Dvar Torah for Parshat Korach

Based on Likutey Halakhot, Hilkhot Devarim Hayotzim Min Hachai, 4:50

"Korach was such an intelligent person. How could he have made such a colossal blunder [and rebel against Moshe]?" This is the question that our Sages pose (Midrash Tanchuma; Rashi, Numbers 16:7). They answer that he misinterpreted the information that he had. Korach knew prophetically that he would have extremely great descendants. The prophet Samuel, equal in stature to Moshe and Aharon, was one of them. Korach reasoned that the merit and service of his future offspring were so great that it had be he that would prevail in the rebellion.

What was it that Korach failed to include in his equation? Korach's mistake was in thinking that G-d had to agree to Korach's plan because G-d was going to make him the ancestor of all those great tzadikkim. Korach didn't know that sometimes evil people can beget good ones. For even though the forces of evil occasionally limit the Jewish potential for expressing holiness to such a degree that few, if any, mitzvot get done, the good will out.

Rebbe Nachman writes (Likutey Moharan I, Lesson 17) that this potential good/holiness which has been the focus of these villians ultimately gets transmitted to their offspring. One such example is Haman. He was totally devoted to implementing his version of the Final Solution, which failed, thank G-d. The Talmud tells us that Haman's descendants learned Torah in Bnei Brak! Was Haman rewarded for that? Quite the opposite.

For who one's offspring will be, their future greatness and their genealogy, is G-d's tikkun, what G-d does Himself, to bring the world to it's ultimate state of perfection. Our role in bringing that about is to have faith in G-d, His Torah and His tzaddikim, and to do our best to keep the mitzvot. Who, or what, will result is G-d's affair. We cannot justify or reconcile our behavior based on what we think will be. G-d in His infinite wisdom can bring about any result He desires with, or without, our co-operation. It's better for us to co-operate. Ask Korach.