Thursday, June 23, 2011

Korach 5771

In this week's parsha, Korach stages a rebellion and tries to overthrow Moshe and Aharon. The parsha opens "And Korach took…" Korach "took" the people with lies and manipulation and persuaded 250 men to follow him. Moshe's reaction to this confrontation is revealing: "Moshe heard and fell on his face [in prayer.] He spoke to Korach and to all his company, saying, 'In the morning, the L-rd will make known who is His…'"

What can we learn from Moshe's response to confrontation? What is the deeper meaning of the wait for morning?

Instead of expressing anger and lashing out against his attackers, Moshe tries to reason with them. The Hebrew word for "morning" is boker. Rabbis Yisroel and Osher Anshel Jungreis note that boker is closely related to the Hebrew word bikoret, which means "to clarify" or "to investigate." They conclude that Moshe hopes his adversaries will "sleep on it" before they act – that they will examine their motivation and reconsider their evil plans. From this, we learn that we should not act rashly to counter our opponents. We should try to make peace by asking them to investigate, find clarity and hopefully they will abandon their opposition plans overnight.

As parents, we should take Moshe's approach to avoid strife and achieve reconciliation within our families. Instead of speaking in anger, instead of acting impetuously, instead of condemning, we should bite our tongues, swallow our false pride and fight our impulse to engage in altercation. The Talmud (Sanhedrin, 110A) proclaims: "Anyone who engages in divisiveness transgresses a Divine prohibition, as it is written [in this week's parsha]: 'And he shall not be as Korach and his company.'" Rather, we should emulate Moshe and do as the psalmist recommends: "Seek peace and pursue it."

No comments:

Post a Comment