You have taken too much upon yourselves, sons of Levi (16:7)

Did Korach really think he was going to be successful against Moshe and Aharon?

A competition was set-up between Aharon, Korach, and Korach’s followers, and the losers would die. Korach thought he would win because he saw through prophesy that a great Prophet named Shmuel would come from him. If Shmuel is to come from him then it must be that he and his family survive, which would only happen if he wins.

This was very logical thinking, but something happened which he did not expect – Korach’s children did tshuvah. They repented and therefore they survived. Since they survived, offspring were able to come from them and Shmuel was eventually born from them. So, the prophesy was correct – Shmuel would come from Korach. The only thing was that this did not happen the way Korach had planned it. Korach believed it was because he would beat Moshe and would survive, but in actuality, it was because his children did not compete and therefore did not die.

There’s a story told about Shaya the Miser. Shaya was extremely wealthy and lived in a town with many poor people, but he never helped them. The poor people would knock on his door and he would welcome them in. He would ask them their name and address and talk with them. Then, when the poor person would ask for money, Shaya would throw them out of his house without giving them a donation.

Shaya was on his deathbed and the Rav of the community tried one last time to get some money out of Shaya. He promised Shaya that he would get a nice portion in the World to Come if he would make a large donation to the poor people of the community, but Shaya refused. Before the Rav left, Shaya handed the Rav an envelope and said to open it after he passed away. A short time later, Shaya died and the Chevra Kadisha (burial society) refused to bury him.

The next morning, there was a knock upon the Rav’s door from a poor person in the community. The poor person asked the Rav if he could have a donation for Shabbos food. The Rav happily gave the person, but before the poor person left another poor person knocked on the door to ask for a donation. Suddenly, there were many poor people knocking. The Rav asked the people why they had all suddenly started coming to him for donations and they all responded that they used to receive an envelope with money in it every week on Thursday night. For some reason, the envelope did not come this week. The Rav started thinking and then he realized what happened… Shaya secretly supported all of the poor people in the community for many years. He acted like a miser but was really a tzaddik! Then, the Rav remembered that Shaya gave him a letter and he quickly opened it. It was Shaya’s will and it left all of his money to the poor people of the community.

The Rav announced for everyone to gather together immediately for the funeral of great person… Shaya! Everyone then realized how mistaken they were about this person.

Korach made a logical conclusion. The community said Shaya was a terrible person and that was a logical conclusion based on the facts they had. But they were both wrong. The lesson to us is to always be extra careful when making a conclusion because things are not always as they seem.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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