Parshas Korach: Korach's Bad Hair Day

this Torah class is brought to you by Torah anytime.com begins took doesn't tell us exactly what did he take doesn't say what he took and who is kak so the PK identifies kak the son of yar the son of cahas the son of Ley together with dusam together with pel and the man Ruben okay Rashi is bothered by the following question and that is there is one name that is conspicuously absent from this P who is it kak the son of ysar the son of cahas the son of Ley and we're all waiting for the punchline the son of yobu and yacob's name is not mentioned in this why is yob name not mentioned in this P says Rashi yov was not mentioned because yov prayed for Mercy that his name should not be associated with the m with the dispute of korak where did yov ask for Mercy yov prayed in that in K's congregation I don't want to be Associated I want to have nothing at all to do with korak's argument so therefore the Torah says he's kak the son of the son of kah the son of Le but it leaves us hanging it does not mention yobu says Rashi yes yob is mentioned in when we give the lineage of K but in terms of mentioning in K's dispute with yacob's name has been omitted why because yob daved not to be associated with korak and the question is and this is uh raised by P freedom the in last year's addition why was it so important for not to be associated with the of did yovav that he shouldn't be Associated Witham after all which a was worth theim or K well because of theim all of Cl Isel died out in the midmar we have all Jewish is because of didn't say you know when those spies went to I won't have nothing to do with them didn't did yov DAV he doesn't want to be associated with the mm no did yov DAV he doesn't want to be associated with the Jews who complained that the yam did complain DAV that he shouldn't be associated with the Jews when they cried out for water of course not y has much better things to do with his time than to D not to be a associated with Jewish sin after all whether he likes it or not he's yobu he's our forefather and even if his name is not mentioned we all know who we Trace korak back to we all Trace back to yov so why was it so important for yov not to be associated with the of there were much greater Jewish tragedies and there were so many instances where y could have doubt not to be associated with it and he didn't say a word we we find something absolutely astounding and that is the name k where does the name kak come from have you ever seen that word before have you ever seen that name before so if you look back in we know that as had a number of descendants who were all the chiefs of so number four on your sheets Al these are the chief of the sons of as alas the sons of alas Al Al there was a Chie by the name ofon there was a Chie from as called K so you say who cares what a coincidence how cute there was somebody by the name of kar and there was someone by the the name of K who was the son of as wonderful says how were the Ben Ley how were the descents of Ley allowed to call their son k k is the name of as son you can't use the name of says the names of the wicked rat says the G number seven laar ra T rust should rise up on the names of the r that means if you had a great grandfather named Hitler you know what you should do with that name take it put it on a high shelf and let it collect dust together with your encyclopedia britanica right let it let it sit on the top shelf and stay there and get rusty and dusty but don't use it it doesn't matter how much pressure your mother-in-law is putting on you you cannot use the name of arasha you can't use the name ofas so ask how were the allowed to name their kid k k is one of the descendants of as look look at the words of look at number five I wonder I question I'm criticizing says the sons of they called their son's name but you're not allowed to use the name of a and look what happened to him in other words saying you want to know what caused K's downfall it wasn't his jealousy it wasn't his arrogance it wasn't anything it was his name he was named after a Russ says now I understand the meaning of the it says took what did he take the tah doesn't say what he took says you know what the means that despite the fact that his father was a and his grandfather was a and his great-grandfather was another so you would expect after all the gar says if three generations in a row you're good to go it's smooth sailing from there and on so you would have expect kak would be the next godor no the fact that his ancestors named him kak took away all of his it wiped him clean it wiped away the fact his father was y his grandfather was Kus his great grandfather was Ley he was empty he was completely bereft of all Rus why because his parents and grandparents did not have the good sense to give him a good name says and in fact the in fact the does not only mention this but even in the says I cannot understand in a sense how the B Le the Bas Ley who are all responsible the same way even today the whole family puts the pressure on so the Bas Ley how could they allow such a name to be given so says obviously they were not concerned with this gar that says you can't name after rash says they gave other bad names like zema