essentially, we have different parts to who we are. We have the good, the pure, and then we have sometimes the misdeeds, the mistakes, the indiscretions. Which is the real us and which is the klipa? Which is the essential us, the essence of who we are, and which is the peel, which is the covering, what is obscuring the essence of who we are?\" So if you read Parshas Korach, this was one of the five examples he spoke about. If you read Parshas Korach, on the surface, Korach is a wicked villain. He leads this rebellion, he almost undermined the whole authority of Moshe Rabbeinu, this nascent nation, this beginning of a people, just at our adolescence, and Korach almost undid it all. And he's a villain. In fact, I was debating very early this morning at our Kol Boker, while you were all still sleeping, with Rabbi Volvovsky that the Torah itself calls Korach and his colleagues anashim harioshaim ha'eileh. Pasuk Chof-Vav. סורו נא מעל אהלי האנשים הרשעים האלה. וידבר אל העדה לאמור. He speaks to the people. Moshe stood up and he speaks to everyone, and the Torah tells us Moshe called them ha'anashim haresha'im ha'eileh. These are wicked men. But it's not the way the Rebbe saw it. The Rebbe in a Sicha, Rebbe in a Sicha in 5748. על פי זה יש לומר, reading to you from a Sicha of the Rebbe, יש לומר הטעם דקריאת הפרשה בשם קורח. Why would you name the Parsha after a villain? If Korach is taka such a wicked person and he almost undid our people and led this rebellion, why would you name a Parsha in perpetuity, why would we identify and associate a holy Parsha of the Torah with him? להדגיש את העניין הטוב דקורח. Because the Torah's trying to tell us, peel away the layer, peel back the klipa, don't look at the poor choice, the indiscretion, don't judge him by his worst moment, look at his essence of who he was, look at the purity in him, look at the best of him. הרצון להיות כהן גדול. Want to hear something amazing about Korach? He had aspiration and ambition, he had spiritual drive. He wanted to be the Kohen Gadol. Other people wanted to win the NBA championships. Other people wanted to be the first trillionaire on earth. Other people wanted to be a president with lots of power. You know what Korach wanted? I want to be the Kohen Gadol. I want to have access to the Kodesh HaKodashim. That's something amazing. It was misdirected, it was misguided, and led him to poor choices. He had to be accountable, like the ground opened up and swallowing him up. ורצון זהו עניין טוב, writes the Rebbe. That ratzon, that drive, that will, that's something good. ויש לומר שצריך להיות אצל כל אחד ואחד מישראל אלא שצריכה להיות זהירות באופן המשכת רצון זה בנוגע למעשה. How we manifest, for you Ben, how we manifest that ratzon, how we manifest that will, that's very important, that's the lesson of Parshas Korach. But the notion that we have drive and ambition and that we have will and that we have want... for great spiritual things, that's a lesson we learn from Korach. So much so, the Rebbe says, who is the real Korach? The real Korach is the one with this ratzon. Okay, he was a little misguided, it led him to a rebellion, it led him to compete with Moshe, it led him to machlokes. Okay, for that the ground had to open up and swallow him up, but his legacy, how we should remember him, is the name of a parsha, and is Parshas Korach, because he had ratzon. Rashi says פרשה זו יפה נדרשת. ויקח קרח לקח את עצמו. So the Rebbe understands, you know what lakach es atzmo means? Atzmo means we should be doresh yaffa nidrashas, we should be doresh what we should focus on, focus on and expound on and see is atzmo, his essence. His essence. It's a whole new way of learning lakach es atzmo. I told you, we're learning the same parsha, same Rashi, we've seen this all before, but we're coming at it an entirely new angle we haven't until now, l'kovod Gimmel Tammuz, where we're learning, we're learning it a little bit differently. We're learning it a little bit differently. That lakach es atzmo means his essence. His essence. Now why is this important? Why is this important? Because this is also the way we're meant to see every Jew. Writes the Rebbe: כאשר פוגשים יהודי שבגלוי ובחיצוניות נראה כמי שנמצא במצב בלתי רצוי, when you meet a Jew on the surface, externally, appears undesirable state. דוגמת מצבו של קרח בפשט הכתובים, we can either read people like you read Parshas Korach: superficial, on the surface, what you see is what you get. And what will you do? You'll dismiss them, you'll demonize them, you'll vilify them, you'll see the wickedness in them, you'll see the mistakes that's being made. יכול מישהו לחשוב מה לו ליהודי שמקומו בשאול רחמנא ליצלן. What is there for me to do with this person? This is a person b'shol. What's shol? H-E-double hockey sticks, as my son would say. Shol is Gehennom. This person who the ground is swallowing up was on his way to Gehennom. This person who on the surface is wicked. I dismiss, I withdraw, I recoil, I have nothing to do. על זה בא המענה בפרשת השבוע פרשת התורה ששמה קרח שבו מודגש מעלתו של קרח. And that's what the Torah comes and says, פרשה זו יפה נדרשת. כלומר יהודי זה שפגש אמר לו דרשני. This Jew is crying out, Darsheni! Study me! Learn me! Dive deep in me! Peel away the layers, the klipas, and reveal my essence, the truth, the purity of who I am, לדרוש ולמצוא את הנקודה הטובה והיפה שבו. Yaffa nidrashas. Our mission, our job, this is how the Rebbe lived his life, and this is what he charged each and every one