בס“ד Parshat Korach 3 Tammuz, 5778/June 16, 2018 Vol. 9 Num. 38 This week’s Toronto Torah is dedicated by Annie and Shloimie Romberg for the yahrzeit of Annie’s father, Isidore Schindelheim, Yisroel ben Yosef v’ Malka Frimet z”l The Art of Finding a Place for Your Staff Rabbi Baruch Weintraub Parshat Korach includes one of the a meaning granted by an envisioned while the other leaders take their staffs most difficult challenges to Moshe’s goal – a telos. This meaning can change back. leadership. Moshe Rabbeinu, it seems, from person to person. In the case of is caught in a pincer movement. On Korach, the meaning may have been his This last detail is somewhat strange. the one hand, his authority is dream to lead the service in the Why there is a need to recount that questioned ‘from above’, by those who Mishkan. For Datan and Aviram it may each leader took back his staff? form the elite class of the nation – have been their journey from petty Seemingly, the only important staff in Korach and his two hundred and fifty slavery to freedom and riches. As long the story is Aharon’s! Moreover, perhaps strong group of important men. They as these stories could be maintained, it would have been better to leave the were motivated by the idealistic claim the Jews in the desert may have other staffs in the Mishkan, as a that the whole congregation is holy. On complained, but they were generally constant proof that it was only Aharon’s the other hand, he is also confronted content. But, when the stories suddenly that bloomed! from the ‘grassroots’ level, by Datan, lost their meanings, when it became Aviram and their gang, for his seeming clear that the journey leads to nothing Not many of the commentators relate to failure to bring them into a land of but a lonely grave in the desert – the this question (see, however, Seforno and milk and honey. order fell apart. Ha’amek Davar). I would, therefore, like to suggest my personal thoughts. It Why was it at this point that Moshe’s Korach and Datan and Aviram seems to me, that each leader took his charisma was suddenly lost? To represent two different reactions to this staff in order to find another place, in answer this, we must first determine loss of telos. Korach decided to stick to which it could indeed flower. when exactly these mutinies erupted. his dream, even though G-d Himself According to the Ibn Ezra, it was after had appointed Aharon as the Kohen; After it was conclusively proved that the giving of the Torah, and a result of Datan and Aviram decided to completely they didn’t belong, the leaders did not the election of the Kohanim and abandon everything, forsaking the try to coerce a place for their staffs in Levites. The Ramban strongly rejects Divine covenant. the Mishkan, as Korach did. Nor did this position, suggesting the revolts they throw their staffs away altogether, occurred immediately after the sin of G-d’s reaction to both parties is clear as Datan and Aviram did. Rather, the the spies, in the aftermath of the and swift – either by heavenly fire or by right response to the crisis of losing Divine punishment to wander in the the miraculous opening of the earth, the one’s story – is an open minded but desert. rebellions are crushed. However, this relentless attempt to find the route on can only teach us what is wrong. We which your staff, and yourself, can What is clear to both commentators, still have to learn what is the right way thrive. then, is that the uprising against to react when suddenly finding Moshe was rooted in a strong feeling of ourselves in what seems to be a [email protected] despair. Either it was a consequence of meaningless and indecipherable world. appointing the Kohanim as the only A small story coming in the wake of the ones permitted to serve in the great miracles mentioned above may Mishkan, or, even worse, it resulted give us the answer. The Torah tells us from the prevention of the whole the following details: Aharon and the generation from entering the promised rest of the tribes’ leaders are asked to land. The loss of a dream creates a leave their staffs in the Mishkan; only vacuum. Every one of us has a story Aharon’s staff produces flowers; he tells about himself, and the tale has Aharon’s staff remains in the Mishkan, OUR BEIT MIDRASH ROSH BEIT MIDRASH ABBI ORDECHAI ORCZYNER R M T SGAN ROSH BEIT MIDRASH RABBI JONATHAN ZIRING AVREICHIM DAM RIEDMANN ARON EREZ A F , Y P CHAVERIM NADAV GASNER, COREY KAMEN, ARI KARON, BJ KOROBKIN, YEHUDA LEVI, COBY LYONS, ZACK MINCER, JOSH PHILLIP, DOVID ROSEN, AARON ROSENFELD, MORDECHAI ROTH, DANIEL SAFRAN, EYTAN WEISZ, URIEL WEISZ, BARUCH WISE Find our upcoming shiurim on-line at www.torontotorah.com WOMEN’S BEIT MIDRASH RS RA IRING