Korach - Don’t Mess With God

[Music] throughout the Jewish people's March down the desert's Winding Road there have been many a time when a Jew or group of Jews sinned and were subsequently punished whether it was those Jews that complained about the lack of water or the lack of food variety or lack of meat or it was those Jews that committed the sins of the at the agel the sin in the golden CF or the morim the spies or whether it was those that committed the adulterous acts with the women of midan during the billum episode all committed sins all were punished some were even killed but not a single punishment allotted to any Jew by Hashem in the entire Torah comes close to the uniqueness and unusually unnatural punishment that was handed to korak the very Earth standing beneath korak's feet opened up and swallowed him whole he and everything he owned the Earth did something it had never done prior and has never done since so the glaring question is why the strange death why were virtually all other Heavenly decreed punishments actualized in a more natural form while kir had a bizarre Earth splinter ing one what made him so different than all the other power hungry misguided or lust seeking Sinners out there what did he do so differently that made him the postumus recipient of the international Stranges death award to add to the question moshe's response in almost all inst instances in the Tyra involving those that sinned was to beseech Hashem and davr to spare their lives most would often take a very unapologetically defensive stance while defending the Jewish people advocating for even those who were clearly in the wrong yet moshe's behavior in the korak episode seems awfully strange Moshe breaks with his normal mode of operation and actually calls upon the demise of kak he gets up in front of Hashem and says Hashem this man must go what happened to the boundlessly passionate Moshe who with endless mercy on his fellow Jews lovingly calls for their safety and Welfare time and time again why did mosha suddenly shift from being the Jewish people's ultimate advocate in God's Court to playing the role as his harsh prosecutor so Raa sternbach a leading rinic figure in Israel formerly in Johannesburg beautifully articulates an answer that several others give [Music] Hashem is often referred to as the as a god that is remarkably patient and forgiving every creature on earth is the constant beneficiary of hashem's infinite patience and love and a sinner is no different but there is one sin that stands out there is one sin that stands alone there is one sin that Hashem has no patience for there is one sin that merits quick and hard har punishment from God and that sin is the public attack on the validity of Torah shabal the oral Torah why is this so for the entire reason why Hashem created the world was for it to be a medium to give goodness to humanity the Torah is the road map to attain that goodness therefore it is entrusted to the rabbis and the teachers of each generation to SA Safeguard the toyra and to ensure that the goodness is in is attained by all those who publicly attack the torah's authenticity aren't merely sinning they are clawing other Jews away from the Torah filled world of unparalleled Beauty which is the entire purpose of the world they are causing scores of people to miss out on the goodness the world has to offer Hashem has no patience for that Hashem will stop that in its tracks to disregard the oral Torah and label it as replaceable unreliable rabic folklore is one thing but to attack it publicly is a whole different thing it makes the world's creation pointless hence the world split open in a dramatic fashion why to teach the world the lesson you don't mess with the validity of the oral Torah and those who do will have to deal with God's Wrath wrath that can do anything wrath that can split the world in half Earth is like one big hard drive the toyra is the computer chip that gives it functionality to take the real Torah away from people is like handing someone a cell phone without a SIM card worthless insignificant the very Earth would not tolerate this therefore a noral death wouldn't suffice it wouldn't drive the message home enough Hashem wanted drama to show that this is serious the heritage of the Toyah rests squarely on our belief in our teachers that teach us Hashem will do whatever it takes to ensure that those that start up are shot down the Ten Commandments were split between two luas two tablets the common explanation for the two separate groups is that the first first five are between man and Hashem like belief in God and not saying hashem's name in vain and the second five are between fellow men like not murdering or not stealing the odd one out is aim honoring our parents it seems like a commandment between fellow man and yet it finds itself on the first set of five why is that so Ram RAF H explains that when we honor our parents we are doing more than merely giving back to them by serving them tea and coffee we are ensuring that the Heritage and Tyra that they received from their parents and their teachers are internalized in us we are ensuring that the link connecting us to sin remains firmly in place without proper respect towards our parents and teachers the Magnificent oral trans tradition we hold so deer will be lost therefore more than a command between man and his fellow