of us is to live such a life. Yaffa nidrashas is to not see what's on the surface. To not judge someone based on their worst moment. Rabbi, put it in the back. Put it in the back. But to see a person on their best, not their worst. Yaffa nidrashas. Darshen a person and learn them best. יש לדעת ולזכור יפה שכל יהודי באיזה מעמד ומצב שיהיה אפילו מעמד ומצב דקרח לגריעותו הרי מתייחס ליעקב. עד שהוא בן ישראל. Yaakov didn't want to be associated, identified with Korach because Yaakov is the lesser, lower name. But Yisroel, the higher name, that's Korach, 'cause that ratzon, that will. ולכן בכוחו ויכולתו ליקח את עצמו לגלות את עצמותו ומהותו. We have the ability to dive into our essence, to see the חלק אלוקה ממעל ממש, the pintele Yid, that holy spark, the pure in each person. Yaffa nidrashas. It's a whole new way of reading and learning Parshas Korach. Yes, we have to study the surface. Yes, we have to accept the pashut pshat. Yes, we have to see the consequence and accountability of a person who leads a rebellion. It's dangerous. So much so that Hashem chooses many layers and measures of messages of what needs to happen and be done with such a person. However, at the same time, see the essence. Vayikach es atzmo, see the atzmus. Yaffa nidrashas, see that Jew who's saying Darsheni! Darshen me! Study me! Study me! Darshen me up! Study me up! I'm not pashut, I'm not simple. Recently had an interaction with a Jew who was covered. Yarmulka, tzitzis, arms covered in tattoos. He's saying Darsheni! He's saying, 'Ask me about me, come get to know me, learn me, study me, understand me, darshen me!' Every Jew is saying, don't just look at the surface, but get deep into who I am, dive deep, darshen me, get to the atzmo, the atzmus. החידוש דפרשת קרח שקרח הוא פרשה בתורה שהפעולה עם יהודי שבשם ישראל יכונה צריכה להיות בגלל מצבו בהווה. היינו שגם מצבו בהווה. החידוש דפרשת קורח שקורח הוא פרשה בתורה שהפעולה של יהודי שעל שם ישראל יכונה צריכה להיות בגלל מצבו בהווה היינו שגם מצבו ההווה רומז על הטוב והיפה שבו להיות בן ישראל שלבו תמים עם השם ותורתו. Our job is to dive deep, expound, associate and identify with the Yisroel, the higher part of who they... the Yakov, the lower part of who they are, to see that. להסתכל על יהודי שבשם ישראל יכונה לא רק בזה שירידתו למטה זו צורך עילוי. Not just that the yerida leshem aliya, but to see the good and the pure in them even at that moment. Rabbi Bobovsky then applied this to several other personalities in Tanakh and in Shas where the Rebbe consistently did this. Ah, you think we're saying the story to vilify and demonize? Torah would never do such a thing. Torah has laws of lashon hara. If the Torah's telling the story, it's telling us dive deeper. Don't just accept the surface. See what's below it, understand the best of it, and grow from it. And I think in this week of Gimmel Tammuz that we're marking the Rebbe's yahrzeit, that's part of his charge to each and every one of us is yafe nidreshes, to darshun every Jew. Don't accept what you see in the surface but to see people for their best, not their worst. To say the best part of them is the real part of them and the mistakes they make, that's not the real part, that's the klipa, that's the peel, that's that which is obscuring the light, and our job is to peel it back and see and relate to the essence of who they are. פרק טז פסוק ג. ויקהלו על משה ועל אהרן, they gathered against them, ויאמרו אליהם רב לכם. Nu, too much. You've consolidated too much power, you've taken too much. כל העדה כולם קדושים ובתוכם השם. Listen to this amazing, amazing Menachem Tzion. Kulam kedoshim. What's Korach's argument? We're all holy. Who are you to put yourself over us, above us, superior to us? We're all holy. כולם שמעו דברים מסיני מפי הגבורה. Rashi says: You think you were the only one there? Our religion is very different than others. In other religions, one man went on top of a mountain, got some prophecy, came back and told everyone God whispered in my ear \"I'm the main man,\" or God whispered God forbid \"I'm His child\" and now everyone do as I say. Not our religion. Moshe didn't climb on a... Moshe did climb on a mountain and come back and give us the Torah, but that was only after Hashem first revealed himself to all of Klal Yisrael. Two to three million people, men, women, and children. Every soul that was created since the beginning of creation that was destined to exist forever, including those who would convert were also, says the Chida, at Har Sinai as well. We were all there and that's what Korach's arguing. כולם שמעו דברים בסיני מפי הגבורה. So Moshe and Aaron, who do you think you are? You think you're better? You think you're bigger? You think you're more powerful? You think you speak with more authority? We were all in the room. We were all around the table. We were all at the base of the mountain. We were all present when Hashem revealed himself. קורח טען רב לכם, די לכם בהנהגה שהנהגתם את העדה עד הנה. It's enough. תפקידכם משה רבינו נגמר במעמד הר סיני. Your job is done. You didn't know when to walk away. Term limits. When you came down the mountain after forty days and you transmitted the Torah, that was your job. But there were term limits. It was time for retirement. You were done. אלו היו היעוד הנשגב שהיה בידכם בהוציאכם את העם ממצרים תעבדון את האלוקים על ההר הזה. Back in ספר שמות פרק ג כאשר God first recruited you to lead, He told you then your mission. And what was your job? Take the people out of Mitzrayim and get them to