right they like calling him adulterer they had what descendant zema so says in my opinion you know what caused K's downfall his bad name that's what says so while this is a very amazing incredible in what caused K's downfall but we are obligated to defend the B after all Ser says he has a he has a Wonder on the B how could they give such a name so we're talking about some of the greatest alltime people in history Yar kah they Carri the AR what were they thinking so what we'd like to Endeavor to explain this evening is what exactly were the B Ley thinking when their baby son was born and as the rabbi is about to say they whispered into his ear I mean what got into them what got into them right calls them sikim sikim what were they thinking okay so let's get a little introduction to the background of the dispute of continuing on to says there was one man who joined in the dispute who was saved yeah saved by his wife says the his wife saved him what happened she says stay away stay away don't join so he said sorry it's too late I already went to the board meeting and you know we we we swore we swore we made a pack that we're all going to be participating in this uh in this pact against M so she said here's the deal I'm going to save you she gave him something good to drink yeah some good bourbon and some you know powerful drink and she put him to sleep and she stood outside the tent and what did she do says thear she uncovered her hair she said to herself wherever you have a good you always have a good rationalization these guys must be big fies they're far fromed they would never look at a woman's hair so she uncovered her hair if you came here tonight just to hear the following a woman is biblically obligated a married woman is biblically obligated to cover her hair for a woman to keep her hair uncovered is a violation of a Biblical mitzvah in fact a man may not DAV may not learn in the presence of a woman who who here is uncovered it's considered anaa and a from man would never look at a a married woman's hair so therefore she uncovered her hair and came he turned around right came they ran away so was saved by his wife beautiful how about kak kak's wife incited him how did K's wife incite him she said listen this m look what he's doing to you m who's the king m is the king who's the high priest aon's the high priest someone wants to give truma M says give it to the fine you get the but then comes along and says all who have give 10% to the so he's taking everything to for himself then he shaved off all your hair he took a razor and he went from head to toe took off the hair of your head the hair of your mustache the hair of your beard and all the rest of the hair on your body every every Last Blade of hair and you look like you know if you're from bfra or something I don't even know what you look like you look disgusting K I don't even know who you are anymore what country do you come from and Aron no he looks like a million bucks he dressed him up with the big mzn and the gold plate and he has the nice curly locks he's a handsome guy but you K okay you know you look like you're wanted by the FBI [Music] now you know why because M was jealous of your hair he liked the way you you know he liked your hair the look he liked your haircut you know and he didn't want you to walk around you know with that handsome head of hair sobody should just shaved it all off like what is she talking about and anyway so K said you're right and kak gathered together 250 men he said you took the Mal you took the Kahuna you took the truma and that's where the war against M started so what we have over here is a very hairy episode that it seems like on the one hand o p he was saved by his wife's hair and he was persuaded by his wife's argument that Mo was trying to remove his hair what was she talking about when Didu remove K's hair so if you remember in if you were still paying attention for the third of the so in the fifth purify them any here all right so you ready you want to hear how you became a Ley this is how you purify them first you sprinkle on them the purification water okay that you can handle right then take a razor and you shave off all their hair that's how a Ley became a Ley so K said yeah but mha did that to himself too so she said don't talk back to me I don't want to hear about that the whole argument that kak's wife gave why he should start off with mha is because mha removed kak's hair in fact you look in theida that when Hashem told M take the and shave off their hair so M took K he shaved him like the bald eagle so he went around to CLA Israel they didn't recognize him then when they saw him they they opened up their W they started giving him nickels and they said who did this to you he said mha and not only that mha lifted me up like my foot and he waved me like a karus chicken and he said he waved me like I'm ay I'm toar and then look at Aon Aon is all dressed up like a Kala he has all these BM these Stones you can't get anywhere near him everyone's you know he walks around and the bells are going off and I look like you know so then that is what started so what we're learning now is there seems to be something very mysterious about this episode that it's centered around hair on the