Dvar Torah for Parshat Korach

Based on Likutey Moharan I, 72; Likutey Halakhot, Hilkhot Shiluach Hakein 4:8-11

Korach, the greatest member of the tribe of Levy, desired the position of kohen gadol (high priest). He fomented a rebellion against Moshe Rabbeinu (our teacher), by claiming that Moshe Rabbeinu had appointed his brother Aharon kohen gadol on his own initiative and not by divine fiat (as Moshe Rabbeinu claimed). Those who actively sided with Korach were punished when the earth opened up and swallowed them alive. (Numbers 16)

Does it ever end? The struggle against the yetzer hara (evil urge/inclination), does it ever end? Rebbe Nachman writes:

There are many, many levels of yetzer hara. Some people are coarse, physical types. Their yetzer hara is also coarse and physical. For the majority of people, the yetzer hara is their own hot-bloodedness.... In truth though, one with even a bit of daat (awareness) recognizes that such a [hot-blooded] yetzer hara is foolishness and insanity.... There is, however, a yetzer hara who is a holy angel.... One must overpower him. One needs very much to be saved from him. This yetzer hara is an aspect of gevurot/dinim (severities/judgments). One with daat has such a yetzer hara and must overcome it, to sweeten the judgments, so that everything will be totally good, for one who is aware of the Infinite knows that everything is good....

This information is crucial to understanding a number of baffling episodes in the Torah, such as the sin of the golden calf (Exodus 32) and the rebellion of Korach. The Jews after the revelation were no longer infected by the zuhamat hanachash (pollution of the Serpent), and they had had the highest level of prophecy possible and they still made a golden calf?! Yes, because no matter how high a level a person achieves, s/he is still accompanied by a matching evil inclination.

(In a similar vein the Rebbe once remarked: The world makes a mistake. They think that a groisa mensch (literally, a great person, i.e., a Torah sage and tzaddik) can't make a mistake. It's not so. Such a person can make a mistake. The mistake is a mistake and the groisa mensch is still a groisa mensch.)

So, no matter how high a level of awareness you will achieve, you will still have to struggle. If a person fails to realize this, as Korach did, s/he's in trouble, God forbid. Because the smug feeling of "I know what Judaism is about" leads one to think that there is no difference between him and Moshe Rabbeinu and Aharon HaKohen. And if so, why should Moshe Rabbeinu decide who should be the kohen gadol and who not, what is a mitzvah and what not?

This Korach-idik mistake is fatal, for this world and the next. It causes one to forget that God and the Torah are, in fact, infinite, ultimately beyond human comprehension. And because God is infinite, the struggle to do His will, to nullify your ego to Him, is endless. And because the Torah contains infinite wisdom we are all obligated to comply with its commands. For even Moshe Rabbeinu, who knew the kabalistic intentions and meditations of each mitzvah, knew that compared to God's infinite wisdom there was more, much more, to each mitzvah.

Korach had forgotten about the many who had fallen victim to the yetzer hara of the golden calf. He had forgotten that even those who did not succumb had to struggle tremendously in order to succeed. Even though each and every one of us is holy, we are not all on the same level. Though some of us may actually be great geniuses and saints, they should not compare themselves to Moshe Rabbeinu or Aharon HaKohen, for they don't even reach their toes!

May Hashem help us to struggle successfully against the yetzer hara and grow in humility. Amen!

agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!