the mountain. Yasher koach, Moshe. Job well done. We'll have a dinner in your honor. We'll dedicate a Torah in your honor. We're sending you on vacation, apparently not to Israel, but with your family. We'll do something special. We're going to name the main sanctuary after you. We're going to do whatever you want, Moshe, but your job is done. You need to walk away. No lifetime contract, says Korach, for you. בהוציאכם את העם ממצרים תעבדון את האלוקים על ההר הזה. You're done. You got us out of Egypt, you got us to the mountain, walk away. Rav lachem means you're holding on too tight, you're holding on too long. כאשר יעוד זה כבר נגמר כולנו שמענו דברים בסיני כולנו נעשים קדושים. We all heard, we can all take it from here. We were all there, we know what to do next. עומדים לפנינו יעודים ותפקידים כבירים חדשים מזקיקנו. רב לכם עבר זמנכם ועליכם עתה הסגת אחור ולעשות לנו מקום לקחת בידינו. Give someone else's turn. It's someone else's chance. You can't be the president for life. You're not the chairman forever. You're not the chief rabbi till the end of time. Walk away. Rav lachem. And why? What was Korach's argument? I never noticed this in all the years of learning Parshas Korach. You ready? Korach says uvtocham Hashem. What did he mean? כל העדה כולם קדושים ובתוכם השם. All the people are equally holy and in them. Until now, I understood uvtocham to mean... Uvsocham Hashem in Klal Yisrael. The democratization of Judaism. All equal, and Hashem dwells among us all, and you don't have greater access to Him than us. That's not what the Menachem Tziyon says. This is an allusion back to Parshas Terumah. When Hashem says build a Mishkan, He says ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם. And what did we say there? It doesn't say, as it should grammatically, besokho, I will dwell in it. It says instead, I will dwell in them. Why? We learned back in Parshas Terumah because what God was saying was: Don't think that the only place you have access to Me is My Mishkan or My Mikdash. Besokham, in every one of you. Where can you find Me? In your heart. That's where you'll find Me. That's where you'll find Me. ומזה רצה קורח להוכיח שהשכינה שורה בתוכם. Korach was throwing God's word back in Moshe's face. Hashem told Moshe veshachanti besokham, so now Korach says to Moshe, uvsocham Hashem. Hey Moshe, remember what you told us? That yes, we should build a Mishkan and later a Mikdash. But where does God really dwell? In our hearts and in our homes. Well, guess what? If He dwells in our hearts and our homes, why are you taking all the power? Walk away, move on, retire. Your job is done. כל אחד ואחד בשווה. Hu to'eh. But he was mistaken. הקדוש ברוך הוא משרה שכינתו בתוך כל אחד ואחד. It's true. Hashem does dwell in each and every one of us. It's true Hashem lives in our hearts and our homes. מכל מקום אשרי איננו נחלת כלל במידה אחידה ובצורה שווה. But He doesn't dwell equally. ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם. Korach forgot the end of that posuk. Here Korach is invoking the posuk in the teaching of the Mishkan, throwing it back in Moshe's face. But says the Menachem Tziyon, he forgot the end of the posuk. ככל אשר אני מראה אותך את תבנית המשכן ואת תבנית כל כליו וכן תעשו. שהיה צריך לומר ועשו מקדש ככל אשר אני מראה אותך ושכנתי בתוכם. הכוונה ושכנתי בתוכם ככל אשר אני מראה אותך. I will dwell in you according to what I show each and every one of you. Because everyone's different. Kein ta'asu ledoros. All of you, separately and for generations, do what is asked of you. Different. Everyone's different. Every generation's different. Within the generation, different people are different. Some connect to learning, davening, chessed. Some have this skill set, and these assets, and this potential. Others have this. And God was not telling us we're all equal, but each equally in our own way. But there is a hierarchy. We have Kohanim, Levi'im, and Yisraelim. We have people of different positions. Similarly, he quotes, וכל העם רואים את הקולות. When Hashem gave us the Torah, posuk describes the whole nation saw the sounds, the voices. Doesn't say וכל העם רואים את הקול, they all heard the voice. What does it say? וכל העם רואים את הקולות. We heard the voices in plural. Ba u're'ei, says the Midrash, come and see. היך הקול יוצא אצל כל ישראל וכל אחד ואחד לפי כוחו. הזקנים לפי כוחם הבחורים לפי כוחם הקטנים לפי כוחם משה לפי כוחו. We all had heard at Har Sinai according to our level. Do you think the eight-year-old heard the same way as the 80-year-old? Do you think the one with the high IQ heard the same way with the more challenging IQ? You think we didn't all hear the same way. We all heard through the filter of our life experience and our personality and our potential. And that's why what we heard was hakolos, not hakol. Not all the same, but kolos, separate and apart. משה ידבר והאלוקים יעננו בקול. Moshe heard the kol that was meant for him, but we each have a different kol. Hareini es maraich, kolech arev, kolech arev and so on. This was the failure. This was the breakdown. This was where Korach went wrong. He failed to see that there are differences. There are differences among us. And that attempt to erase the differences is where he went wrong. So he was right, uvsocham Hashem, that throwback to veshachanti besokham. The besokham, invoking that word, he was right. But he forgot the end of the posuk and that's where he went wrong. So how does Moshe Moshe gathers himself? First, he collapses, because he