Parasha Thoughts
By Rabbi Michael Segankohanim
This week once again we read the infamous story of Korach. In the annals of Jewish history Korach goes down as an egomaniac whose ego brought havoc and chaos to a nation and tragedy and death for hundreds of people. Yet our Rabbis teach us that Korach WAS a great man who made a miscalculation and as a result brought annihilation upon himself. Where did he go wrong? We find a very cryptic statement from the holy Arizal regarding Korach. We know that each hebrew word also carries a numerical value. The Arizal comments that “the numerical value of Korach is 308, and if we add to that the numerical value of Hevel which is 37, then we get 345, which is the numerical value of Moshe. So you add Korach and Hevel and you get Moshe.”
Fascinating! But what does it all mean? Who cares if the sum of the numerical values of these two personalities adds up to the value of Moshe? The Shem Mishemuel explains that what we must understand is the true nature of humility. A lot of people mistake low self-confidence for humility; the Torah teaches us that nothing could be further from the truth. A humble person is not someone who doesn’t appreciate his own worth and his abilities. On the contrary, humility comes from a very clear recognition of one’s own talents and abilities. The humble person is so confident of his capacity that he doesn’t see any reason why that should make him feel superior. If anything, since he’s blessed with potential, he feels he must be responsible for it. It is the feeling of being superior to others that is the antithesis of humility, but self-confidence is a must AND a prerequisite for humility.
Shem Mishemuel notes that Hevel figured out a superior method for serving Hashem. It would have been natural to share his insight with his brother but he didn’t do so because he was plagued with self-doubt; ” Who says I’m right? After all, my brother is older than me! why would he listen to me?” etc… Such an attitude is incorrect as explained above.
On the other extreme we have Korach who was a great person and had a lot of potential, but he allowed himself to feel superior, look down upon others, and see no worth in them – an attitude equally undesirable and wrong. The golden path is to find the balance between the two, something that Moshe mastered; he knew of his own abilities and tremendous potential and never doubted them. At the same time, The Torah testifies that he was truly blessed with humility; he never thought that his extraordinary abilities made him superior OVER others. Rather, he felt MORE RESPONSIBLE than others. He mastered the job of merging the extreme of Hevel with the extreme of Korach and found the right balance. That is what is meant by his name being the sum of these two personalities. This is the message of this story for us; Strive; always strive for this glorious balance.