Parshat Korach In Memory of Shimshon Ben Shalom

As well, view the Rashi below -

And behold, the main claim Korach had on Moses was that he was self appointing himself king and his brother Aaron as priest. As we see regarding what Moses said unto Korach -

And there is room for us to be shocked by Korach, as he was a very great man! It is also brought down in the name of the Holy Arizal, may he be remembered for eternal life - that the name of Korach is hinted to in the last letters of the following phrase from Psalms, talking about righteousness.

צַ֭דִּיק כַּתָּמָ֣ר יִפְרָ֑ח - "The righteous bloom like a date tree"

Which is a hint to the future to come in the Messianic days, Korach will be in a very elevated position. If thats so, how can it be that such a great man can't see that Moses our Teacher is simply following the orders of HaShem. And if we want to suggest that Korach made a mistake, we will have to then understand what caused him to make such an error. As well, the people that stood with Korach we have to wonder about as well. How could it be that such great men as these leaders of the Tribes, with important titles on their names, were not afraid to go against Moses?

And in the Medrash we are taught - "What did Korach see that led him to go against Moses? He saw the teachings of the Red Heffer" And this teaching is a wonder to us, however we will explain this matter firstly by looking in the Torah -

And regarding Moses's humility, we also see the below verse -

And similarly it says -

And the Talmud as well speaks of Moses's humility that it was more than Abrahams! -

And herein is the mistake of Korach. He thought to himself, how could it be that a man who is this humble, more than any other human, to accept upon himself a position of Kingship and to lead the people, because if he really was so humble, he would look at all other men as greater and better than him, so how could he lead those people?

But in reality, this isn't a strong claim that Korach has, as we have explained the true nature of humility which we will see now, based on the letter from the Holy Rabbi, Rebbe Avraham the Angel, may his soul be remembered for eternal life that was sent to the Holy Rabbi Rebbe Zusha M'anipoli, may his soul be remembered for eternal life, and this is his holy language used -

"I have great wonder over this righteous man, as myself and Rebbe Zalmina heard from the holy mouth of my master, father, teacher, and Rabbi - "You should know that you are a nothing, but at the same time you are not small, just the opposite, you are great at the same time, based on the path of "His heart was elevated in the ways of HaShem""

And I had written there, that a person, when viewing himself, should consider himself zero and nothing, however, regarding his soul, which is carved from The Creator above, he is elevated to no end - and this is the meaning of the above, you are nothing, and at the same time very great! Because if you consider the soul of a human, it is extremely elevated, and in particular the souls of the righteous who are on an exalted level of the highest.

Based on this, its possible to say, that certainly Moses our teacher, literally saw himself as a zero and nothing, and in the aspect we mentioned above, as he knew that regarding the physical side of mankind is in truth nothingness, however, regarding the soul, and as well in regards to the honor of HaShem and showing the nation His pathways and the loftiness of the soul, Moses would know that certainly on these matters there is no relevance for humility. As the side of him that contains a piece of Divinity within him, Moses was the highest of the highest in the aspect of "His heart was elevated in the ways of HaShem" And in the regard it is very fitting for him to be able to lead the people!

And on the path of thought, we can shed light with what we see with Rabenu HaKadosh, who commanded his son -

Rabenu was able to give this instruction, even though he was extremely humble, as we can see below -

With all of this, we see it's not a contradiction to be super humble and a leader at the same time. As in areas that deal with the honor of HaShem, and to lead the people of the generation, and to guide them on the path of the straight, These are simply matters of the soul, which is of the highest of the high. So therefor, it is certainly in their hands to lead the nation in an elevated manner.

And what caused Korach to come to this error? We will explain by prefacing what was said by the Holy Rabbi of Ruzin, may he be remembered for eternal life, on his explanation of the above Rashi when Korach is telling Moses that he took too much upon himself trying to be a King over the people, that Korach, your eyes are in error.

Which means that all humans must see things with two eyes, with one eye you should see the greatness of HaShem, and with the other, you should see your lowly status.. and Moses had said "For we are nothing", teaching us he also saw the lowliness of the self, which is not the case with Korach! As Korach only saw things with one eye, which is just the greatness of HaShem, which is why Korach claimed that the whole nation is Holy amongst the congregants of HaShem! But with his second eye he erred, and since he did not see his own lowly state, we see that he was totally unaware that a man can be so humble and leveled when viewing themselves, and only that someone is lofty and great in regard to his soul. Therefor, he erred and said to Moses that you took on too much.

And this is the meaning of when Korach says 'To much for you', implying that you are doing this thing of leading, for your benefit and your pleasure! He was suggesting that Moses and Aaron were just out there to search for honor, and this is where Rashi comes and says that Korach was suggesting that they were taking this position for themselves, and this greatness you are holding, you are doing it for you and not for HaShem.

And based on this, the Midrash that we initially discussed above comes to explain can be understood - "What did Korach see that led him to go against Moses? He saw the teachings of the Red Heffer" And we will explain this by first looking at the famous song from The Poet -

'To make pure those that are impure, and to make impure those that are pure who say Holy'

This comes to teach us that the purity brought on by the Red Heffer only works on and effects someone with a broken heart, and who sees himself as lowly, as HaShem dwells within the blunted, as well, and dwells amongst the people in their impurity, as its written -

And as it is explained in the Holy writings of the Noam Elimelech based on the below verse in the book of Job -

This is saying, that he will make himself pure via making himself impure. As he is saying to himself that he is lacking in the service of HaShem, he then makes himself impure.. however, someone who says he is great and holy and lofty, then the Red Heffer for that person will make him impure.

And this is the explanation of 'making pure those that are impure', meaning that Hashem makes pure those that hold themselves to be lowly and impure, but at the same time HaShem is 'making impure those that are pure and say they are holy', which means that those that have an ego and see themselves as highly, they become impure!

And behold, based on our words, that this was the error of Korach that understood that Moses was out there searching for honor, and he brought himself a proof from the Red Heffer, which makes impure those that are pure, regarding those that say unto themselves that they are holy. Therefor, since Moses was elevated to lead the people of HaShem, he should be unfit to lead the people of Israel! And this is the meaning of what did Korach see to go against Moses, he saw the Red Heffer, and this should settle everything for us as correct, with the help of Hashem, the blessed.