realizes how dangerous what's happening is. And when he collects himself and responds, what does he tell Korach? וידבר אל קורח ואל כל עדתו לאמור בוקר. In the morning, Hashem will make known. What is happening? The one who is his own, the holy one he'll draw him close and so on. What's with the boker? We've learned this in the past, a beautiful insight Rav Soloveitchik, we've seen the idea, the message that you should always sleep on it. How often do we make the terrible mistake of responding immediately? Someone wrote us a text, a WhatsApp, an email, and what do we do? Oh, we write back right away. And it's not long till we regret it, because we just escalated it. And we gave them a zinger, and they give us a little poke, and we punched them in the face. And the next thing now it's spiraling out of control because we didn't wait. So Chazal tell us boker, sleep on it. Not every email has to be answered. Not every email has to be answered that minute or that day. boker, sleep on it before you respond, because in the morning you'll have much more clarity. In the morning you'll see much more clearly, you'll think more clearly, how to be effective, what outcome you want and how to get there. But the Minchat Chinuch has a different insight. boker, says Rashi, עתה עת שכרות היא לנו ולא נכון להראות לפניו. Nighttime, sleepy, exhausted, cloudier judgment, passing out, falling asleep, it's like a time of drunkenness. שכור כל העולם כולו דומה עליו כמישור. ומי שהוא שכור אל יורה. Gemara in Eruvin says that if you're inebriated, intoxicated, had a little l'chaim, you're not allowed to pasken. Why? Because you don't have clear judgment, your judgment's clouded. You can't pasken, you can't decide Jewish law, you can't issue a judgment, כי אינו יודע להבחין בין אמת לשקר, because when you're in that place in that state, you can't tell the difference between truth and falsehood. bein tzedek l'avel, righteous and crooked. bein zachut l'chova. Hatorah amar and that's why the Torah tells us יין ושכר אל תשת ולהבדיל בין הקדש ובין החול. You can't drink when you enter the Mikdash. Why? Because the Mikdash is a place of discernment between the holy and the profane, right and wrong, between feeling Hashem's presence or his absence. l'havdil. And the shikur, if you're intoxicated, whether literally on a substance or simply because you're exhausted, you're overtired, you're sleep-deprived, or because you are emotionally driven in such a way that's clouding your judgment. If you're filled with envy and jealousy and hate and enmity and divisiveness like Korach, you're like a drunkard. You can't make havdalah, you can't see clearly, you can't see differences. eino yachol lehavdil. And that's da'at. Yerushalmi Brachot tells us אם אין דעת הבדלה מנין. Bavli also Brachot. Why do we put havdalah in the bracha of da'at? אתה חונן לאדם דעת. And that's where we have ata chonantanu at Motzaei Shabbat when we add havdalah to our Amidah, where do we insert havdalah in the Amidah? In the bracha of ata chonen, the bracha of knowledge, wisdom, discernment. Why? Chazal tell us because אם אין דעת הבדלה מנין. If you don't have wisdom, knowledge, discernment, you can't tell the difference, you can't tell the difference, you can't have havdalah. וזה עון נדב ואביהו היו שתויי יין. Nadav and Avihu, the sons of Aaron, who went into the Beit HaMikdash, one of the understandings of why they died, it was a capital crime, was they were drunk. They drank before they went in. וחשבו שהכל שווים שכל איש שווה. And what was the result, the consequence of their being drunk? They thought we're all equal. Our father Kohen Gadol, Kohen Gadol, Kohen Shmadol, Shmallel, we're all equal! Korban Hashem says, the one I want to give, the one I was told to give, the one I made, it's all equal! What happens when you get drunk? Drunk on a substance, drunk on your emotion, drunk on your ego, what happens when you're drunk? You lose the capacity to discern, to see differences, for judgment, it all seems the same, you lose boundaries, they all become blurred. We're supposed to do that on Purim, chayav inish livsumei. We're supposed to drink on Purim to the point we can't tell the difference between ארור המן וברוך מרדכי. But the exact opposite is how we're meant to live the whole year. Don't indulge, don't get drunk, either on a substance or on ego or emotion in such a way that you can't see. Korach was drunk on jealousy. Korach was intoxicated on envy. So much so he couldn't see anymore. He couldn't see clearly. He couldn't see differences. He couldn't have judgment. Midrash tells us מה ראה לומר בקר. Why does Moshe say boker? We'll figure it out in the morning. אמר משה גבולות חלק הקדוש ברוך הוא בעולמו. You know what Moshe was telling him? Hey Korach, you don't understand why there are differences, a hierarchy? You don't understand its importance? You think everything's equal? You know the thing called night, and there's something called morning? Something called day and something called night? Something called the sun, something called the moon? And you can't mix up the two. And they don't mix all together. There are differences, there's a boundary, there's a line. Vayerev vayeboker, what comes after it? ויבדל אלוהים בין האור ובין החושך. There's a erev and there's an evening and there's a morning. Vayavdel! That capacity, chevre, you listen, this is so important, our generation that's lost definitions and it's lost boundaries and it's lost differences, and it