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0:00 Dear friends, welcome to this week's virtual drashah of the week. We have the incomparable parashah parashat Korach, and in it we read of the dramatic rebellion of Korach against Moshe Rabbeinu. Korach assembles a group of people, 250 other followers, but again, many others joined in in this rebellion as well. And it wasn't just a rebellion against Moshe Rabbeinu. It was really, like most of the rebellions of Klal Yisrael, a rebellion against Hakadosh 0:22 Baruch Hu Himself. Korach comes forward with one simple agenda. Kolanu kedoshim, we're all holy. We're all holy. At the end of the day, who said that you're holier? Who said that you're more special, Moshe Rabbeinu? Who said that you should rule over us? Really deeper, Korach felt that Moshe Rabbeinu had engaged in a power grab, making his brother Aaron the high priest, the kohen gadol, making himself the leader, the navi, the melech. And of course, Rashi 0:46 explains that Korach himself felt passed over for a promotion. He felt that he should have been the leader of his particular tribal family, and he felt passed over for that. But in any event, Korach comes to Moshe Rabbeinu, and he launches a multi-layer rebellion. Before he really goes after Moshe, he really goes after the rulings of Moshe Rabbeinu. And he says, he tries to create a construct where Moshe Rabbeinu is simply making stuff up. And once you 1:10 could prove that Moshe Rabbeinu is making stuff up, it legitimizes the leadership platform of Moshe Rabbeinu. The Midrash says something amazing. V'chein amar lo, so Korach comes to Moshe and he says the following. Talit shekulah k'negel tzitzit, tzitzit k'negel talit. Tell me, Moshe, there's a mitzvah of tzitzit. The mitzvah of tzitzit says that when you have tzitzit, tzitzit are the ritual fringes that we wear on the four corners of our garments. And the Torah says you're supposed to make one of those 1:34 strings tzitzit, the special dye, special blue dye that comes from a unique aquatic creature. The Gemara Menachot explains that tzitzit domeh l'yam, that tzitzit is supposed to remind us of the sea. Yam domeh l'rakia, the sea resembles the heavens. Rakia domeh l'kisei hakavod, and the heavens resemble the throne of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's glory. So the The of the tzitzit is to remind us of the Rebono Shel Olam. 1:57 So, Korach says he comes to us with a very simple question. He says, "Moshe, let me ask you this question. What happens if you have a tallis where the entire cloak is made of techeiles? Do you still have to go ahead and put one string of techeiles or not?" Omrim lo Moshe, "Him. Of course, that's the mitzvah. The mitzvah is that one of the strings of the tzitzis should be techeiles." Omrim lo Korach, "Kol eiloh hadvorim she 2:20 ato omer midascha heim." Korach says, "Moshe, you are literally making this stuff up. It doesn't make any sense." "Elo chutz shel techeiles poter. V'im atzitzis kullo techeiles lo yotzei v'yado." If normally one string of techeiles is enough to exempt the entire garment, if the entire garment is made of techeiles, that's not enough? You still need a string? It's Moshe Rabbeinu, that doesn't make "Elo divrei 2:44 Elo ein divrei Elo divrei shkorim." Very strong words. So, Korach says to Moshe, "You're a liar. You're a liar. You're simply making this stuff up because what you're saying is totally illogical and nonsensical." What does Korach do? The Medrash goes on. 3:00 "Korach might miyad maaseh Korach tzivah v'asarah tzitzis." So, Korach makes 250 tallisim, tallisos, 250 cloaks, each of them made fully of techeiles. The tzitzis on each of these cloaks didn't have techeiles. He brings these 250 men, comes to Moshe Rabbeinu, and now in a public setting says to Moshe, "What is the halacha? Quite So, what what is the 3:25 halacha, Moshe?" [clears throat] So, you have to imagine this scene. The Medrash says, "Baboker hishkimu v'yalchu l'veit midrasho shel Moshe." In the morning, they came, they appeared to Moshe Rabbeinu. They came to his beit midrash, whatever that Wherever that was, they came to his beit midrash, and they say, "Moshe, we're all wearing cloaks that are fully made of techeiles. Tell us, Moshe, do we still need to have one string that is of techeiles?" And Moshe 3:47 Rabbeinu says, "Yes." "Yes." To which again Korach and now all of his followers say, "Ain Elo divrei haBorei ela divrei Moshe. You're making it up. It's not the words of God. Dein divrei bados. You're lying." So, they essentially call Moshe Rabbeinu a liar and everything centers on this mitzvah of tzitzit. Now, that happens to be the midrash brings out other examples of things that Korach did, but the tzitzit 4:12 motif keeps on happening over and over and over. Korach comes with a tallis that is all techeiles. Does it still need a string of techeiles? Moshe says, "Yes." And Korach says, "You see this sheer illogicality of what you're saying is indicative of the fact that you're making this stuff up and you have seized the reins of leadership for what you want for your own personal agenda, your own personal purposes. You're not an appointee of God and therefore again, 4:37 this calls the whole leadership construct into question." The Shem Mishmuel Sfas Emes haRabba asks a very simple question. He says, "Bisara l'havin mifnei mah chalak davka mitzvas tzitzis?" Why why tzitzit? In other words, let let's be honest. There's a lot of things in Yiddishkeit that don't appear to be logical. A lot of things, right? 