Are You a Levi? A Lesson from Parshas Korach

guy walks into a pet store wants to buy a parrot he says how much for that red one their pet store owner says the red one thousand dollars for that parrot he says a thousand dollars for the parrot why's it so expensive says because that parrot is an executive assistant parrot it can type Wow okay fine how about the yellow and the yellow parrot over there how much is that when he says that parrot that parrots $2,000 $2,000 $2,000 is well it's also an executive assistant parrot but it can type and it can answer phone calls he says whoa okay how about how about the green one how much is the green one says the green one $10,000 $10,000 my goodness what is that parrot do he says I don't know but the other two parrots call him boss we're going to talk about the boss and the assistant what does it mean to facilitate to support to be the support staff to help someone else do their job why because parshas kaya partial SCADA we have a rebellion of Qaida the Levite I against the high priesthood of Aaron and after the failed rebellion Hashem enumerates or describes a little bit more the division of labor between the l'viyah and the Cohanim the Levites and the priestly class and aaron is told regarding the Livia megami suhaka Mott la vie Shaima Tov hijo your cousin's the the live iam what should you do with them ha crave eat talk you should draw them near to you via love of your love who is from the word lady they shall join you via lover they should join you Alaka to you we shall so ha and they should attend to you meaning they should assist you they should be your they should be your assistants so the function of the love iane in the basin mikdash and the holy temple was to act as assistance to the Cohanim in fact if you know a Jew with a last name Siegel or Sehgal or sometimes it pronounced Chagall like the famous artist that's a Russia Tavis it's an acronym singen Lehane families with that name cycle Siegel they're usually live iam because Alavi is a scan locking on locking means lieutenant coin or the assistant to the claim the one who works for works with provides assistance he's the Executive Assistant in other words okay two of the Kahane now that's interesting but the name lavey itself every every name in in the holy tongue also has a meaning though the word has a meaning where does the words the name lady come from the first time we hear the name is when Leia gives birth to a child named Lavy and the meaning of the name why he's named Lavy is is told to us very clearly impartial fate say the tire I'd she conceived again the tale in vain and she gave birth to a son whatever and she said ought to happen this time you love there is she a lie my husband will be attached to me you love it that means that's from the word layfie and it means attached you love it is she a lie my husband will be attached to me and what does that mean my husband will be attached to me we know especially insid this the relationship but but not just limited to this expands upon it that the relationship between the Jewish people on a Shem is compared to a marriage when slim ml King Solomon the wisest of all men when he wanted to describe the unique relationship between the Jews and the Shem he wrote that love poem Shearer has sheered him the Song of Songs and he described it as the relationship between husband and wife and husband and wife so it's interesting this name Lavy which you love it Ishi a lie my husband will be attached to make acidic explains is talking about Vegas Vegas means attachment attachment to a sham profound attachment to a sham that when a Jew is in Vegas is attached to Hashem that's called you love a DC a lie my husband meaning Hashem is attached to to to me okay so here's the question interesting question which one is it is the Lavy the one who assists the coin and the coins serves a chef the name coin by the way also has a meaning lokahi means to serve so the coin serves a sham and the lady gets the assist he facilitates her he helps the coin and the coin is the one who's actually serving Hashem directly okay that's the function of the lady but the named lady and its origins means you love EEC a lie Hashem is connected to me so which one is it is it the function of the lady which is he facilitates that the coin should serve a shaman be connected to Hashem or is it the name lady and the meaning of the word lady which is that the Lavy himself is the one who's connected to a chef understand which one is it he's connecting somebody else or he himself is connected okay so before we get into the answer and this is a question by the way this is from a seeker in liquidity seekers from the Lubavitch atiba hailer Kafkaesque parshas Kyra and there are many many many questions in that city I just took out one of them but before before we return to this I want to talk a little bit about the fact that this week precious career has also the week of gimel Thomas the York site of the lab should ever say it's a different color photo huh I'll tell you a story this story took place on base here touching Memphis okay that's the second day of ER 5748 or in English April 19th 1988 I looked it up okay April 19th 1988 and the devil was giving out dollars not in 770 we're usually dollars were given out but in his home on President Street that year the debe would give out dollars and and the Phyllis took place in that at his home because the Rebbetzin had passed away huff they shot just a couple of months before this this incident occurred and so there ever was in the home that year during the time of saying Kaddish and happening for the almond leading the leading the prayers so this particular dollars there was this freshly elected young new MK who came to the debe named Mahnomen Netanyahu Bibi Netanyahu you might have heard of him anyways but this is what he had first been elected to an elected office before that he had had an appointed office the ambassador to the UN and he'd been to that a bit before but now he was elected to the Knesset the whole the whole exchange is about two minutes and it's Sun video gem Jewish educational media has put out the the exchange you can watch the whole thing it's about