wants to live in this place that says everything is the same. We're erasing boundaries, we're erasing differences, we're erasing definitions, we're erasing institutions, we're erasing everything. Everything is the same and what you want it to be, and call yourself whatever you want to call yourself. בשביל תשמישה של עולם כשם שהבדיל בין האור ובין החושך בשביל תשמישה שלנו כך הבדיל ישראל מן האומות והבדלתם אתכם מן העמים להיות לי. And God says there's a difference between a Jew and a non-Jew. I'm elevating you, I'm charging you, I'm giving you a mission and a purpose, you're here for a reason, you've got a responsibility. Vahavdiltem, I'm making a difference. By the way, Rav Chaim Volozhiner and others said, you know, if a Jew doesn't make Kiddush, then non-Jews make Havdalah. When the Jew doesn't live for a Kiddush Hashem, when we don't make Kiddush, non-Jews make Havdalah. They separate us out, they hold us to another standard. וכך הבדיל אהרן ויבדל אהרן להקדישו קדש קדשים. We see that world, word, over and over again. Havdalah, we're different. We have to know that difference. We have to see those differences. We have to be capable of measuring those differences, of understanding the consequence of those differences. And that's what Moshe's telling Korach. You know what the biggest danger posed by Korach was? Korach, you come along and you want to say there's no differences. We're all equal. Everyone's the same. So many of our problems of the last few years are these attempts to erase differences. There's no longer an expert. Every comedian with a microphone and internet connection is now a geopolitical expert and is entitled to accuse Israel of genocide and promote falsehoods and lies. Why? Because there's no credibility, there are no credentials, there's no expertise. We've erased it all. If you have an internet connection and a keyboard or a camera, now you're an expert. No differences. Everyone's the same. No credentials, no credibility, no peer review. Everyone's the same. Everyone's an expert. Everyone can choose their gender. Everybody can choose their own set of laws. Everyone can choose their reality. Everyone can establish their own truth. Everything, everyone, there's no boundaries. There's nothing anymore that's sacred. There's no Havdalah, there are no differences. And Moshe understood that's the danger that Korach is posing. So he turns to him and he tells him, Korach boker, the answer to you is boker. Just like there's night and day, just like there's evening and morning, just like there's a moon and a sun, just like those are undeniable differences. What, do you think the sun wakes up one morning and says, \"Today I feel like the moon\"? The moon one night decides, \"Today call me the sun\"? There are scientific, objective, measurable differences. And those differences matter, they mean something, they have a job. Zachar unekevah bara'am, there's a balance to the universe that depends on these differences. What is marriage? Im yirtzeh Hashem going to a wedding tonight. I love it. What's the Birkas Erusin? It's the most peculiar berakhah ever. Couple stands under a chuppah and we make a berakhah. Now we make the Sheva Berakhos afterwards. But the mechanism of kiddushin, what makes them betrothed to one another is not you two halves becoming a whole, you complete each other, romance and love and doves flying through the air. What's the berakhah we make? אשר אסר לנו את הארוסות. Hakadosh Barukh Hu said now everybody else is forbidden, and if you violate this trust there's a death penalty, and now you are exclusive to one another and nobody else can infringe and now don't cheat and don't turn and don't be unfaithful. What in the world are we doing? That's the least romantic thing we could do under a chuppah, the berakhah we're making for this chassan and kallah in this moment. That's the Birkas Erusin? Yeah. What's it called? Kiddushin. You know what makes it Kiddushin? Is because you've just announced Havdalah. What makes it holy, Kiddushin, is because the Havdalah you say, \"You see the two of you? This is exclusive. Nobody else. Everybody else is outside this chuppah.\" This boundary, this border that you just did. That's why the kallah walks seven times around the chassan. She's making a circle around him and she says, \"It's now me and you, buddy.\" And what does he do a moment later? He reciprocates. He puts a ring on her finger, the same circle. She's the center of the circle of his life and he says, \"It's now me and you, honey. It's just us. We're together.\" There's a Havdalah, there's a difference between us and everyone else. It's another boundary that's being erased. I'm sorry, I'm going to get back to the parashah. I promise. Maybe I should have saved this for my drashah of the Shabbos. If I do then just forget I said all this. But what's the problem? Even there, what happens? The husband tells his wife all of his innermost feelings and she thinks, \"Wow, we have emotional intimacy connection, this is exclusive.