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שבת שלום - פרשת קרח

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Click play to watch the video shiur by Rav Meir Goldvitch

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The entire yeshiva wishes a big mazal tov to Moshe and Frayda Breitowitz on the birth of Avigyil Shana on Tuesday. Shetizku l'gadla l'Torah ul'ben Torah ul'chupah ul'maasim tovim!

Parsha Insights
By Rabbi Pesach Wolicki

After Korach and the members of his rebellious faction are punished, the people complain to Moshe and Aharon. "You have killed the nation of G-d." (Vayikra 17:6)

The people were frightened. Numerous times the people have witnessed swift and severe punishment from G-d. This time, it appears that the deaths of the rebellious men was orchestrated by Moshe himself.

It was Moshe - and not G-d - who decided to submit the 250 members of the faction to the test involving the incense. Each man was to take a fire-pan with incense. The one whom G-d would choose would be clear. All of the others were killed by a fire that came down from heaven.

The people remembered well the episode involving the two sons of Aharon. During the inauguration of the Mishkan, they chose of their own accord to bring an incense offering. They, too, were killed by a fire from heaven.

G-d's reaction to their complaint is swift and harsh.

"G-d said to Moshe and Aharon: 'Go up from amidst this congregation and I will destroy them instantaneously." (Vayikra 17:9)

Immediately, people begin to die. Moshe commands Aharon to take incense in a fire-pan and to run out to the people and "atone for them." ( 17:11 ) Aharon did as Moshe commanded him and the plague ceased.

Imagine the scene. People are dying by the thousand. Amidst all of the mayhem and terror, Aharon is coming through the camp with a pan of incense. The people must have been terrified. After all, it was incense that - as they saw it - killed the rebellious faction.

"And Aharon took - as Moshe spoke - and he ran into the midst of the congregation. Behold the plague had begun within the nation. He placed the incense and atoned for the nation. He stood between the dead and the living and the plague stopped." (17:12-13)

Why did G-d want to kill the people? Why did Moshe tell Aharon to "atone" for the people with incense?

Incense represents intimacy with G-d. The Talmud refers to the incense as "davar shbechashai" - a private, intimate matter. The quintessential moment of intimacy with G-d is the bringing of the incense into the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur. In fact, every day nobody was allowed to be in the Temple while the incense was brought to the altar in the Holy.

Our relationship with G-d must be only on G-d's terms. This is true in human relationships as well. We cannot decide how close we will get without consent of the other. Unwanted intimacy is a violation.

This was the mistake of Nadav and Avihu as well as the 250 insurgents. They wanted to dictate the terms of their relationship to G-d and service to Him.

When the people saw only the danger of the incense, they misunderstood. To them, intimacy with G-d meant only death. Due to this misunderstanding they did not desire a relationship with G-d. To not have a relationship to G-d is to be spiritually dead. There was no point in keeping them alive any longer.

Moshe told Aharon to bring incense into the camp to show the people that - as Rashi puts it - incense does not kill; sin kills.

"[Aharon] stood between the dead and the living and the plague stopped"

The people had to be shown that while intimacy with G-d on one's own terms is a grave violation, intimacy on G-d's terms is the path to life. The litmus test between "life" and "death" is found in the secret of the incense.

"Between the dead and the living". While we strive for a rich inner life; a true relationship with G-d, we must recognize that if our relationship to Him is built on our own terms and on our own egotistical ideas of what we want that relationship to be - it is not life at all. It is a relationship only with ourselves. The incense is either death or closeness to G-d.

"See, I place before you today life and good and death and evil.... Choose life" (Devarim 30: 15, 19) The Torah implores us to choose the infinite experience of a relationship to the Divine over the finite experience of our own making.

Understanding the message of the incense ends the plague in our lives. This awareness puts and end to our limited sense of our spiritual capabilities. It teaches us that we can achieve intimacy with G-d, provided that we serve Him on His terms rather than our own.