two minutes about halfway through their exchange Netanyahu says to the data I want to thank you for the opportunity I'm translating here but I want it because he's speaking in Hebrew I want to thank you for the opportunities to be helped by you and to receive spiritual guidance from you that you provide not just for me but for all clawless well for all Jews and without so much as a pause that ever responds and says Aeneid ein Bhatia lot I'm essentially and you're literally means I'm at the beginning I'm still at the beginning of my act of my of my work I'm just getting started my work obviously you know that I was 86 years old at the time rabbi with a white beard saying I'm just getting started my work and Netanyahu gives this big smile and he says I need your there I know I know and then the never smiles back and says to him the ahta and you be a lotta tough kid haha Schalke are just getting started your new mission your new work okay so let's talk about this for a second 1988 Netanyahu lected to Knesset he wouldn't be Prime Minister for the first time until 1996 and the second time he wouldn't be Prime Minister until 2009 so for the debited tell him in 1988 when he jaws got elected to Knesset that you are be a lotta taka daka - at the beginning of your new mission was very prescient obviously the rebus saw and was telling him that he had a big career out of him okay but what's interesting not just with the debet old Benjamin Netanyahu Netanyahu's future but what that ever said about his own future give you a whole the never said I'm just getting started my work now the Devyn made many statements that were obviously the people smiled you know and in your smile room that ever said this statement that ever said statements that were sometimes you know they were meant to be you know humorous or amusing but cuss for Sholem god forbid that it was just humorous or just amusing or in any way not a hundred percent absolute ms truth everything that ever said was was a hundred percent even when there ever said things that were funny or amusing it was also a hundred percent serious and a hundred percent real 100 percent true so how do you understand this from from from two sides the ted-ed was saying in 1988 I'm just getting started my work okay from two sides it's strange on one side I'm just getting started my work that ever had been evident for 37 years already at that point and during that time wouldn't that I've already done sent out all these Slocum and in Chabad houses and in Mitzvah tanks and the 10 mitzvah campaigns and sivash am the world's largest juice jewish youth organization and public manure lighting's and thousands of hours of hey douche a Toyota of novel Torah insights that had been recorded and published all that had already happened and that I was saying oh I'm just getting started okay so that's from one side then from the other side and I want to be careful how I say this but that ever was speaking in 1988 that was six years before gimel Thomas that was 86 years old okay and again I want to be careful I said this but you should know something okay the whole reason that that dollars took place in the rebus Homa like I said that ever was Dominic because the Rebbetzin had passed away was in their books and Kaddish there was a very clear sense of you know there's certain natural things that I mean look I'll just say what they'd ever said matzah Shabbos poshest Roma Tufts in Memphis which was February 20th I looked up the day because I was just interested house how close to this dollars with Netanyahu was it was exactly two months because of April 19th was was was when Netanyahu came to the house $4 February 20th exactly two months earlier they never said the famous CIPA of knock shave peshwa initial eylem let's consider the make of reckoning for for the natural order of things which people did not want to hear at the time and it's still painful to even think about it but the devil was speaking about the eventualities of what would happen if there would be a gimel Thomas so here's my point it's 1988 and the Rebbe is 86 years old and the revitol ready spoken openly about the idea of what if there's a gimel Thomas and then I was saying to know at the exact same time I need but a lot and yeah died in between lot Hamas actually I'm just getting started my work how do you put those two together so I'll offer you a perspective that makes sense to me you know Rabbi Jonathan Sacks the former chief rabbi of Great Britain he has a great line one of the best quotes about that of it he says the good leaders make followers great leaders make leaders that ever made leaders and Jonathan Sacks himself is a prime example of that statement he didn't just say this about that either he himself was a product of this that never made him a leader I won't get into the whole long story but Jonathan Sacks was never looking on his own to become a leader or to be part of you know public service he wasn't looking to be a rabbi none of that when he first met the Rebbe it was because he basically he admits as a college can he scam the free trip to America is it is this English college kid he wanted a free trip to America so he wrote up a proposal he's gonna go interview Jewish leaders in America in order to interview them yes to go travel so you got it you got the trip paid for anyway so he met that I bet he was supposed to interview that up about leadership that have flipped the whole thing on him and starts asking about what about you are you a leader you know when you go back to campus what are you doing to be a leader on campus so from the very beginning that ebiz relationship with with Jonathan Sacks was tag you're at you're coming to me asking me about being a leader no no what about you you're the leader right and and then the whole thing how how it developed over over his career eventually becoming a rabbi and becoming chief rabbi that was all that ever pushing him to be a leader and the truth is this was the devas way of dealing with everybody everybody that that method of it was tag you're it now you're the leader what do I mean by that think about dollars we're definitely were just talking about dollars the whole concept of dollars