When the Jews were in the desert, there was a fellow named Korach from the tribe of Levi who was resentful of the fact that he did not attain the lofty position he felt he was worthy of. As a result, he incited many other Jews to quarrel against Moshe (Moses) and to deny the fact that these positions were bestowed upon their recipients directly from G-d. Rather, (Korach espoused), Moshe arbitrarily assigned these positions to himself, his brother Aharon (Aaron) and whoever found favor in his eyes. He also cried, “The entire assembly is holy… (i.e. we don’t need leaders to guide us! We are all great enough to lead ourselves)!” In order to make this claim more palatable, he led his assembly to believe that the entire Torah was an invention of Moshe’s imagination and not handed down by G-d at Sinai.
In the ultimate showdown, Moshe announced that if G-d indeed sent me, a new creation will occur in which the earth will open its mouth and swallow Korach and his assembly alive. That miraculous event occurred and they and all their possessions were sucked in to the mouth of the earth, burying them!
This incident is referred to by the Sages as the “dispute of Korach and his Assembly.” Why is it not referred to as the dispute between Moshe and Korach? One approach is because Moshe is not considered a disputant in this argument. In fact, the Torah relates that Moshe attempted to restore peace and his efforts were repelled!
However, one may still wonder, why is it called the” dispute of Korach and his assembly?” Weren’t they all on the same side?! The Rabbis explain that although to an outsider it might have appeared as if they were all on the same side, in truth, each and every person had their own personal motivation to quarrel with Moshe! They just banded together as a matter of convenience but it was only for each individual to promote his own agenda.
The lust for honor and power can literally blind a person to the truth. Didn’t Korach himself observe that G-d spoke to Moshe at Sinai?!
Furthermore, Korach was hypocritically attempting to bestow upon himself the honor which he claimed that Moshe and Aharon took for themselves undeservedly!
A person should always suspect his own motives and not just follow his inclinations wherever they lead him.

By Rabbi Sharaga Thav
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