one hand how is pel saved his wife uncovers her hair on the other hand how is k k persuaded to be instigated against the fact that all of his hair was shaved off what exactly is it about the hair that this is the central point of the episode of okay we find also there were two individuals in Jewish history Yakov and asov physically speaking what was the main difference between yakob ofo and ASA ASA was a hairy dude right ASA was a hairy guy yob on the other hand was is he's smooth you know his beard maybe didn't come in he got a few Sprouts when he was 33 you know some Yak ainos you know some kids are already shaving when they're 10 years old right and some kids you know they still waiting for it to come in yob was a smooth guy as was in is what is the concept of hair in Jewish thought what does it represent and what is the process that the Lev had to shave off all their hair okay we're talking about everything eyebrows eyelash that was the proc what was that process says the abarbanel okay this is a very authentic Source now Abel was from the G the 15th century says Abel the job of the Ley the job of the Ley is what to be dedicated to serve Hashem and the times that the B of mikdash stood a Ley did not have land in Earth Israel no real estate not only that a Ley did not fight in the Israeli Army wasn't allowed to he had a different occupation the Ley was dedic ated to serving the re he had no inheritance he had no physical rights he had no land he had no job how did he make money the Jewish people had to give him gifts says the r that is why the B Ley they taught Tyra they separated from the mundane they didn't wage war they didn't inherit what did they inherit says I am your inheritance by the way it's interesting to know that you know with this whole uh issue about Yesa in the Army and this is we mentioned says the r not only sh Le was not allowed to serve in the Army but any Jew who sets him side sets himself aside to learn Torah to be dedicated to Hashem does not serve in the Army according to the which means is it is forbidden to draft someone who would like to lead his life like sh Ley that is open and the ra there's no disagreement about that so this is the concept the B Ley needed to set aside themselves to be separate from the mundane says the you know what hair represents hair is dispensible you could live without it you can't live if someone would cut off your nose it ain't going to work some would cut off your toes it ain't going to work any part of your body you need the hair is dispensable it grows back you could live just fine without it hair sayso represents what we call MOS luxury luxury what's luxury you can live without luxuries you can live without Necessities but you could live without luxuries person needs a house to live in person needs food person needs air you don't need your car to be fully loaded that's a luxury hair represents luxuries you don't need certain Comforts some Comforts are necessities Comforts are luxury hair says theel in Jewish thought represents luxury the L because their role in clis was to be separate from the rest of the people to dedicate themselves to Hashem if someone is interested and pursues luxury they cannot be focused on service of Hashem and therefore the who were they needed to dedicate themselves to hem they cut off their hair in the symbolic Act of separating from luxury it's not the hair per se the point is not there's a you should have hair you shouldn't have hair the point is the lesson is the symbolic Act of cutting the hair is a separation from M luxury this is also annunciated by the AR not related to you look in your one of the one of the main commentaries on is the written by number hair reflects luxury the reason the leim cut off their hair is to show a certain disconnect a lack of pursuing luxury says where does hair come from so if you understand says I'm going to explain to you scientifically where hair comes from hair is the buildup of excess fluid in the body in certain locations says IIT for example the B what's the B the armpit that is a place which produces a lot of moisture Sweat There is excess moisture in that area that is where there is excess hair that's where hair comes from hair comes from excessiveness in the body it reflects luxury the same way you don't need that excess fluid the hair is reflective of luxury you have excess fluid in other parts of the body that's why there's hair over there say azer what's azer right the nozer says I'm not going to drink wine for 30 days so we tell them that's very nice for 30 days you're separating from luxury but what about for the rest of your life the rest of your life you're going to indulge so we tell the nozer after you finished your 30 days of not drinking wine in order to carry it with you for the rest of your life cut off all your hair this way you'll be able to inculcate within yourself the recognition that is not proper to pursue luxury hair represents luxury say that is why the Le were told to cut off their hair because the job of the Le was to dedicate themselves to hasem those who are inclined toward luxury they're not able to free up their mind to be able to serve properly and now say with this we could explain a very difficult gar the says of anyone who