Parshas
Korach - The “gifted”
Leader
Transcribed
and translated from previous recordings of
HaRav
Eliezer Berland Shlit”a
“The man
Moshe was very humble, more than any other person on the face of the earth”
Korach was given an important task from heaven. Hashem made him a gifted
speaker in order to unify and strengthen the nation and restore their belief in
Moshe Rabbeinu. Korach knew very well who Moshe Rabbeinu was. He just couldn’t
overcome his own jealousy and hatred. Korach was supposed to unify the people
so that they would believe in Moshe Rabbeinu and to include each soul in the
general soul of Israel. To be included within the general soul of Israel one
must consider himself on a lower level than everyone else. When can a person
become included in Klal Yisrael? “When I know that I am on a lower level than
everyone else. I am on the bottom. There is no one lower than me.” This is the
level of humility that Moshe Rabbeinu merited having, as it is said about him,
“The man Moshe was very humble, more than any other person on the face of the
earth” (Bamidbar 12:3). If Korach had been successful in uniting all of Israel
and bringing them to Moshe Rabbeinu, then he would have been able to rise up to
lofty levels and he would have brought the entire nation of Israel to these
lofty levels.
For the nation already had lost their connection with Moshe
Rabbeinu who was going around with his face covered, hiding himself. Slowly,
the nation began to forget: “far from the eyes—far from the heart”. Whatever a
person doesn’t see, he forgets about. When a person is in the physical world,
inside a body, he doesn’t see things. Reb Natan says that Korach’s job was to
bring the nation back to their faith in Moshe Rabbeinu and to bring them out of
their state of forgetfulness. But Korach didn’t accomplish this mission because
of his arrogance and conceit and his desire to rule. The holy book “Asara
Maamaros” explains that Korach was fitting to be the leader of the nation
of Israel. As Chazal state everyone saw Korach flying in the air. Korach, with
all his family and with all his brothers, flew through the air because they
were the ones who carried the ark, and “the ark lifted up those who carried
it.” If Korach was carried in the air, then wouldn’t Moshe also have been carried
in the air? Certainly! But Moshe hid his level. Moshe walked on the earth.
Moshe was the “exception” and walked with his legs, slowly, using a walking
stick. So everyone ran after Korach. Are people running after you?
Wonderful—excellent! Use this for good and tell everyone about the greatness of
Moshe Rabbeinu—the Moshe Rabbeinu who walks on the earth—he is truly something
else. Moshe Rabbeinu hides who he is! If Moshe can cause Korach to fly, then
certainly he can fly himself. Moshe Rabbeinu wanted to get all Am Yisrael to
the level of “flying in the air with the holy ark”, to make it that all of Am
Yisrael would travel on “eagle’s wings”.
Korach made a mistake: he thought that Moshe was just extremely
talented. Everyone saw that Moshe had been gifted with a lot of abilities. So,
Korach figured he would work on attaining all of these talents and then he
would also have all of these abilities. Apart from his mistakenly thinking that
it was possible to achieve these abilities by learning them, he also made
another mistake: he thought that Moshe got his power from Am Yisrael. He didn’t
understand that it was Moshe’s own power that was influencing Am Yisrael, that Moshe
himself was equal to all of Am Yisrael, and as Chazal say, he was the root of
all of the souls of Israel. He thought that the leader got his power from the
nation, so the more chassidim a person had, the more followers he had, the more
revered he was, the more power he would receive from the people. He thought
that a leader’s energy and power to influence and speak was a product of how many
followers he had. So he thought that Moshe got his power from the people and
not that Moshe was the source of all the souls and that each and every soul was
a spark of Moshe Rabbeinu. Korach said, “I’ll take the whole nation to my side.
If Moshe’s power comes from the nation, then I will assemble the nation and I
will gather the entire nation for myself, I will receive the power myself, and
with this power I will lead the nation. I will do miracles and wonders and will
rise up to Heaven.”
Reb Natan says that Moshe was not someone who had worked on himself,
developed his abilities and traits; rather, he was handicapped and unable to
speak well “heavy mouth and heavy tongue”. He wasn’t a talented
speaker and didn’t have the power of persuasion, it was even hard to understand
him when he spoke. So what was Moshe’s outstanding trait? It was that he humble
to the extent that he was absolutely nothing! Moshe was completely encompassed
in the light of Ain Sof. He had totally merged with Hashem. He was not a
part of existence. He didn’t have any existence. He didn’t have any
concealment. He didn’t have any personal feelings. He did everything for Heaven’s
sake—only for Hashem Yisborach. So this is why Hashem chose him to be
the leader of Am Yisrael who would take Am Yisrael out of Egypt, who would
bring the ten plagues on Pharaoh in Egypt, who would bring the Clouds of Glory,
and who would bring down the Torah from heaven. It was because he was
completely nothing in and of himself, and he didn’t have any talents or
abilities of his own. He didn’t get his power from Am Yisrael, but rather,
Moshe’s power came only from Hashem Yisborach Himself—because he was
nothing. A person cannot imitate ayin “nothingness”. You can
imitate an orator. You can imitate a preacher. You can imitate being some kind
of leader…
Reb Natan says that this level of ayin—nothingness can come only
through cancelling oneself to Moshe: believing that Moshe is something
altogether different, the likes of which we cannot conceive. It is above our
understanding, and above our grasp. It is not a matter of abilities or being a
gifted speaker or anything else. Moshe didn’t bring down the Clouds of Glory
through his oratory skills, and he didn’t bring Israel out of Egypt with verbal
eloquence. He did not have a talent for leadership, he was not a gifted leader.
He was a leader because he was “nothing”. He considered himself a complete
non-entity. His own will did not exist. This is what Rab Natan says: this is
where Korach went wrong: because of his jealousy and his desire for honor,
Hashem covered his eyes from seeing who Moshe was, because Moshe was completely
nothing and no one could be on this level of being nothing other than Moshe, “humble,
more than any other person on the face of the earth”. In all generations, to be
nothing a person needs to cancel himself to Moshe and receive it from Moshe
himself.
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If someone has the issue of thinking too large of himself, does rav has any suggestions on what to read or pray to realise more humility?
ReplyDeleteRebbe Nachman suggests Hisbodedus, secluded meditation in the fields for at least an hour a day in which a person speaks like a child before his creator.
ReplyDeleteToda raba
ReplyDelete