Author: Steven R. Bruck
Parashah Korach 2022 (Korach) Numbers 16 – 18
The Israelites are in the desert, and three men, Abiram, Dathan (both from the tribe of Rueben) and their leader, the Levite Korach, rebel against Moses. They have also collected 250 leading men from the 12 tribes to join them in demanding that Moses and Aaron allow other men to act as Cohen to Adonai. They accuse Moses and Aaron of appointing themselves the leaders.
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Moses and Aaron, by instruction from God, tell the 250 men, as well as their leaders, to take their incense pans, fill them with fire and incense and bring them before the Tent of Meeting the next morning.
Note: the offering of incense was only to be performed by the Cohen. By having the 250 rebels do this, Moses had them take the place of the Cohen. Since God told Moses to do this, we see later that the result was their death, just as God destroyed Nadab and Abihu, to prove that God did not accept their offering because they weren’t the ones he wanted in charge.
Today, they would have received a nice letter saying that the position they applied for has been filled.
Dathan and Abiram refuse to attend this gathering, so Moses goes to their tents, warning everyone around them to leave that area or be caught up in what was to happen.
And what happened was that Moses said if he was not placed in charge by God, then these men would live a full life; but, if it is God who placed Moses in charge, then the earth will open up and swallow these men, their family, and all they have down to Sheol, alive.
And that is exactly what happened.
At the same time, fire comes forth from God and incinerates all 250 men.
Moses instructs the sons of Aaron and their cousins to take the fire pans and beat them into a covering for the altar, since they are now holy items, and to carry the carcasses out of the camp.
After seeing this, the people (still not getting the idea) accuse Moses and Aaron of killing these men. God becomes so angry with the people he tells Moses he will destroy them and sends a plague, which Aaron stops by taking incense into the middle of the dying people and thereby stopping the plague.
But not until after some 14,700 people died.
God tells Moses to have each tribal leader write his name on his staff, as well as Aaron, and place them in the Tent of Meeting. God will then show everyone his choice of Cohen by making that person’s staff grow buds. Aaron’s staff shows not just buds, but flowers and ripe almonds, as well.
The people are now afraid to even come close to the Tent of Meeting, as they believe anyone coming before the tent will result in their death.
The parashah ends with God reiterating the duties of and payments to the Levites, and how it is their responsibility to guard the Sanctuary by surrounding it to make sure none of the people get too close, which would incur God’s wrath and punishment.
We don’t know when this rebellion took place. I looked at a number of different websites, and they all talked about the rebellion, but none seemed to know when it took place during the trip from Egypt to the final entry into the land of Canaan.
The events in the Torah are not in strict chronological order, and I see two references in this parashah which could indicate the rebellion happened either on the way to Canaan, or just after the doomed attack on Canaan (Numbers 14:39-45).
One indication that this was before the Canaan attack is that one of the accusations made against Moses is that he failed to bring them into the promised land, leading them from the land of milk and honey” to die in the desert (Numbers 16:13-14). Even though the reference to the land of milk and honey has mostly referred to Canaan, I believe they might have been talking about Egypt. The reason for that is because up to this time, all the complaints referred to Egypt as a better place, one where they were well fed and happy (how soon they forget, right?).
On the other hand, it could also be right after Adonai told Moses to take the people away from Canaan so that the people who refused to enter would die in the desert (Numbers 14:28-30).
I don’t think it is necessary to know when this event took place, but if I had to guess, I would say it happened after the defeat of the people trying to enter Canaan the first time.
I feel this way because even though Moses told the people about God’s refusal to let them enter the land, they continued to blame Moses. They always blamed Moses for everything they didn’t like, and this time was no different. They just didn’t “get it”: they didn’t recognize that God was running the show and not Moses. Despite the many miraculous events God performed, they still thought Moses was doing it.
Another reason I think this happened just after the failed attempt to enter Canaan is that even though we know events in this book aren’t always in chronological order, the remaining chapters are about the death of Miriam, Aaron, and Moses, with some events happening just before they enter the land of Canaan.
One lesson we can glean from this story is to know when it is right to question authority. I have heard that Korach, Dathan and Abiram got together because they had similar objectives: Korach wanted to be in a position of authority, and the Reubenites wanted to be reestablished as leaders, since Reuben was the first born (but he lost that honor because he slept with his father’s concubine).
They could easily have planned this out as they travelled together since their positions in the order of march had them next to each other.
So when should we question those in authority over us, and how should we approach them? In this case, an open rebellion didn’t work out well, mainly because they had plenty of opportunity to see that God was unquestionably working through Moses.
I would have questioned the right of the 250 men to be in leadership because they so easily fell under the influence of Korach.
I suppose this is a really tough question, and depends on many factors: who first placed the people in leadership, are the leaders doing things against the people or just not explained to the people, and who would be available to replace the leadership?
The most important thing, I think, is what procedures are established for this type of problem? Impeachment? Recall? Vote of Confidence? Coup d’état?
I guess I’ll end today’s message, and answer my question with this: maybe the most important thing for us to learn is that when we are in a position of leadership, we need to be able to ensure that what we do is right with God, because if we have to deal with a Korach, it would be best to have God on our side.
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That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!
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In Judaism, the Heart is The Mind
In a world where we try to be better at everything, where you can go to almost any media and find someone who will tell you how to be a better person, how to communicate better with others, how to be in better shape, how to…well, how to be better at just about anything.