ever lived who was the wealthiest man who ever livedo jakov rman who is the wealthiest man whoever lived y was the wealthiest man who ever lived how much money did he have every last penny that existed on planet Earth that after a while people had no food so they completely exhausted all of their money y had all their money what happened to his money how much of it did y use not one penny he did not touch one penny where did the money go it was hidden did anyone ever find it says most people think it's good to be wealthy it's good to be rich says the gamar not necessarily there's something called sh wealth that is preserved for its owner for his harm says sometimes God gives a person money to harm him right so we're thinking yeah bring on the harm right bring on the harm but says sometimes money is disastrous where is there an illustration of money causing someone harm K where did kak get money from he found onethird of the treasury of Y so after y who is the wealthiest man who ever lived and who found the second third antoninus antoninus was the Roman Emperor and and it's well known that rebi REI was very wealthy where' he get his money from suggested antoninus who had oneir of yose's bank account he gave money to RAB and how about the third third says the gar it is set aside for theik right even in you need money right so it says the gamar there are three parts of the treasury one3 to kak oneir to antoninus and one3 for the says the you how much money had he needed 300 white donkeys just to carry the keys to his treasuries okay he needed 300 white donkeys why white cuz thear says elsewhere if a white donkey kicks you that's the end of you so he had you know special protection 300 white donkeys just to carry the load of the keys of his treasuries now kak you know what it is a guy he opens up his wallet he sees his bank statement he's in checking plus he has a nickel in his wallet so how does he walk into the sh you know he's hunched over he's he's he feels very humble he feels like you know he ain't worth too much then a guy he looks at his account he has a million dollars all of a sudden he's 10 in higher someone steps on his toe he'll step on him right you feel like a that's renge you feel like an important person money right money makes you taller makes you more confident says the gar money puts you on your feet it's you can have two people they were born on the same date they're identical twins one of them is three feet taller than the other one why one guy is poor the other guy is wealthy money you know that's the way of the world says the gamar you know what caused kak's downfall he had too much money he had too much money and he had too much money he says I'm wealthy that means I'm smart you know how it is people who have money people think they're smart and they're talented right everything comes with money right if you have money that means you're smart you're talented you have good advice no one has nothing to do with the other there are many smart people who don't have money and definitely vice versa so therefore the gamar says what caused K's downfall was his money ask IET that's not what the medish says the med says what caused his downfall was Misha cutting off his hair so what was it was it his money or his lack of hair say it's the same thing because the desire for hair the desire for luxury is the same desire for money when kak saw himself with a lot of money you know what he was thinking he was thinking of all the Exotic vacations he could go on he was thinking of all the fancy things he could buy he was thinking about all the wonderful things he could do with his money all the people he could step on and that stem from his desire for luxury and his uncomfortability with his lack of SE hair so says what instigated K against Mo raenu was his desire for luxury says the were certainly they certainly had Divine Spirit they saw into the future and they saw their descendant would be faced with the greatest challenge you know if we were to ask what's a greater challenge to be rich or to be poor so say of course to be poor is a much greater challenge all theim say emphatically being wealthy is a much greater challenge to observance than being poor if you're poor you're humble you have to come on to ream you always thinking you're daving you're someone who's wealthy forget God right so the B look at their great descendant and they say how's he going to pass the test he's going to be so wealthy he's going to desire luxury he's going to desire wealth he's going to desire money let's name him after someone who that name reflects the lack of Desire for luxury let's name him kak you know what kak means in Hebrew bold how do you say a bold person in Hebrew was named bold because what does it mean bold bold means not having hair hair reflects the desire for luxury so the the saw to the Future what would be so they gave him a very positive name a name that could help him in his assist him in his challenge they called him Baldi they called him one without hair the smooth one the smooth one because they felt if kak would focus on the importance of not being interested in M hair that would assist him in his challenge says so Hashem sent my way I stumbled across Z who says almost this