Korach Portion

In this week's Torah Portion is the shocking story of Korach and his followers, who rebelled against Moses and Aaron, with envy in their hearts. They so wanted to be the first, the highest ranking, the most important people in the Nation. It ended when G-d made the earth open its mouth and swallow the rebels. They wanted to climb too high, and found themselves at the lowest place one could get. In Psychology there is the concept of ego inflation, and I think it was Jung who said that a person who lets his ego inflate, risks a total collapse later on. We've seen it is true with Korach and his group. The Book of Proverbs says: "Pride comes before destruction" (16:18), and we can see it often time in life.

There is one expression that repeats itself in both the weekly Torah Portion and the Weekly Prophet Portion (HafTorah). In the Torah, Moses says to G-d: "I have not taken one donkey from them, neither have I hurt one of them." (Numbers 16:15)
In the Prophet Portion, Samuel says to the People: "Whose ox have I taken? Or whose donkey have I taken? Or whom have I defraud? Or whom have I oppressed? Or of whose hand have I taken a ransom to blind my eyes with?" (I Samuel 12:3).
The Hebrew word for donkey, חמור, has the same letters as the word for "material", חומר. So donkey in ancient times was a symbol of materialism, and in Torah commentary it is often used as such. We are souls who are temporarily living in a physical bodies in a material world, but not for ever. We go through lessons and tests here, and without the physical dimension, this would not have been possible. In order to survive, we must eat. In order to eat, we must work and serve humanity in one way or the other. In return, they give us money, and we buy our food with this. Once I wondered why we are born with a body that needs to eat. Why didn't G-d plan the world so that we won't have to eat. But then I thought - if we didn't have to eat, we didn't have to work, we wouldn't have made the world a better place for other people, we would not have depended on other people. Every person would have lived for his own sake, doing nothing, or led by boredom to do bad things. Material in this world is used by G-d to test us: to test our integrity, to test our honesty, to test our capability of giving, to test our faith in Him. Material is a means with which we can perform acts of chessed (kindness) to others and by doing this we perfect our souls - and it is one of the hardest thing for most people to do. Both leaders, Moshe and Samuel, stress the fact that they did not sell their souls for material gains, that their hands are clean, that for them there are values that are above the material dimension of the world. Sadly, not everyone is like this. Money is one of the hardest tests for people. Someone once told me that if someone is clean and "kosher" with money matters, then you can probably trust them with other things as well, because money is such a tough test for most people. That person used to be my student. He was surprised that I give receipts and pay taxes for private lessons - I think most tutors in the world do not give receipts, and do not pay taxes from this money. I could easily drop it and no body would care, but I feel that this is a test that I have to succeed in, time after time, after time. When I started teaching, I opened it as a legal small business with the Israeli tax authorities, and people were shocked. For every class that I teach, the State gets a very generous percentage of this as tax. It hurts me, because I need the money, I need to be able to buy a house one day, and it is far from being feasible - and yet I pay the taxes. It's doubly sad to then learn what is being done with my tax money (reelections in just a few month - something that is going to cost the government billiards of shekels). In addition, I also give away tithes - 10 percent of my net income, and give it to people who need it. I don't think of it as my money. I think of it as G-d's money, and He entrusted this money for me to handle it for Him and give it to whoever I think is deserved of it. These are not easy tests. Nobody forces me to do it, and I can easily stop and no one would notice or care, and my bank account will grow very fast. But this is part of my relationship with G-d: He gives me what I need for my sustenance, and I need to show Him that I know it's from Him, that I care for His other children, those in a greater need than me, and that I participate in the building of the State of Israel through my taxes, even though the sums I pay are not even a speck of dust in the total budget of the State of Israel. Again, so sad it goes on non-worthy goals, but it doesn't make me change my mind. I do it because it builds my character and makes me a better person, more trustworthy and honest in my own eyes, and I hope in G-d's eyes as well. This week's Portion speaks about the importance of tithing - what a merit to be able to do that, and I so admire people like Bill Gates who give most of their fortune to charitable causes! I often think, I wish I had all this money to give away - I would buy homes to all the homeless, and pay social workers to be with them, make sure they're well. I would give all the money needed to families with a sick parent, who need every shekel. What I give now is a lot for me, but it is not a lot objectively. Then again, I think that as a test, mine is greater than the test of people like Bill Gates. For him it is easy to give 90% of his fortune for charity, billions of dollars, because he would still have more than he needs left. But a small person who gives 10% when they can't own their own place, etc., is much harder, and I'm happy to go through this test. I hope I pass it.