was one that ever said I mean I'm not guessing here they never spoke about it in addition of the concept of giving you a keepsake something to hold on to that ever had had given to your gift but in addition to that and the way that I've been described it actually was this was to make you Ashley a shell mitzvah to make you an emissary for carrying intimates one that ever gave you the dollar now tag you're it now you are the devas emissary you've been deputized to go and do a mission to go give sadaqa to give this dollar or it's equivalent to sadaqa to charity so that others encounters with everyone was always about putting it back on you you're the leader now you're you go out you go do something great I'll tell you a story that just I mean it's an amazing story and yeah yeah I'm very grateful to Jim Jewish educational media who has this my encounter project where they've gone and they've interviewed people and they've discovered stories that were not known stories that just started to come out now I mean ten twenty years after gimel Thomas and we're first starting to find out stories about how that ever was behind the scenes making great people great how the devil was the one who was making leaders leaders and here's one of these stories just a fantastic story how much never had a hand in so many people's claim to fame and their their ability to make a contribution in the world and it was unknown and it would have remained unknown except you know and become revealed so here's one of my favorite ones this is the story about the first african-american female member of United States Congress she was elected to represent the 12th district which included her own neighborhood of Crown Heights shirley Chisholm now this was 1968 first female african-american member of the United States Congress she finds out that the old boys club basically though they don't want her and they marginalize her and what do they do to her they put her on the agricultural committee we imagine that Congress is always like they get the whole Congress together and they vote and they pass bills very very little of Congress is you know with the whole Congress meeting most of what a but most of what Congress does in DC is meeting in committee everything happens in committee so they took this woman from Brooklyn from inner city Brooklyn where you know the the the most agriculture you might see as a weed growing up from the from the crack and a sidewalk and they put her on the agricultural committee to laugh at her to mock her to marginalize her to make her ineffective so she was very very sad and about how do we know this store you know the store from David Lewis who was a was a professor of political science and law Turo and he was an advisor to Patrick Moynihan the senator senator Moynihan so he was at the retirement party where shirley Chisholm told this this whole story basically they put her on the agricultural committee and she's broken she's totally broken so she gets a call llevaba should ever would like to see you now she lived like a block from the rabbit but she's getting a call now from the Secretariat the Lubavitch I never would like to see it's interesting she had come to the nether before to get that of his endorsement that ever since no he doesn't endorse political candidates but now that I was calling her whatever would like to see you maybe that Avenue she needed encouragement whatever it was we can't guess the the behind-the-scenes but I can tell you exactly what happened according to shirley Chisholm herself she comes to that Emma and she she starts to bare her soul she starts to tell the death honestly I'm broken you know I worked so hard to get elected now I got there and they're there they're mocking me they put me in the agricultural committee to make me ineffective so that Emma says to her oh what a gift i shun gave you what a gift you have such an opportunity if she wasn't thinking of it as an opportunity she was thinking of it as a crisis and it never says there are so many hungry people in Brooklyn and in many inner-city neighborhoods and meanwhile the farmers they have surplus in this country there's a surplus of food the farmers grow more food than they can sell you just have to put the two together and the farmers who have more food than they can sell and the hungry people in the inner cities can eat that food and it's such a not such a wonderful opportunity so this started her thinking in a positive way she goes back to DC first person she runs into Bob Dole remember Bob Dole II ran for president a Republican senator from from Kansas Kansas is the breadbasket of America real agricultural state so he made Sur shirley Chisholm okay next oh I have a cultural commit agricultural committee so he starts to tell her you know my my constituents are all farmers and they have way more food than they can sell and we can't we can't move the food fast enough too so that they can actually make a living she says hold on a second I have an idea the government could make a program and we could you could fulfill two needs at the same time the farmers can sell the food and we can supply the food in the inner cities where we have so many hungry people and from that WIC the WIC program was invented the women infant children program that provides nutritional supplements to the families with with mothers and with small children so I says I mentioned shirley Chisholm spoke about this at her retirement party and she said you know what makes this all possible if I accomplished anything in my career it's because a rabbi in Crown Heights had vision okay so go figure the first female african-american member of Congress and she was ready to give up she was defeated and and who pushed her to greatness and who actually got the this whole program launched that of his advice and encouragement so here's what I want to ask you I want to ask you a question what did the former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain and the first african-american female member of the United States Congress have in common in fact you know what I want to I'm going to redact that question what do you and I and the first chief rabbi and the former chief rabbi of