4:58 So, why this? And by the way, tzitzit is I don't I don't think that tzitzit is a mitzvah that keeps us up at night. I think that there's a lot of things when you when you do a deep dive into Yiddishkeit and we know of course we accept and we embrace all of it, but definitely part of our religion is doing things that may not be logical or may not feel I shouldn't say may not feel logical or may not appeal to our human logic. So, ask the Shem Mishmuel, "Korach, come on, you could do better 5:22 than that. Why are you bringing up tzitzit?" And the Shem Mishmuel gives a beautiful answer. He explains, he says, "K'shem she'tallit she'kula techeiles has svar nosein al sh'eilas tzitzis." The always Korach's logic. Korach's logic was like this. Techeiles obviously is a very holy color. So, Korach's logic was that a garment that is full techeiles should not need one string of techeiles. If the garment is 5:44 already holy, then you don't need the one string. The metaphor, of course, being the garment representing the collective, the string representing the leader. If the garment is all holy, like all of us, or the garment the gar- the garment is all trailers, it's all holy, then you don't need a string of trailers. Then we don't need a Mosha Rabenu. So, Korach's whole point was if the nation is kulam kidoshim, if the 6:06 nation is all holy, I don't need a Mosha Rabenu. We don't need a our leader. All of Klal Yisrael's fit, all of us could communicate with God, all of us can have that direct connection. We don't need a Mosha Rabenu. Just like the tallis that's all trailers, ultimately again shouldn't need one string of trailers, so too all of Klal Yisrael, which is holy, Mosha, we love you, well, we don't really love you, but we certainly do not 6:30 need you. Shem Mishmuel. Perhaps there's something deeper happening over here. There is something very unique about the mitzvah of tzitzis. If we look about how tzitzis is framed in the Torah, the Torah says, this is in Devarim. Torah says, lo silbash shaatnez tzemer u'fishtim yaḥdav. Torah introduces the mitzvah of shaatnez. Mitzvah of shaatnez says you cannot wear wool and linen together. 6:52 Interestingly enough, what follows that pasuk? Gedilim ta'aseh lakh al arba kanfot kesutekha asher tekaseh bah. Right after the prohibition of shaatnez, Torah introduces the mitzvah of tzitzis. Right? Literally, make fringes for yourself on the four corners of your garment. And the Gemara in Maseches Nazir, daf mem alef on base, 41b, notes the juxtaposition. What's the shant? Why 7:15 does the Torah go ahead and juxtapose the mitzvah of tzitzis to the mitzvah of shaatnez? Essentially, the Gemara tells us why? Because although there is a mitzvah of shaatnez, a prohibition of shaatnez, there is one mitzvah which trumps shaatnez. And what's that? 7:30 Tzitzis. That if you want to make tzitzis a woolen garment and linen strings, you have the ability to do that. Right? That tzitzis has the ability to defer, right? To trump the mitzvah of shaatnez. And in fact, the Gemara says, listen to this, what is this called? This is called assei assei v'docheh lo sa'aseh. This becomes a very important halachic construct that a positive mitzvah could set aside a 7:55 prohibition. And there are many different examples of this, but tzitzis is the paradigmatic example, the assei, the positive commandment of tzitzis overrides the prohibition of shatnez, hence the juxtaposition. You can't wear shatnez, but tzitzis can be made of shatnez because the assei, the positive commandment of tzitzis, ultimately again defers the prohibition of shatnez. Assei 8:19 docheh lo sa'aseh. And the Seforim bring down something so beautiful. They say this concept of assei docheh lo sa'aseh is not just a halachic construct, that literally a positive commandment could go ahead and set aside a prohibition. But the Seforim explain something so beautiful, that asseis and lo sa'asehs represent kind of two different buckets of life. 8:40 >> [snorts] >> The asseis represent the positive commandments, so to speak, represent the things that are going well. Right? Things that are going well, things that are going according to plan, things that baruch Hashem are just good, beautiful, whole, intact. The lo sa'aseh, the prohibition, that represents all the things in life that are broken, all the things in life that are misfiring, all the things in life that 9:01 are simply off the rails. And the Seforim explain that at any given moment in life, every Yid, every Jew, has asseis and lo sa'asehs. There are the things that are going right and there are things that are not going right. There are things that I'm happy about and there are things that I'm just like so so broken, so broken, so overwhelmed, so saddened by. 9:24 But the essence of life, the the whole nekudah, the whole the whole essence of successful living, is what do you allow to define the the of your life? What do you allow to define your personalistic human condition? 