\" because of your sharing, your vulnerable, you're letting me in. Only to go on the internet two minutes later and see he wrote the same thing on Twitter. The same feelings, the same vulnerability, the same what's happening inside, there goes the emotional intimacy. First of all, if people dress the same way, what is intimacy? Da'as, knowledge. Havdalah. אם אין דעת הבדלה מנין. Da'as, the Torah's definition of intimacy, of da'as, is also havdalah. If everybody—if I expose myself, literally and figuratively, to the world the way I do to you, then it means nothing that you get to see me exposed, 'cause guess what, so does anyone else walking down the street. So does anyone else who goes on my social media profile. But if you're the only one that sees me exposed that way, physically or emotionally, then we have something special. There's a havdalah, there's a difference between what we have and what everyone else has. And the world is missing that, they're erasing that, they're diluting that, they're destroying that. No differences. No, what you have with each other, you can also share with the world, bring other people in, bring what you have to them. If you erase those differences, you have nothing left. אם אין דעת הבדלה מנין, you need havdalah to have that da'as, to have that intimacy. That's what Korach threatened. That's why it was so dangerous. That's what Moshe understood. He's coming to erase differences. כל העדה כולם קדושים, definitions, descriptions, institutions, get rid of it all. Everyone's an expert, everyone's in charge, everyone's empowered, everyone's in control, we're getting rid of it all. That's dangerous. That's not the way the world works or what needs to happen for the world to be balanced. That's the danger and that's why Moshe turns to him and says Boker. Boker, there's a difference between the morning and the evening. Who came before and did this danger? The Menachem Tzion tells us it was the Dor Haflaga. The Dor Haflaga came and did this, the generation of the tower. ויהי כל הארץ שפה אחת ודברים אחדים. הטענה שהיו שווים גמורים גרר אחריו ההפך מהמטרה והמגמה. Dor Haflaga, they also, everyone has to speak the same language, we're all gonna come together, this was a big danger as well. No differences. No differences. Gemara in Shabbos tells us, Chodesh Tammuz we're unfortunately gonna mark, hopefully not, Mashiach will come, but we're gonna mark the three weeks. Why was the Beis Hamikdash destroyed? It's Gemara in Shabbos kuf-yud-tes, לא חרבה ירושלים אלא בשביל שהשוו קטון וגדול. Because in that generation, they equated—in that generation, they equated katon and gadol. Someone great with someone small. We just lost our internet connection. It's all from Hashem. The internet and the shiur are where Hashem wants them to be. Hishvu katon vegadol, we equated katon and gadol, great and small. It's what I was telling you—credibility, credentials, authority, experts, we just said everyone's equal. We lost that difference between the two and when that happened, that was it. And when that happened, that was it. That was it. Just like our internet connection, that was it. That was the danger, that's what Moshe was responding to. Perek tes-zayin posuk chaf-hei. We still have the audio. Hasn't happened in a while. וידבר ה' אל משה דבר אל כל העדה ויעלו מסביב למשכן קרח דתן ואבירם ויקם משה וילך אל דתן ואבירם וילכו אחריו זקני ישראל. Korach's sidekicks in this plan were Dasan and Aviram. Moshe gets up and he goes to Dasan and Aviram. He gets up and he goes to Dasan and Aviram. Says the Levos Esh, says Rav Druck, Moshe goes to Dasan and Aviram. מתבאר בפסוקים כי לאחר שקרח דתן ואבירם חלקו על משה והמרידו עם כל זה משה רבינו מחל על כבודו ובעצמו הלך אל דתן ואבירם. Moshe is the authority, the greatest, the greatest not only of his time, the greatest of any time, one of the thirteen principles of our faith is to believe Moshe is categorically different than all others. That's where Miriam went wrong. That's what Miriam didn't understand. Oh, we're back. That's what Miriam didn't understand, that Moshe is the greatest of all time and despite that, and with that, Moshe is the one who goes to Dasan and Aviram. Moshe goes to them. Moshe goes to them. The Gemara in Sanhedrin says we hear from here assur lehachzik bemachlokes. You're not allowed to grab on. Lehachzik means don't grab on to debate, to machlokes. אמר ריש לקיש מכאן שאין מחזיקין במחלוקת כל המחזיק במחלוקת עובר בלאו. Anyone who grabs or joins onto machlokes violates a lav, violates a prohibition. Don't grab onto machlokes, don't hold onto machlokes. You see something incredible. It's not that Moshe didn't grab onto machlokes just because he was forgiving if they came to him. Moshe is the one who went to them. Moshe goes to them. Moshe doesn't hesitate. Writes Rav Druck, mavaladick harayon, משה רבינו שכל מעשיו על פי מצוות השם יתברך הקדוש ברוך הוא ציווה אותו להכתיר את אהרן בכתר כהונה והוא ידע שהצדק איתו ושכל מחלוקת קורח ועדתו כפירה ומינות. He knows this is heresy, it's backwards, it's upside-down, it's inside-out, they're entirely wrong, he's entirely right, there is no room for debate, there is no doubt or uncertainty. And despite all that, he goes to them. Why? What's included in the lav? The prohibition to grab onto machloket doesn't just mean if someone comes to you, you have to be forgiving. It means you have to go to them. This is a Torah obligation to never stand on ceremony. Too many machloksem continue. I can tell you as a Rabbi of a large congregation now for many years. There are families who are not talking to each other and no one knows why. It's generational. Parents didn't talk, the grandparents didn't talk, we don't talk. And no one even remembers exactly why, they just know that's the part of the family we don't talk to. Okay, so why doesn't someone just go and end it? If you can't even remember why, is it worth continuing? Just get together and end it, end