ON BEING AND DOING

Parashat Korach
Tammuz 3, 5782 / July 1-2, 2022
Torah: Numbers 16:1 - 18:32
Haftarah: 1 Samuel 11:14 - 12:22
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This d'var torah is offered in honor of Rabbi Jason Van Leeuwen and Gwen Wexler, who are marrying this Sunday. Mazal tov!

This d'var torah is offered in honor of Isaiah Dell, celebrating his bar mitzvah this Shabbat. Mazal tov!
 
This d'var torah is offered in honor of L.E. Saba and her son Mason, who this week joined the Jewish people! B'rukhim ha'baim! Mazal tov!

This d'var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah for Chanah Bella bat Kreina, Feigel bat Kreina, and D'vorah bat Feigel.
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Lunch and Learn  meets Tuesdays at 12:30 PM on Zoom and Facebook Live. We're continuing to read and discuss the Midrashic collection Ein Ya’akov. On July 5, we'll be at Chapter 9 of BT Berakhot 60(b) - "...אמר ר״ה אמר רב משום רבי מאיר” - "R. Huna said in the name of Rab, who spoke in the name of R. Meier,..." The reading may be found at page 27 of my pagination: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TK74GI6tqBSDugLsQmHTYEAzPqDUJxS0/view?usp=sharing 
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Rabbi Van Leeuwen has a blog which you should read at: 
https://rebjasonblog.wordpress.com/blog/ 

Dr. Steve Pearlman writes up the "Midrashim of the Week", which you should read at: 
https://midrashsrp.wordpress.com   
 
Check out our wonderful community, and get lots of info about becoming a Chaver and our various programs, at: https://bnaihayim.org/ 

Please feel free to pass this on to a friend, and please cite the source.
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ON BEING AND DOING
 
"They gathered together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, 'It is too much for you! For all of the assembly - all of them - are holy, and the Lord is among them; why do you lord yourselves over the congregation of the Lord?'" (Numbers 16:3)
 
Korach and his fellow rebels offer this challenge to the leadership of Moses and Aaron. What makes them holier than everybody else? Korach seems to have a point. After all, God did say to all of the Israelites that "you will be holy for I, the Lord your God, am holy." (Leviticus 19:2) Even before the giving of the Torah at Sinai, God had told them, "You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy people." (Exodus 19:6)
 
The error that Korach and his followers make is that they didn't hear God as clearly as they thought. In the Exodus and Leviticus texts, God spoke in the future tense - "you will (or shall) be holy". It can be viewed as either a promise of future holiness, or as a commandment to become holy. How might holiness be accomplished? By observing God's commandments, of course.

Destruction of Korah Dathan and Abiram, illustration from the 1890 Holman Bible

 
Korach thinks that merely by being a Jew, he has done enough, he is holy. So it is with too many of us. We think that it is enough merely to be a Jew. As Korach fatally learns, to really be a Jew, to really achieve the holiness that God promises us, requires not passivity, but action - Jewish action. One can not simply "be" - one must “do".
 
There are many paths to the kind of holiness the Torah is talking about. One can kasher one's kitchen or attend prayer services more often or make Shabbat at home regularly. One might attend Jewish education classes or read more Jewish books. It certainly means taking responsibility for one’s actions (or inaction). But in Judaism, it is equally certain that mere belief is not enough. Deeds speak far louder than professions of faith.
 
Shabbat Shalom!
 
Rabbi Richard A. Flom - Rabbi Emeritus
Temple B'nai Hayim
Blogging at: http://rav-rich.blogspot.com/
Visit me on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/RabbiRichardFlom 
"שתיקה כהודאה דמיא"
"Silence in the face of wrongdoing is consent.”
BT Yevamot 88a
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