concept explicitly sayses why was K called K you know what K means says it means bold why was he called because what did do to his hair shaved him bald why did mosha shave him bald Because mosha by the way who was the chief Ley who is the head Ley who is the most prestigious ladyy says was the chief Ley so M took him M was from the family he knew what K's challenge would be he knew what K had a focus on he shaved him bold that why is why he was called K so on the one hand the says that what cause K's downfall was he was named after the as but what we are doing is we're defending the B the B had a very Noble intention they intentionally purposely called him this name to assist him to help him overcome his desire for luxury said listen to the following there was a man by the name of benazzi benaz was a great Tana benaz never got married but benaz was a smart guy Ben was so smart he said the following all the Jewish sages to me are like a garlic peel how much does a clove of garlic cost in the store how much I'm not sure how what does it cost it's like a dollar for a whole a dollar for a whole Z right how much is a garlic peel they'll pay you to take it right they'll pay you to take a garlic peel says all the to me they're like garlic peels except for I respect kak kak is who's kak K wasn't a Tana you hear what as they saying to me all the tan are like garlic peels not onion peels garlic peels except for K except for K who's K who's K says Rashi let me tell you who K is re AKA Rea was called K that is why says Rashi you have someone in ch reua k Rua the son of K who's k r AKA like thear says in Shu sh Rua the son of Raba said says Rashi K was the name of RAB AKA wow that's pretty amazing says is name why is calling Calla something wrong with the name AKA says T I feel K as someone else AAR he took the job when he was 18 he's still waiting for the beard to kick in so his face was like bold soari was K to him it was a praise why because if you're 18 years old and you don't have you know the beard in okay that's that means you're a brilliant kid and you got the job even before the beard came in right however says tus it can't be RAB AK R is a grown man why would anyone call him k good question right so now we have to defend rashi rashi says was a name for RAB how do we explain that tells us that RAB AKA shared a with yov well known yov and RAB AKA they shared their soul there was a special connection between the soul of yob ainu and the soul in fact writes in his great work of bibliography the that there was a reine by the name of wrote a saer calleda now why would a man by the name of write a sa called arara because one day he was writing about the of spelling a name and he came to the name of and he didn't know how to spell it or B so he didn't know what to do so he fell as sleep and in his sleep he had a dream and in his dream they showed him the following P what does that mean had had no meaning to him until he realized you take the last letter of each word with what letter r and he was so happy and Overjoyed that hasem sent him this that he named Hiser but we don't pass like how do we spell why Al says the name of the because and had a similar and if you take the words in number 26 spells re with an Al a Roya the great Shepherd RAB AKA aov also says vob and are the same letters see except for the AL the AL is forish and that's for a different time so we're learning is that there is a strong connection between [Music] and what was Yu description in the is he's smooth What isa's description K also smooth without hair says the saer K the reason why was called K is that was the name of yob yob was yob was a he was bald meaning what yov excelled in the mid ofos not being interested in luxury being satisfied with necessity with necessity says says God please give me bread to eat and clothing to wear oh really bread to eat and clothing to wear and not bread to wear and clothing to eat I mean what's saying give me bread to eat I know what we right we know what we do with bread and clothing to wear we know what you do with clothing why does say bread to eat clothing to wear says sayik from you know what sikim ask from God they don't ask for luxury they only ask for necessity because yesterday's luxury becomes today's necessity says the desire for luxury spells disaster spells disaster the words the desire for luxury spells disaster who is the greatest illustration of the desire for luxury spelling disaster but is a he asked all I want is bread to eat all I need is clothing to wear all I need is what I need not what I want but what I need that was the says you look around the world what does a human being need more than anything else air air thank you Isaac Air that is why more than anything else in the world you have air there's air everywhere even in this room now right there is air everywhere and it's free the biggest necessity is in the greatest abundance after air what is needed the most water water is the second biggest need it's found second most in abundance after water do you need diamonds maybe your wife needs diamonds but do you need diamonds no do you need Jewels you need emeralds you don't need them that's why they're very rich what what is a necessity what is a necessity is what food it's