it. We have enough enemies from without, we need to be enemies from within? We'll only solve our problems when we find the unity and the peace from within. What's going on? Ella mai, too many people stand on ceremony. I would be forgiving if they come to me. I would entertain reconciling if they make the first move. It wasn't beneath Moshe Rabbeinu to make the first move. He was entirely in the right, undeniably, categorically, unequivocally. Nevertheless, it wasn't beneath him to make the first move. He went and he makes the first move, he makes the first move. And Rav Druck elaborates on this. This is the os, this is the sign, he expounds the pesukim even more. Too many people want to be machzik, they grab onto machloket. Says the Menachem Tzion, you know what it means to grab onto machloket? Listen to what he says, another brilliant interpretation, they're so great. Dasun and Aviram at this point, this is not the first time we're seeing their names. Why? Where else have we seen them? We've seen them earlier. What happened earlier? They have a chazakah of being wrong. When the Gemara tells us don't be machzik bemachloket, it doesn't mean don't grab onto machloket. It means even when the other party has a chazakah of machloket. What's a chazakah? An established pattern, an established pattern that reveals a reality that has laws associated with them. Even when the other side has a chazakah of machloket, don't stand on ceremony, end it, go to them, get up and go. What a powerful lesson. We can't and shouldn't be anywhere near machloket. People love and live for machloket. Forgot which sefer I was going through that talked about, you know when the Rabbi gets up and announce a big speech that I'm going to speak about we should love one another, we should have unity, we should all get along, how important, how beautiful that will be, nobody comes. When it leaks out that the Rabbi gets up because he's going to be blasting the other shul in town, the Rabbi wants to talk about the other Rabbi, Rabbi wants to talk about the kashrut scandal, the emergency services scandal, the breakaway minyan scandal, the shul's packed. Everyone wants to hear it, no one wants to miss it, everyone wants a part of it, everyone tunes into that one. That one, everyone tunes in. Why is that? Everybody gravitates. It's backwards, it's upside-down. When word leaks that that's what the person's going to speak about, the room should be empty. Nobody should be machzik bemachloket. There's a lav, a Torah prohibition that says don't be anywhere near it. You know why you don't want to be anywhere near it? Because if you're in the room and someone comes in with a gun, God forbid, and is aiming for someone, what do you say, \"Oh well, he's aiming for him, I can stand here, I'll be fine.\" You say, \"I don't want to be a casualty. I don't want to be anywhere near it.\" Well, machloket is like a machine gun that's out of control and the bullets are spraying everywhere and if you're anywhere near it, you go down with it. You should be nowhere near it, nowhere near it. And therefore, we have to not only avoid it, we should be part of the solution or trying to solve it. We should be among those who are credited Vayakam Moshe. Moshe got up. He was entirely in the right, but it wasn't beneath him and he didn't stand on ceremony and he got up and he initiated and he made the effort to end it. Perek tet-zayin, pasuk lamed. And here we have all these ways that Hashem proves who's right. Ground opens up and swallows them up and the staff, the rod... blossoms Pasuk Lamed. ואם בריאה יברא ה' ופצתה האדמה את פיה ובלעה אתם ואת כל אשר להם וירדו חיים שאלה וידעתם כי נאצו האנשים האלה את ה'. The ground opens up and swallows. Ground opens up. Moshe, who's talking here? Moshe. If Hashem will make a phenomenon and the ground will open its mouth and swallow them up and they'll descend to the pit, then you'll know that these men have provoked Hashem. The Menachem Tzion is bothered. Until now, we've had many episodes of mistakes the Jewish people have made. And what happens each and every time? What does Moshe do? Moshe's the forefront of defending them, davening for them, bailing them out, getting them off the hook. Moshe is the first helicopter parent, bulldozer parent. He comes in, he whooshes in, he rescues. Here, instead of saying forgive them, let it go, overlook it Hashem, ה' ה' אל רחום וחנון, instead he says Hashem, if you don't mind, massive earthquake, open the ground, swallow them up, intervene, supersede nature, end it here. What happened? What was so nefarious about Korach? So dangerous about Korach? ויש להסביר עוון קרח היה חמור מאוד. You know what the big danger of this is? In the earlier episodes, says Rav Menachem Tzion Sachs, gluyim u-mefurashim. It was obvious and revealed to all that there was a sin, there was a mistake, there was a miscalculation. Worshipping a calf, you don't have to be a groise chocham, you don't have to be so brilliant to see they're worshipping the calf. Yeah, that's not a good idea. That's not part of God's plan. Something's gone wrong here, we've got a virus, error message, something's gone wrong. All the other episodes of mistakes, spies come back. Yeah, we don't trust Hashem, it's not going to all work out, we shouldn't go, I don't think Hashem is right. Yeah, you want to stay far away from that report, that's probably not the right way to go. Clear and obvious. But here, the danger of Korach is