K is actually between us and Hashem for through honoring our parents we are in turn standing up to the authenticity of the Torah that our parents taught us which is the ultimate bond between us and God Moshe was the most compassionate and selfless leader possible time and time again he would attempt to defend the defenseless he would knock on Heaven's doors beseeching Hashem to show pity on the wrongdoers he dug up Mercy when it was buried under a heap of sin yet kak was different he wasn't a mere sinner he wasn't like the others he was threatening to throw water on the oral torah's fire he was threatening to dismantle the heritage of Torah that Moshe so painstakingly built kirak had to be disposed of before other Jews lost their trust kak had to be rid of for the preciousness of our sacred Torah made it too important not to precisely because Moshe was so compassionate he refused to allow the rest of his Brethren to be potentially LED away from the beauty that is Torah in December 1988 a delegation of 33ed them traveled from Brooklyn to London to attend the wedding of their Reba's son so after spending several days in Thea Enclave of Stamford Hill learning and dancing and singing with the rebba they packed their bags ready to board their flight back home the next morning although short on time the decided to say one last goodbye to the rebba and get one final blessing to bring back with them to America they walked into the house that the rebba was staying in and the rebba secretary asked them what he could do for them so they said they want to wish the rebba fair well and they were wondering if the rebba had a moment or two for them to do so the secretary said of course the rebba has nothing scheduled for this morning let me go in and tell him you're here so a moment later the secretary returned and said the Reb is free now but would like to wait a few minutes before seeing you so theum said no problem they took a seat after a few minutes passed theum asked the secretary again to go in and ask if they could see the rebba now being that they they needed to catch a flight the secretary went back to the reer and came back saying the Reb said you should wait several more minutes and that there's no need to worry about missing the plane so 10 minutes passed and there was no word from the rebel the began to get nervous they were running out a time to make their flight should they leave despite the rebba telling them to stay with families to return to him businesses to attend how could they miss their flight but then again how could they disobey the rebba so they decided to stay 10 more minutes passed and the rebba finally called them in he looked up at them with tremendous warmth he told that he understood that he had made them wait but assured them that would all work out he shook their hands giving them warm blessings and walked them out to their waiting chartered bus anxious to try and still make their flight the kid wanted to jump in and speed off but the rebel wouldn't allow it he calmly walked them to the bus and almost deliberately slowly gave each one a lengthly and time consuming BR after he was finished they hopped on the bus they sped to the airport and they ran through through the terminal directly to their gate only to learn that their plane had left without them 1 minute prior the last flight to New York had lifted off and left leaving them stranded behind flustered and aggravated they sat down in the airport wondering what to do next a few minutes later there was a commotion in the airport hundreds of passengers began running to the small TV screens broadcasting terrific breaking news a PanAm airplane flying from Heathrow Airport had just blown up over lockerby Scotland killing all on board as well as 11 people on the street at the site of the crash theum ran to get a close glimpse of the screen they squinted to make out what the flight number was what they saw made their hearts stop beating the flight number was Pan m103 the exact plane theid were supposed to to travel on the very same plane theim had been intent on boarding the very plane that the 33 Kim were supposed to be on at that very moment but had missed by a mere minute a terrorist named Muhammad K al- marimi had convinced an unwitting passenger to carry a suitcase onto the plane in it was a bomb the plane had 243 passengers every single one died yet in the back of the plane there was exactly 33 seats that had remained empty empty because there would be occupants chose to listen to their rebba empty because the people who should have been sitting in them bowed to the greatness of their leader empty because theim who had reserved those seats humbled themselves to the link in their chain that connected them to Sinai the word Rabbi the word rebi the word RV the word rebba all share the same root r b the word RV means to increase or to make great our rabbis our rebas our rebies our spiritual leaders take with their holy hands the Heritage their teachers gave them and delicately give it to us with it they make us great with it they increase our sacredness those who disparage the live with a Heavenly Target on their backs those that rever them with the respect they properly deserve have Heavenly Angels protecting them to those who respect God's word hashem's got your back to those who don't watch out for the very Earth may just swallow you alive oh