found in abundance right just come to our so air water food these are all found in great abundance that which that which you don't need which is not a necessity is found in limited quality that is theid the of is that is the personification of yov what is yov called in smooth without hair hair represents luxury who else is calleda Raba is called K in the G why and are the samea forsook all the money in the world from his father-in-law and he went off to learn Tyra re forsook luxury is is is the B Le see in the future that their great descendant K is going to be faced with the greatest challenge in history the wealth of Y how's he going to face how's he going to react to the greatest challenge of air so you know what name they give himer criticizes the but the B had a very Noble intention they named him K the name of the name of Yu they wanted him to be able to separate from hair from mice rice from luxury is it any Wonder then that y I want to have nothing to do with this guy named after that was jakob's name is likea they purposely named him after yob so that could be able to G from satisfied we're going to get to that so you want to he wanted him to be satisfied but K took the name and he chose to utilize it in the wrong direction and with this we're explaining this concept that a person is affected by their name what does it mean that means someone who's named after Russia they lose their free will someone who's named after sadic they're going to be the next God right you have people people their named are you know May so all of a sudden they're going to be the next go no of course not a name has a certain influence you could glean from it the good and it could also if you don't use it properly could take you in the other direction a name it doesn't change your faith doesn't Force you it's up to you you still have your free will the K wanted to influence K name him after Yu but when kak did not learn from the of said let him not name himself after me I don't want to be associated with him yob didn't DAV not to be associated with the Morag with the mm with anybody else because nobody else was trying to be named after yob nobody else was trying to emulate yob but the purposely named after yob that was y's name that wasa's name is is says this is unbelievable reab AKA what did RAB AKA do for a perk you know you may say if a person is not interested in uh luxury if a person doesn't pursue luxury you need some perk in life you know you just Coast through life the same you know food every day the same you need some excitement so says get your excitement from Hashem from Tyra so listen to what Raba did of all the tan in history there is no one who utilized every word of Tyra like reaba we know even shim he tried to explain every single word in Torah and he got stuck on s s right he came he dared every s in the Torah until he came to and he dared goes up to and he sees a guy in heaven daring every single crown on every letter in the says who is this guy hasem says he's says listen to this those hairs that emanated from the letters of the T those those who Dar them says what was what wasa's name in other words he utilized every ounce of desire for extra he utilized it on the of the the hairs of the Tyra you look in a sa forra letters have hairs sticking out of them Raba understood the meaning of every hair in the Tyra why because he was K he was bold from desire for luxury and that was K down and it's no wonder says we know the mid of as as is compared to which animal the pig the pig advertises it's Kos it advertises its front two legs are split right why because it wants to advertise that on the outside it's he's a fir guy so K so as says hm if I have a child what should I name him to advertise my hypocrisy I'll name him like Yakov Vino I'll name him K this way we advertise that we're not interested in luxury we we serve God we'll name him K so the B were trying to use false PR false advertisement they named their son K understood you know what maybe we could something we could glean from theid ofu that will help K and his help K in his challenge but ultimately the central issue was comes along the life of and she uncovers K's plot you're not interested in luxury you don't want honor it's not true you're a big fake you're a big phony P's wife comes out and publicly uncovers her hair to show K this is what you're all about you're all about you're all about the desire for m r you're all about the desire for luxury and ultimately what caused K downfall what do his wife saidu is jealous about your hair and K said you know what you're right so this is the LI the LI from is tried to inculcate into the desire not to pursue not to pursue luxury to learn from the name had a positive spin on it it was the name of Rea it's the name of Yu but K used it and ultimately it brought to his downfall but it's a mid that ultimately we can be M cuz if you look in the on this week's he says that will be able to be rectified because the words is will learn his lesson and we'll be able we'll all be able to learn from this story The Importance in life to be satisfied to be m toic with what we need not what we want have a wonderful evening you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by Torah anytime.com