Korach

This week’s parsha relates the story of Korach and his followers who rebel against Moshe and Hashem. In his quest for honor, Korach, who felt slighted, gathered a group together, instigating the people against Moshe and Aaron. Moshe prepared a test requiring all two hundred and fifty people, as well as Korach and Aaron, to offer the ketores. Whichever one that Hashem chose would be the true leader. Hashem chooses Aaron, while Korach and all his followers are swallowed up into the ground in an unprecedented punishment. Eliezer then takes the pans that the rebels had used to offer the ketores, and makes them into thin sheets of copper to use as a covering for the mizbaiach, an everlasting reminder of this event. 

The posuk continues: ולא יהיה כקרח וכעדתו, and he shall not be like Korach and his followers. The Gemara views this as an independent negative commandment; learning from these words that anyone who maintains a quarrel transgresses this commandment of not being like Korach and his followers.

There is a story that happened at the time of the first world war. There was a very respectable man who had a very precious coin, a golden Napoleon, that was worth a fortune in those days. He kept it hidden behind his sefarim in the bookshelf. One Erev Pesach, they were cleaning the house and took the sefarim off the shelf to clean. His young son found the gold coin and, not knowing its value, ran to the candy store and came back with a handful of candy.

When this man came home and saw all the sefarim outside, he immediately remembered the coin he had hidden and went to get it. When he couldn't find it, he was obviously very upset wondering out where it could have gone. As he looked around, he saw that his young son had handfuls of candy. When asked where he got the candy, he said he had found a coin on the shelves, went to the candy store and got candy for his coin. 

Immediately, the man went to the candy store to ask the owner if he had the expensive coin. However, he responded, “No, the kid came in here to buy candy but all he had was a copper coin worth almost nothing.” The other man and his friends said, “You're lying, the kid said he took the coin from the shelf. The only coin there was the gold Napoleon, you're trying to steal it.” The store owner said, “No way; he came here with a copper coin.” This went back and forth with more and more people taking sides. Unable to resolve the situation, they went to bais din which ruled that the store owner had to swear that he didn't get the gold coin or pay it back. Now, this storekeeper had a tradition never to swear, so he said, “I have never sworn for anything in my life and I won't start now; I will pay it back even though I didn't take it.” It took him a year but he managed to pay it all to the other person. However, people in town took his refusal to swear as an admission of guilt. They talked bad about him, stopped coming into his store and his income tumbled. He was even embarrassed to walk the streets.

A number of years later, the father of the boy received a letter from America stating: “A number of years ago, I was walking past your house where I saw your son outside playing with a gold coin. I was in a very bad situation then, so I thought to myself, if these people have so much money that the kids can play with gold coins, they probably wouldn't mind if I borrowed it. I gave the kid a copper coin and sent him to the candy store. I took the gold coin as a loan and now I'm repaying it back to you. I hope you can forgive me.

There are numerous lessons to learn from this story. The ציצים הפרחים said that, when one of the elders of Yerushalaim repeated this story, he concluded as follows: all the principles in the story have some saving grace; the storekeeper, who refused to swear, suffered embarrassment and loss of income but will gain in the world to come. The father, who suspected him, judged by what he saw; who could have fathomed that someone else took the coin? The bais din had the same excuse as the father.  Even the man who took the coin was able to rationalize in his head that it was just a loan, never dreaming what would happen because of him. So, who does the blame lie with? The answer is all the people who took sides, the people who couldn't stop talking about it, the people who had to get involved in a fight that had nothing to do with them, the ones that embarrassed and tormented the shopkeeper. This is what the Torah is trying to tell us. Don't be like Korach and his followers to strengthen arguments, just to add fuel to the fire. This is an independent negative commandment, to teach us how far we have to stay away from strife!