I'll end with a quote from Sivan Rahav Meir's daily Torah:
Wise, famous people can make mistakes, big time. Some time in the middle of life, Korach voiced publicly a statement that sounded very appealing: "The whole congregation is holy", he yelled at Moshe and Aharon, "And why should you raise yourselves above them?" So much demagogy, so much populism. Of course everyone is holy, but Korach decided that he leaves the constant self improvement and self correction track that leads to holiness. Everyone is holy, therefore he himself is on the level of Moshe and Aharon. Everyone is holy, therefore there is no point at all in the practical Mitzvot and in learning the Torah, which he started mocking. In contrast to the statement "everyone is holy", Moshe Rabbenu presents a completely different way: "You shall be holy", he says to the People, and gives them 613 tasks on their way to holiness.
Korach speaks in the present tense ("everyone is holy!"), as if we have already reached the destination. Moshe speaks in the future tense ("You shall be holy!"), because one has to toil to get there. One speaks about rights, and the other about obligations. One flutters the masses, and the other demands from the People and challenges them. According to Korach, the Torah brought down to the world an automatic form of holiness, whereas according to Moshe, the Torah brought down to the world the potential for holiness, and one needs to toil to achieve it.
Rabbi Kook writes that in our generation as well we must be wary of people who mock the Torah of Moshe like this and who do not understand that life is one long, thorough workshop for building our personality, step by step.

Shabbat Shalom!

The Magic of Israel - Shavuot 5779

Israel has such an attraction power on people of all nations, and it is so exciting and moving to see this! What makes the founder and chairman of Vanke, China's largest real-estate company leave his base in China and come to Israel as a simple student of Hebrew and Bible studies at the Hebrew University on Mt. Scopus? Wang Shi, 68 years old, whose company's worth is estimated at 200 billion dollar, with about 80,000 employees, came here for a few years to study the culture that, according to him, influenced the whole world, and the Book through which it did that.
Wang Shi, who climbed the seven highest mountains in the world, including the Kilimanjaro in Africa and Mt. Everest (twice! The second time at age 60!), says in an interview to the Hebrew University student newspaper that learning Hebrew is a harder task for him than climbing the Everest. It is a mental mountain, that in order to climb it, he gave up the desire to climb other, physical mountains.

Wang Shi with his Hebrew University Student Card

Wang Shi says that his acquaintance with the Jewish culture has been an eye opening experience. "The Jews believe in one G-d", he says, "while the Chinese used to believe in many gods, and today they believe in a different god: communism. That is, the Chinese believe in blind obedience, whereas the Jews believe in constantly asking 'Why?'. Asking questions has a great importance these days for entrepreneurship and HiTech - an integral part of which is asking questions and not just obeying. In addition, the Chinese must learn from the Jews how to rest. In the Chinese culture, from the traditional agricultural era until the industrial era of our days, there is no set time for rest, and accordingly, people do not appreciate rest, and this is very different than the Jews, who have the Shabbat. I think that we, the Chinese culture, can learn from the Jewish rest."

At the Hebrew University Library on Mt. Scopus

Wang Shi lead the Chinese delegation to the UN Climate Change Conference four times already, and at the beginning of the year he won the Asia Game Changer award for his activities in the areas of environmentalism and climate. From this perspective, he says: "The Shabbat is also important for the land, which needs rest". Indeed, the Land in Israel gets rest once every seven days, and also once every seven years for a whole year - by religious Jews who observe the divine laws of the Torah. So much wisdom in these laws, wisdom that is above what any human being can come up with.

This weekend is a special one. Right after Shabbat starts a very important holiday, the Holiday of Shavuot, also known as the Holiday of the Giving of the Torah. We celebrate receiving the Torah: the Torah that so changed the world, the Torah that the wisdom of its laws slowly and gradually becomes apparent to all residents of this world, the Torah that defines us as a nation which is dedicated to the promulgation of G-d's name in the world. It is thanks to the Torah, and G-d's will which is expressed in it, that we survived as a nation for almost 2000 years in exile; it is thanks to the Torah that other nations started learning about G-d and turning to Him; it is thanks to the Torah that divine moral laws such as the Ten Commandments have become the basis and foundation of the judicial system of great world powers, such as the United States of America. To celebrate this great divine gift and our special role in keeping it for the whole world - we celebrate this weekend the Holiday of Shavuot, in which we will stand up on our feet in synagogues that are decorated with flowers and hear the reading of the Ten Commandments from a Kosher Torah Scroll. We will then also read one of my favorite stories in the Bible, that of Ruth. I will spend it in the holy city of Hebron, the place of burial of Ruth and Yishai (Jesse; father of King David), and also of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, Leah and Avner ben Ner.

Shabbat Shalom, and Happy Shavuot!