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Friday, June 19, 2015

Korah - The Holy Grandfather

Who first called Korah “the heigle Zayde” (the holy grandfather). I have not found the idea in writing among the Hasidic masters but here are the candidates for the origin of the term:
 I had first heard this idea attributed to the Hozeh from Lublin (died 1815)
דער הייליגער זיידע קרח
I would assume it would have been a Levi – to have felt this kinship
The Hozeh’s last name was Horowitz – he was a descendant of the Shla Hakadosh
“Yaakov Yitzchak was a descendant of Isaiah Horowitz (Hebrew: ישעיה הלוי הורוביץ), also known as the Shelah ha-Kadosh (Hebrew: של"ה הקדוש), a prominent Levite rabbi and mystic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaakov_Yitzchak_of_Lublin
Rabbi Naftali Zvi Horowitz of Ropshitz (died 1827) comes from the same family (on his maternal side) and would be another good candidate.
His mother Beila was the daughter of Rabbi Yitzchak Halevi Horowitz of Hamburg. Naftali Tzvi adopted the surname of his maternal grandfather.

If you look on the internet you will find many references to the Kotzker as the source of this saying  (died 1859), however based on a quick survey - most of these references can be traced back to Rabbi Riskin.

According to
Rabbi Riskin
It was the Kotzker
http://www.jewishledger.com/2012/06/torah-portion-korach-4/

Elli Sacks:
R. Zadok Ha-Cohen of Lublin, author of the Pri Tzadik, to refer to Korach in affectionately glowing terms as "Our Holy Grandfather."

Michael Berg
Rabbi Naftali of Rufshitz (Rabbi Naftali Zvi Horowitz of Ropshitz)
R. Yehoshua Engelman
Hozeh from Lublin
רבי יעקב יצחק, המכונה "החוזה" מלובלין, מגדולי המורים החסידים, אמר, כמו שאמרו אחרים גם-כן, שאילו חיו בדור המדבר היו מצטרפים לעדת קורח. "דער הייליגר זיידא קרח" – הסבא הקדוש. 

רבי יעקב יצחק, "החוזה" מלובלין, מגדולי המורים החסידיים בדור שלישי לחסידות, אמר, כמו שאמרו אחרים גם-כן, שאילו חיו בדור המדבר היו מצטרפים לעדת קורח. "דער הייליגר זיידא קרח" – הסבא הקדוש.


זה נכון, כך אמר הרה"ק החוזה מלובלין זי"ע. 

כידוע קרח הי' מנושאי הארון ומבעלי רוח הקודש (עי' רש"י, שקרח ראה (ברוח קדשו) שלשלת גדולה יוצאה ממנו וכו') 
בכתבי האריז"ל מובא, הסופי תיבות של 'צדיק כתמר יפרח' הוא 'קרח'. ולעתיד לבוא יזכה קרח לכהן בכהונה גדולה. 
דהיינו שהוא הי' צדיק גדול וקדוש. ומה שעשה מחלוקת לכהן בכהונה גדולה הי' לו בזה כוונות גדולות לשם שמים, שאי אפשר לאנשים כערכנו לעמוד על סוד דעתו. מסופר שהרה"ק הישמח משה זי"ע אמר שהוא הי' בגלגול קודם בזמן מחלקותו של קרח. והוא עמד מן הצד ולא הלך לא נגד משה רבינו ולא נגד קרח. הי' 'נסיון' מאד גדול, היות שגם קרח הי' צדיק וגדול מאד, והי' מאד קשה לילך נגדו, ולהתערב במחלוקת זה. 
כנראה, לחוזה מלובלין זי"ע היו כוונות נעלות במה שאמר 'הייליגע זיידע קרח'. יכול להיות שעי"ז רצה להמתיק את הפגם של קרח, ולהחיש את תיקונו שיהי' בשלימות בביאת המשיח בקרוב 

אין ספר החכמה מאין (אות ס') ווערט געברענגט אז הרה"ק ר' איציקל סטוטשינער ז"ל האט אמאל דערציילט אז הרה"ק המגיד מ'קאזשניץ זצ"ל האט זיך אמאל אויסגעדרוקט, "כ'קען נישט זאגען א גוט ווארט אויף קרח ווייל ער האט דאך מצער געווען משה רבינו, אבער איך קען אויך נישט זאגען שלעכטס אויף אים ווייל ער איז דאך געווען דער זיידע פונעם רבי'ן פון לובלין זצ"ל." (ווי באקאנט האט זיך דער רבי פון לובלין זצ"ל אמאל אויסגעדריקט, "דער הייליגער זיידע קרח") מערקווירדיג אז אין ספר "עבודת ישראל" פונעם קאזשניצער מגיד זצ"ל איז נישטא קיין חידושי תורה אויף פרשת קרח...


Monday, June 15, 2015

Parashat Korah 5775 A Jealous Guy


Echoes of Eden
Rabbi Ari Kahn
Parashat Korah 5775
A Jealous Guy

There was once a man who was blessed in many ways: he was smart, he was wealthy and he came from a very good family. His name was Korah. From the outside it looked like he had everything going for him, but something went wrong: there was a tragic malfunction and his beautiful life crumbled.

Korah was a Levite, a blood relative of Moshe and Aharon and related to Nahshon by marriage all significant leaders, each in his own right and in his own sphere; Korah was not. There was a time, when he was a young man, that things looked brighter for him: As a firstborn son, he was assured a position of service in the Temple a position of exalted status and respect. But in the aftermath of the sin of the golden calf, the firstborn sons, who had participated in the sin, were replaced by the tribe of Levi.

