This week’s parsha is all about how smart people do silly things.
Korach challenges Moshe Rabbeinu, challenges Moses’ leadership. The question that’s asked — and the Gemara and the Midrashim both talk about this — is that Korach was one of the wisest people around. So as a wise person, you gotta be pretty silly to do what he did. I mean, what were you thinking? You lived through all the miracles. You lived through everything that you saw. Moshe Rabbeinu is in charge supernaturally. Why would you challenge his leadership?
And what’s interesting is that his claim to Moshe Rabbeinu was not, “Hey, who put you in charge?” Because he knew who put him in charge. His claim was: the whole nation is holy — “כל העדה כלם קדשים” — why are you over the congregation of God? The whole Jewish nation is holy. Why are you over the nation of God?
It’s actually a claim, right? We don’t believe in Judaism in a pope. We don’t believe in a leader who is holier than anyone else. The leader himself wasn’t born holy. Moshe Rabbeinu was not holy by birth. Every person is holy. And that’s one of the reasons, by the way, that the world was not created with a nation. Avraham Avinu was not the first man, and Moshe Rabbeinu was not the first man.
So the question is: why? Why does that whole pre-Torah history exist? And the answer that Chazal give is that Adam HaRishon was created a single man for one very simple reason — so that no man should ever think he is better than the next man. It was by one man, so you can’t say “that man was my father and not yours.” Everyone descends from the same source, and therefore everyone is holy.
But when it comes to God giving out instructions, you can’t argue with what God wants. You can have your feelings. Korach says, “I wanna be in charge.” That’s very nice that you want to be in charge, and the funny thing is he might even have had the credentials to be a political or even a religious leader. But in terms of this specific role, God chose Moshe Rabbeinu. So it’s not about Moshe Rabbeinu being condescending to the rest of the nation. Not at all.
If you look at the history of Moshe Rabbeinu’s leadership, it was constant trouble. You think a president doesn’t have a life of his own? Can you imagine Moshe Rabbeinu in the desert? His life was not a walk in the park. So it wasn’t about pride. We know that Moshe Rabbeinu was the most modest man alive. It wasn’t about popularity, because Moshe Rabbeinu was not popular. From the beginning, when he came to Egypt and told the nation of Israel “I’m taking you out,” they wanted to stone him. He wasn’t popular. His family had no time. He wasn’t making money from it. There was nothing there except the job that God gave him.
But with some people, when they see someone with authority who’s taking charge and taking care of things, they’re jealous of them. They want that authority. They don’t understand what comes along with it — the trouble that comes along with that authority. Korach was looking at Moshe Rabbeinu and wanted the power, but he didn’t understand the responsibility. Who would ever really want to be in Moshe Rabbeinu’s shoes?
Even at the end of his days, Moshe Rabbeinu was punished because of the nation of Israel. His one wish, his one dream — he never asked anything from God, not money, not fame, nothing. His one request was to come into the Land of Israel, and that was taken away from him. In Sefer Devarim, in Deuteronomy, he says it was because of the misbehavior of Bnei Yisrael that he lost his ultimate dream. So what is there to be jealous of?
It wasn’t jealousy of Moshe Rabbeinu’s spiritual greatness. It was jealousy of his role. Korach wanted the power, wanted the fame, because it all looks good from down there. And we know Korach was wealthy and smart. He had it all. So the question to ask is: if you have it all — the money, the brains — what are you looking for?
And this brings us to a sad reality. Suicide, for example, happens at a much higher rate in the upper class than in the lower class. You have sports stars, rock stars, and they’re in depression. What else do they want? What are they looking for?
Why does that happen? Because money can make your life much more comfortable, absolutely. But it cannot make you happy. Happiness does not have to do with power or with money. People who have nothing — when they get a meal, their happiness reaches levels that those of us who are fortunate enough to always have meals can’t understand. A boy whose parents can’t afford anything, and they spend every last dime to buy the kid a bicycle — the ecstasy that kid feels, the joy, is through the roof. Those of us who can afford bicycles are like, “Yeah, it’s a bicycle. Big deal.”
The issue is that people just don’t understand that happiness is not connected to your physical possessions. Money, cars, apartments — they’re tools. They can make our lives comfortable. But if you’re putting the money first and putting your status first, if you look down upon someone who’s not as wealthy as you, you are in bad shape. Because you don’t understand that what we have in life is not who we are.
Look at Steve Jobs. How come they didn’t put “Creator of Apple” on his tombstone? Because people understood that’s not who he is. The money he made, yes. But the philanthropy he did — that was who he was. That’s who he wanted to be remembered for.
And Chazal say that if you’re ever weak and you don’t know what to do, think of the day you die. It sounds depressing, but it doesn’t have to be, because it puts you in check. What’s really important in life? What are you running after Moshe Rabbeinu’s status for?
Korach was a Levi. He had status. He was holding the vessels of the Tabernacle, the holy of holies. But it wasn’t good enough for him. He wanted more, because the status of being more in charge, of being more powerful — that’s what he was running after.
And the punishment for Korach was that the ground opened up and swallowed him and everyone who rebelled with him. What is that punishment? We’re all buried in the ground eventually. The point is to show that what you have in this life is just for this life. You’re not going to take it with you.
There’s a famous story — I can’t remember the family’s name, but if anyone knows it, please remind me. A very wealthy family. The father, about to pass away, wrote a will with two envelopes. He said do not open the second envelope until right before I’m buried. They open the first envelope — and it says: “I want to be buried in my socks.”
Now in Judaism, you’re not buried in anything. You’re buried in a shroud, because you’re not taking anything to the next world. The family wanted him buried in his socks, but the rabbi said he can’t be buried in anything. So they buried him without his socks. Then they opened the second envelope, and he wrote to his children: “Look, children, I made a lot of money in this world. But at the end of the day, I couldn’t even be buried in my socks.”
The goal is to keep your eye on the ball.
You know, originally the Cheit HaEgel — the sin of the Golden Calf — the Jews gave gold and silver to make an idol. They made a mistake. They thought they were doing something good. Now we have the other case. Korach didn’t make an idol out of his gold. He turned his gold into the idol. There was no shape, no form — he turned his power and his money into the idol itself. That was the mistake he made.
So what can we learn from this week’s parsha? First of all, “איזהו עשיר? השמח בחלקו” — who is a rich person? The person who is happy with what he has. Be happy with what you have. Really be happy. Appreciate what you have. You wake up in the morning, you take a breath — say, “Thank God I’m breathing.”
If you want to feel more appreciative for life, go do kindness. Go to the hospitals. Visit the oncology ward, visit the wards where people can’t eat or drink or go to the bathroom. And the next time you eat and drink and go to the bathroom, you’ll understand what we’re making a blessing about. It’s all about appreciating life.
Nothing is wrong with being very comfortable and very wealthy. There is no commandment to live poorly. But never lose focus on what that money is for, what you’re doing with it, and how we should be living that life.
What do you want your children to remember? That you made $50 billion? Or what you did with it?
That’s where Korach made his mistake. He had it all, but he turned what he had into the object of his desire — and lost everything.
Shabbat shalom.