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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naftali_Zvi_of_Ropshitz

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

J. Jonathan Schraub

It was the Kotzker

http://www.jewishledger.com/2012/06/torah-portion-korach-4/

https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/conservative_judaism/v065/65.3.schraub.pdf

https://kolshalom.com/sites/default/files/uploaded_documents/schraub_dvar_torah.pdf

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."

http://mei-ha-shiloah.blogspot.co.il/2009/06/mei-ha-shiloah-on-parashat-korach.html

Michael Berg

Rabbi Naftali of Rufshitz (Rabbi Naftali Zvi Horowitz of Ropshitz)

http://www.michaelberg.net/articles/creator-desires-heart

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. 

http://www.kolot.info/heb/ContentPage.aspx?id=236

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.

http://www.areshet.org.il/BRPortal/br/P102.jsp?arc=69419

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 

http://www.bhol.co.il/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=1446906&forum_id=771

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...

http://www.ivelt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3825&mobile=on

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: Korah’s 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 – Korah’s and Aharon’s 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 Korah’s view of the events, and the situation did not sit well with him.

And if this were not enough to raise Korah’s 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 Korah’s 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 Aharon’s 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 father’s 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. Korah’s 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

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

http://rabbiarikahn.com/pdf/parashat_korach_5774_living_the_dream_ignoring_reality.pdf

Perfidy

http://rabbiarikahn.com/writing?id=171

Collateral Damage

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

Rebellion

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

weekly emails

Anyone interested in receiving weekly emails on the parsha - including audio lectures and essays can subscribe here:

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name

Last Name

Parashat Shelach 5775 - A Divine Rendezvous

Parashat B’haalotcha 5775 the seven books

Parashat b’haalotcha 5775 the seven books from Rabbi Ari Kahn

Parashat Naso 5775 The Sin of Asceticism