And here was the irony: Korahs cousin Aharon, who also hailed from the tribe of Levi, was arguably the only member of the tribe who was guilty of complicity in the golden calf debacle. In fact, it was the Levites Korahs and Aharons extended family - who cleaned up the mess and rid the world of those who had been active participants in that terrible sin. Why, then, was Korah down-graded from the position of kohen that was the birthright of the firstborn, and reduced to the status of generic Levite, while Aharon, whose hands were far from clean of sin, was awarded the supreme position of Kohen Gadol? Such was Korahs view of the events, and the situation did not sit well with him.

And if this were not enough to raise Korahs hackles, he did not need to look further than the next major sin committed in the desert, the sin of the spies. The Levites had not sent a representative to scout the land. The only member of their tribe who was involved in this sin, who had any level of complicity whatsoever, was Moshe, the man who had sent the spies on their mission in the first place.

The tribe of Levi had no part in the two major sins committed by the Israelites in the desert with two notable exceptions: Aharon played no small role in the creation of the golden calf, and Moshe was the catalyst that set the sin of the spies in motion. Korah was incensed, infuriated, but what he perceived as the injustice of it all: He himself had been denied the position of service in the Temple that would now be taken by Aharon and his sons, while Moshe and Aharon seemed to be made of Teflon: The stain of these massive transgressions did not stick to them, and they slipped away unscathed. This may well be the background to Korahs rebellion: He was driven to distraction by what was, in his opinion, the unfairness of it all.

Jealousy can be a powerful, self-destructive force; for Korah, it gave rise to self-righteousness, which he focused on issues of holiness - that is, the holiness of every member of the community other than Moshe and Aharon. He was capable of seeing and appreciating his own holiness, and the holiness intrinsic in every Jew who stood at Mount Sinai, but the holiness of Moshe and Aharon escaped him.  Another fact that seems to have slipped his jealousy-ravaged mind was the source of Moshe and Aharons authority. Who, indeed, had appointed them to the lofty positions they held? Surely, Moshe had not actively sought out the spotlight. He had neither campaigned for the job nor sought exclusivity in his various roles as leader, judge or teacher; quite the opposite: God had to cajole Moshe to take up the reins of leadership, and Moshe repeatedly expressed his desire to share responsibility with the elders, even encouraging others who showed that they were capable of prophecy.

Leadership comes with a price. The people will inevitably err, and the leadership will inevitably be blamed. Real leadership is not measured by the ability to avoid all mistakes, but by the ability to minimize them, to foresee and forestall them whenever possible, and to confront the mistakes that will inevitably be made, not cover them up. Real leadership learns from past mistakes and tries to create systems and processes that will prevent their recurrence. There will always be people lying in wait on the sidelines, the slings and arrows of criticism in hand, poised to take advantage of any misstep in order to promote the implicit message that they themselves could do a better job. Blinded by ambition or jealousy, what they often fail to consider is the mistakes and tragedies that were avoided thanks to the strong and steady hand of the leadership they are so quick to criticize. From the comfort of their secure positions on the sidelines, they see only the flaws.

Korah had been handed one of the most important supporting roles in the Israelite camp: He and his family carried the Holy Ark when the Mishkan traveled. Yet rather than embracing the sacred trust that had been placed in him, rather than reveling in the proximity he had been granted to what was literally the holiest thing on earth, Korah attacked the members of his own family: He wanted what they had.

Among the great gifts Korah had been given was his children. They were not tainted by their fathers jealousy, and when their father rebelled, they sided with Moshe and Aharon. They were more than content with the task assigned to them; they felt honored to have been entrusted with carrying the Ark of the Covenant. When their father fell into the abyss, they did not go down with him. They lived on, fulfilling their sacred role, and their descendants in turn lived on to serve and sing in the Temple. Korahs descendants rose to the challenge of the task they had been assigned, and they brought honor to their service, which in turn brought them honor and distinction. They were holy people, from a holy family, whereas Korah lost everything: his honor, his wealth, the respect of his children, and his life. Such is the power of jealousy.

For a more in-depth analysis see:

http://arikahn.blogspot.co.il/2015/06/audio-and-essays-parashat-korach.html


Echoes of Eden


Sunday, June 14, 2015

Audio and Essays Parashat Korach

Audio and Essays Parashat Korach

New Echoes of Eden Project:
A Jealous Guy
http://arikahn.blogspot.co.il/2015/06/parashat-korah-5775-jealous-guy.html

Audio:
Pararshat Korah: Anatomy of a Breakdown #Torah
What was it that drove Korah crazy? And what brought him to form a confederacy with these specific co-conspirators
http://www.yutorah.org/lectures/lecture.cfm/837734/Rabbi_Ari_Kahn/Anatomy_of_a_Breakdown

Law and Narrative
An analysis how the law and narrative in the Book of Bamidbar compliment one another
http://www.yutorah.org/lectures/lecture.cfm/814590/Rabbi_Ari_Kahn/Narrative_and_Law_in_Bamidbar

THE PARALLEL BETWEEN MIRIAM AND  KORACH
How a minor private conversation escalated to a full fledged rebellion
http://www.yutorah.org/lectures/lecture.cfm/837562/Rabbi_Ari_Kahn/Korach_and_Miriam
Korach

Avoiding Arguments - Not to be like Korach
Analysis of the law – to avoid arguments
http://www.yutorah.org/lectures/lecture.cfm/762005/Rabbi_Ari_Kahn/Avoiding_Arguments_-_Not_to_be_like_Korach

Essays:
Living the Dream; Ignoring Reality

Perfidy

Collateral Damage
http://rabbiarikahn.com/writing?id=172

Rebellion
http://rabbiarikahn.com/writing?id=173


Monday, June 8, 2015

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Parashat Shelach 5775 - A Divine Rendezvous