RS LLIEZRA EREZ M . O Z , M . E P CHAVEROT NOA BORDAN, MINDY CHAPMAN, SOFIA FREUDENSTEIN, LEORA KARON, We are grateful to ARIELLA SNOWBELL, MIRIAM RIVKA WEISS Continental Press 905-660-0311 והורשתם את הארץ וישבתם בה )במדבר לג( Marking the State of Israel’s 70th Year! Israeli Landmark: The Arbel Yaron Perez Arbel is a moshav in the lower Galil, When the Romans named Herod as figures include Nitai of Arbel, Rabbi beside the city of Tiberias. The moshav King of Judea, the Arbel population Zeira, and Chizkiyah the Exilarch. is named for an ancient local rejected his control and rebelled. They settlement; the name Arbel can also used hidden caves along the slopes of Today refer to the plains on which the moshav the Arbel cliffs, such that Herod’s army The modern moshav of Arbel was is located, and to the adjacent could not reach them easily. Herod’s established in 1949, but nearby is an mountain. forces suffered great losses, until they archaeological dig researching ancient brought in overwhelming numbers and Arbel. Here one can see the remnants of History lowered soldiers down the cliff face in a synagogue which lasted from the 4th Because the area is a juncture for travel containers to do battle in the caves. century CE to the 8th century CE. One from various northern centres to Twenty years later, during the great can also tour Mount Arbel. There is a Jerusalem, and because of its proximity revolt against Rome, regional great fortress atop the cliffs, composed to the Kinneret and its elevation, many commander Josephus Flavius of various natural caves which were battles were waged for control of Arbel reinforced the Arbel fortress as part of widened during the rebellion against across the generations. For example, a chain of seventeen fortresses around Herod. To aid tourists, ropes have been some identify the biblical Beit Arbel the region. However, the Romans’ added for ease of access to the caves. battlefield (Hosheia 10:14) with the overwhelming might ultimately took The descent down the cliff affords a historical Arbel settlement. Within this Arbel, along with the rest of the Galil. fantastic view of the Kinneret and the view, the settlement existed in the First mountains of the Golan. Temple period. Some scholars maintain that after the Second Temple was destroyed, families It is highly recommended that one There is clear evidence of the Arbel of kohanim migrated to the Galil, and reach the Mount Arbel observation community from the Second Temple the Yeshua clan settled in Arbel. point, 400 meters above the Kinneret, period, as Book of Maccabees I (9:2) early in the morning. This allows for a references a battle between the Seleucid There are various accounts of Jewish spectacular view of sunrise, of which army and local forces in the Greek and non-Jewish populations visiting Rabbi Chiya Rabbah said, “Such is the period. Also, one of the heads of the the Arbel region in the Middle Ages. redemption of Israel – at first bit by bit, Sanhedrin during the early mishnaic Also, stories abound of biblical figures but increasingly radiant as it period was a local resident, Nitai of buried in the area, including Shet (son builds.” (Jerusalem Talmud, Berachot Arbel. of Adam and Chavah), Reuven, 1:1) Shimon, Levi and Dinah. Talmudic [email protected] The Zionist Idea: The Rebbe and the State of Israel Adam Friedmann The relationship between the late seventh rebbe of Lubavitch, One issue with which the Rebbe became very involved with Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and the Land and was “Land for Peace” negotiations, particularly when it came State of Israel, was complicated and intense. Rabbi Sholom to exchanging parts of the West Bank. The Rebbe was Dovber Schneerson, the fifth rebbe of Lubavitch, opposed the vehemently opposed to giving up land. He also opposed any secular Zionist movement in the late 19th century, fearing a type of negotiation which might lead to this. In the early Jewish state which would be detached from G-d and 1990s, the government of PM Yitzchak Shamir was Judaism. This position set an overtone for subsequent considering negotiations with the Palestinian relations between the Chabad movement and the State of representatives to allow for autonomous Palestinian rule in Israel. Nevertheless, the seventh rebbe and his predecessor, the West Bank for a five-year period. When Moshe Katzav, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson, considered it important to then the Transportation Minister, visited the Rebbe, the be involved with the affairs of the settlement in Israel, and latter excoriated Katzav for his government even the subsequently established state, because of the large entertaining this possibility.