it's not as obvious and therefore it's so much more dangerous. It was compelling and it was persuasive and it resonated with the people and it was logical. Beis Soloveitchik called it the common sense rebellion. Korach says, if you have a tallis that's all the color of techeiles, do you still have to put techeiles on the corner? If you have a room full of Torahs, do you still have to hang a mezuzah on the door? Those are pretty logical questions. We have an answer. Korach's rebellion was the common sense rebellion. He was trying to apply common sense to Torah, which you have to enter into Torah to understand it, just like you can't apply common sense to physics. You have to be a, you have to get into physics to understand it. Similar Torah. But that was compelling and that's exactly what made it more dangerous. And that's why Hashem, that's why Moshe had to come along and ask Hashem to do something more dramatic and something more significant. Perek Yud-Zayin, Pasuk Yud-Gimmel. We'll end with this. Page 828. 828. Moshe intervenes again. We'll get to a new proof of Aaron's greatness. And in this intervention, ויעמד בין המתים ובין החיים ותעצר המגפה. Aaron took as Moshe had spoken, he ran amidst of the people, the plague had begun. So they put incense, they put incense between them, ketores, va-yechaper al ha-am. The plague stopped. Those who died were 14,700. Aaron returned to Moshe at the entrance and so on. So va-yihyu ha-mesim. Sorry, what's the pasuk? Which pasuk did I want to read? Yud-Gimmel. ויעמד בין המתים ובין החיים. He stood between the dead and the living and the plague stopped. What does it mean he stood between the dead and the living? Says Rav Shloime Alter, listen to the great Rav Shloime Alter. The Gerer Rosh Yeshiva. He says the following: ויעמד בין החיים ובין המתים ובין המתים בין החיים בין המתים בין החיים. Moshe commanded Aaron to stop the plague by offering ketores. And Rashi here says it was as if Aaron grabbed onto the Malach ha-Maves and forced him to stop. Here there was a plague brought upon the people and Aaron stands between the dead and the living and it's as if Rashi says he grabs the Malach ha-Maves, the angel of death, and says stop doing your work. The Tiferes Shloime, the Heilige Tiferes Shloime explains that Aaron verbally defended the Jewish people and then he stopped the Malach ha-Maves. va-yamod, Aaron stood in prayer בין המתים ובין החיים בין המתים ובין החיים. Once a person dies, Aaron argued, can no longer do teshuvah, can no longer make choices. In the next world when our soul is extracted from our body, our body is the vehicle, the instrument of free will, of free choice. Once our soul's extracted from the body, once we are a soul, not a body, we no longer have free will. What Aaron was telling the angel of death The Malach Hamavet says בין החיים ובין המתים. I'm gonna wrestle you over this soul. Don't take him, don't bring him to a world where he can't come back, can't repent, can't repair, can't correct. And with this, the Malach Hamavet was stopped in his tracks. Gemara Bava Batra says, the Satan, the Yetzer Hara, and the Malach Hamavet are all one. He descends to this world and causes people to err, then he ascends to heaven and argues with Hashem and gets permission to take the soul. Let's not wait till the Malach Hamavet arrives and try stopping him with the arguments of Aaron. The image of בין המתים ובין החיים is to realize we all live בין המתים ובין החיים. We live between this world and the next. We have to live with understanding our own mortality. We have to understand how fragile and vulnerable our lives, that now is when we're meant to act, that when we're among hametim, we no longer have free will and it's too late to dictate and determine where our seat's gonna be in the world to come. If we want to improve our seating, if we want to improve our access, if we want front row, not the nosebleeds or outside the stadium in the world to come, it's all about the way we live in this world. We're all in a perpetual state of בין החיים ובין המתים. We're all living between those two places. That's how we stop the Angel of Death, because we make the right choices by confronting our mortality. That's how we'll end with this Menachem Tzion also. לא טוב לאדם להגות תמיד על החיים. You know it's a mistake if you live only in this world, you say carpe diem, all you do is pursue your pleasure, you think you're gonna live forever, that's not a good life, you're not gonna make good choices. כמו כן לא טוב לאדם להשוות לנגד עיניו תמיד על המות. But if all you think about is death, you're gonna walk around somber and negative and afraid and bitter and scared and morbid. Mabat shchoris, that's bad, it's a bad outlook. Pessimist, it's pessimistic or optimist, so שתיהם בלתי רצויות לגמרי. Says Menachem Tzion Zachs, those are two extremes. Don't be too much of an optimist and don't be too much of a pessimist. Al haadam hanavon, a discerning, wise person, where should you be? בין המתים ובין החיים. Not too much of an optimist, not too much of a pessimist. Be a realist. Be between בין המתים ובין החיים. Don't focus only on life and don't focus only on death, live in the space between the two and you'll live the most meaningful life. Have a wonderful day. Please stay to complete all of Sefer Tehillim. We have a lot to daven for, if you follow the news today, got a lot to daven for. Please stay, everyone takes a few Tehillim, we can complete all of Sefer Tehillim.