9:41 When you look at your life, what do you see? Do you see all the stuff that's broken, all the stuff that's in a state of disrepair? To the exclusion of all of your brochos? Or are you able to see the beautiful things in life without not that the beautiful things, the good things, the intact things make the broken things go away, but essentially what frames your life perspective? Is it your says or 10:03 your low says? The stuff that's whole or the stuff that's broken? The blessings or the curses? The stuff that's good or the stuff that's bad? Every single one of us in any given moment of life has both of these life buckets, but which bucket defines your perspective? That is the fundamental million-dollar question of the human condition. 10:25 And in fact, the Sorum says so beautifully, what does the Gemara tell us? What do the Chazal tell us? Osi ase v'docheh lo sase. Successful living is all about allowing your personalistic ases to set aside, to move aside, to peripheralize your low sases. 10:44 How do you define your life perspective? By what's broken or by what's good? And so much of successful living is allow allowing the good, the whole, the beautiful, the meaningful parts of your life to take dominant center stage and to push the low sases, to push the negative stuff, the broken stuff to the side. It's there. It's there, of course it's there. I'm not ignoring it, and I have to deal with it, but I don't have 11:09 to allow the stuff that's broken to be the dominant feature and fixture of my life, to determine my perspective. And this is the greatest challenge of the human condition. On any given day, there's problems, and you could allow your problems to overwhelm you, and you could allow allow your problems to determine literally again you the glasses through which you see the entire world, and the sky is falling everything, or you could say, "Okay, I've got these problems and they're 11:32 significant and they're meaningful. And yes, I can't ignore them. They're not going to go. I have to deal with them. But that doesn't define my life. What defines my life are the asays. What defines my life are the brochos, the beautiful brochos that all too often I do not take inventory of. That all too often I'm not attentive enough because I'm so hyper-focused on the stuff that's broken. I'm so hyper-focused on the low asays that I forget all of the beautiful 11:55 asays. And dear friends, herein lies Korach's problem. At the end of the day, what was Korach's rebellion about? Korach, Rashi says, was passed over for a promotion. He felt, as we said before, that he should have been the leader of his family. He didn't get it. He didn't get the job. He didn't get the job for whatever the reason. He might He wasn't the most qualified. Wasn't the most qualified. He didn't get the job. 12:19 Korach, there's one piece of your life that you're unhappy with. Korach was a big tzaddik. Korach was wealthy. Korach was influential. What Korach had a family. He had a wife. He had kids. What do you want? What what Look at all of those brochos. Tzaddik, wealthy, wife, kids. 12:38 What more do Okay, I got it. You didn't get the job. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I know it hurts. You got passed over. But you That's how you're going to define your life? And the answer is yes. And that's why perhaps Korach's whole rebellion was focused on tzitzis. 12:55 Because the irony the irony is that Korach was trying to discredit Moshe through the one mitzvah that could have saved Korach. Because the entire hashkafa of tzitzis is a see a say v'do chalo say. 13:10 Allow the positive to go ahead and set aside the negative. Allow the things that you have in life to determine your perspective and don't hyper-focus on the things that are broken. But Korach didn't get it. That's the irony. He keeps coming for Moshe Rabbeinu first with his own tzitzis. Then he gets 250 people with tzitzis and the irony of the tragic irony is that the hashkafa of the one mitzvah that could have saved him, 13:35 he was just blind to it. Korah chose to determine the totality of his existence by the one thing that wasn't working and ignored all of the beautiful brachas that he had. That was Korah's failure. That was Korah's downfall. The one mitzvah of tzitzis which could have saved him became the very source of his undoing. 13:54 And in but the mitzvah of the hashkafa so important for us, us it's like a bumper sticker. Osei asay v'docha lo sasei. On any given day, on any given day there's so much stuff that's broken. On any given day there are so many things that are in a state of disrepair. 14:11 But on any given day there's also a lot of bracha. Which one do you determine? Which one do you allow to determine your outlook on life? There's a beautiful quote by Victor Frankl. Victor Frankl in his book Man's Search for Meaning writes, "Everything can be taken from you but one thing, the last of human freedoms, to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's 14:36 way. Each moment is a choice." Or said a little bit differently, osei asay v'docha lo sasei. Korah did not have the koach to frame his life through the right lens of perspective. May we be zocheh m'heira b'shana not just wear tzitzis on our bodies, but to carry the mitzvah of tzitzis in our heart and in our soul. 14:57 And to recognize that although there may be many things which are broken, there's so much good, there's so much beauty, and let's allow that to define our perspective in the time ahead. Wishing everyone a good night of Shabbos and a beautiful Shabbos Kodesh.
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