Great Britain and the first female african-american member of the United States Congress all have it what do we all have in common if I can be so presumptuous to speak to you about you as well and I'm including you in this and I will suggest what we all have in common is that on some level and if we think about it I think we'll see it to be true that ever has inspired us all to greatness okay so Jonathan Sacks is is it is an obvious story a famous story okay so shirley Chisholm is an obvious story a famous story but you know how many stories there are and how many stories continue to come out and and and are these stories only stories from before gimel thomas from from before that of his physical path sink or if you think about it the devas leadership teachings guidance inspiration is continuing to spur people on to achieve great things if we think about it this way you know what when we know when a when a rabbi has a York site or when a rabbi passes away you know and people say eulogies and they they talk about the rabbi's greatness what do they normally speak about what do they usually say they say that he was so holy or he learned so much Torah or talk about there he did admits va's in such a meticulous way they speak about what he achieved but there's another way of understanding a purpose in life and that is not what you achieved but what you facilitate in others and help them to achieve that the greatest way of spending your life is to help others live theirs the greatest mission that a person could have is to help others accomplish theirs and that's the answer to the question about the lavey Lavy means the one who assists the claim that the coin should serve Hashem and do his job for a show so the kinds of connecting to Shimon the lady is getting the assist I mean that's the function of the lady in the base of a mission but the word itself means you love a lie ishi I'm connected to a chef how do you reconcile the two very simple because the greatest connection to a Shem that anyone could have is when I facilitate someone else's connection to a chef to be a LaVey means that I help someone else be great the assistant to the claim to find one who is doing kahuna who is doing service in whatever capacity it is whether it's as a mother or an educator or an entrepreneur or whatever it might be and to be their assistant to be their facilitator to be their lavey who helps them connect to a Shem that for for the one who facilitates that connection that's the greatest connection there could be when you are the one who facilitates the connection that you love it a lot is she the greatest connection that you can have to a shot what did that ever do that ever connected others to a chef they're the made leaders out of everyone that ever deputized everyone that ever inspired people to pursue their own greatness and what greater greatness is there than helping others get in touch with their own greatness I'm an American boy and maybe this is totally inappropriate but I'll tell you something sure everybody heard of Shaquille O'Neal you don't know much about him but you know who Shaq is Shaq was a star from high school and when he was drafted he was already famous but he didn't win titles he didn't win championships for a long time so he has this quote which I like he says the day I stopped worrying about statistics is the day that I started winning what does that mean statistics means your personal achievement on the court which doesn't mean winning you could be the high scorer in the game and your team still lost so Shaq said I had to stop thinking about my own statistics it doesn't matter what I accomplished that matters what the team accomplishes in order to get the win which is how you get the title so here's the deal we're not here to worry about our own achievements anymore no that's not that's not what life what what life is about we're here each of us to be a Lavy to facilitate others greatness to make leaders out of others to connect others to a chef like the rabbit did for so many and continues to do for so many to the extent that when the rabbit told Ben yeoman Netanyahu 1988 honey I die in battle Atum essentially yeah makes a lot of sense makes a lot of sense that if the Rebbe is mission in life is to inspire others to make others great I would say sure in 1988 that ever was just getting started that happen was just getting started that never continues to make the world see the potential each individual to see his or her own potential greatness to the extent of seeing beyond what the individual can do and seeing the ultimate goal of what the team has to achieve the win the championship from day one huge fat tough senior Dolloff 1951 first inaugural address that ever said aina da vitoli Allah Bono then the whole thing depends on us our generation to do what to finish the job of all of history to perfect the world to bring mashiac swan gimel Thomas and the rebus yard site as a Kaddish if you will what would be a fitting tribute to the Rebbe who invested his entire self in making others great well I can think of two things first of all for each of us to live up to our own greatness not to withhold or cheat the world from our own greatness that we have to achieve but another thing I would taken another step even more just like that ever encouraged and encourages every individual to be great we have to go and play that role in other people's lives and encourage them to be great and that everyone we meet has to be a tag you're it type of situation that if you come for inspiration for me for guidance from me encouragement whatever it is yeah I'll give that to you but also I want to turn you into a source of encouragement and guidance and inspiration for the next person and so on and so forth so that each one of us is thinking about what the next person quote can accomplish and being a Lavy a facilitator and assistant to each other person's mission in life we should all touch each other in the right way inspire each other remind each other of our greatness and the team clawless role in the entire world really should very very very speedily accomplish our goal perfection of the world through the coming Messiah should be now