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Of all the things we are trying to do to better ourselves, having both a healthy mind and a healthy heart is among the most desired conditions.
In Judaism, we believe that the heart and mind are actually one and the same thing.
The Hebrew word for heart is “leb” (לב), but although it is a separate organ from the mind, it is not separate spiritually.
In the prayer called the V’ahavta (You are to love) found in Deuteronomy 6:4-9, we are told:
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Some versions of the Bible say with all thy heart and all thy mind, and in Judaic thought, these are one and the same. We are being told to love God with both our emotions and intellect.
In today’s world, you hear people advising others to make decisions with their mind and not their heart, because the gentile world sees the heart as emotion, and the mind as intellect.
In Jewish thought, the heart is the center of the intellect, directing us to make decisions based on our feelings as well as our sensibility.
In the Book of Proverbs, we read often of the mind and the heart as being the same thing. For instance:
The heart of the wise instructs his mouth and adds persuasiveness to his lips.” (Prov. 16:23)
That indicates that our heart is able to make wise decisions which enable us to better communicate our feelings and thoughts to others.
At the prelude to Proverbs, in Proverbs 2:10-11, the writer states that when Adonai gives wisdom, the wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be enjoyable to you.
The Chasidic Jews believe (at least, those of Chabad) that there is one mind, but two hearts. The outer heart is one that chases the worldly things, and the inner heart is the fire of the soul. The mind is the key to the inner heart, which is the more spiritually guided aspect of our personality.
If this sounds Freudian to you, it certainly does to me, too. The inner heart would be the Ego, the outer heart would be the Id, and the mind would be the Superego.
You know, Freud was Jewish- maybe what we now call modern psychoanalysis is really just what Jews have known about for centuries?
I believe we need to be led by our hearts and guided by our minds. The heart and mind need to work together, the heart allowing us to have an emotional connection to others, feeling compassion and empathy, with the mind reining us in from foolishly allowing others to take advantage of our kindness, or rushing into things that appeal to our desire for worldly things.
Mind and heart, heart and mind, both are necessary to gain spiritual understanding and wisdom. And if you ask me, I will agree with that Jewish tent maker from Tarsus when, in his first letter to the Kehillah in Corinth, he told them that he might have many gifts, but without love, he is nothing.
Thank you for being here and please share these messages, subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, buy my books, and join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (please make sure to read and agree to the rules).
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That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
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Does God Change His Mind?
Of course he does- he changed it for Moses more than once, right?
When the people sinned with the Golden Calf and God said he would destroy them, didn’t he tell Moses that he wouldn’t do that, after all, since Moses pleaded with him for the sake of the people? (Exodus 32:10-14; Deuteronomy 9:13-14)
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Even before that, when God sent angels to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, didn’t Abraham negotiate a deal with God, making him change his mind and promise not to destroy it if there were as few as 10 righteous men there?
(Of course, God kind of cheated on that one, since he already knew there were no righteous men there, to begin with. But I think he did it so that Abraham could feel helpful.)
And what about Nineveh? God decided he would destroy them, but he sent Jonah as a last-ditch effort to save them. Lucky for Nineveh, they listened, although in the long run it only delayed the inevitable.
So it certainly seems that God will change his mind. But that brings up a problem: if God will change his mind about things, does that mean he might change his mind about salvation?
Yeah, yeah, I know…we are told that salvation cannot be taken away by anyone (John 6:37-40, for one), but God isn’t just anyone- he is God.
Job tells us that the Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. In other words, that which God gives, he also can take away- it is up to him. After all, who can hold God accountable? Who can tell God “You can’t do that!”?
We are told that God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow (Ecclesiastes 3:14; Malachi 3:6), but then we are also told about how he gives and takes away, how he changes his mind, so if he is the same, then how can he change his mind?
And, as I said earlier, if he can change his mind, then how can we trust in the promise of salvation? Or, for that matter, any of the promises he’s made?
I’ll tell you what I believe is the answer- God doesn’t change his mind, and his promises are so trustworthy, that whatever God says will be, has already been.
But, but, but…what about Abraham? What about Moses? What about the other times (you can find more examples in the Bible if you look for them) God said he wouldn’t do what he said he wanted to do.
Aha! As Shakespeare would say- “There’s the rub!”
The operative word in what I just said is that God said he wanted to do- not that he would do.
When God told Moses to go down from the mountain because the people had sinned (with the Golden Calf), he didn’t tell Moses he decided to destroy them. He asked Moses to leave him alone so that he could destroy them: in other words, he was asking Moses to allow him to destroy them and make a nation from Moses, but he didn’t tell Moses that he will destroy them.
A subtle difference but a significant one.
The same with Abraham. God’s angels said they were sent to destroy the cities, and all Abraham accomplished was to negotiate a cease fire, so to speak, based on something that (as I already pointed out) God knew wasn’t the case.
We need to remember something that I learned long ago when I was in Sales:
People don’t mean what they say, they mean what they do.
God, on the other hand, means what he says and does what he says he will do. He is 1,000% trustworthy and reliable to do what he says, which includes the promise of salvation. We may be confused by the wording in the Bible, which makes it appear that he will change his mind once he decided what to do.
But that is our misunderstanding, and not a case of God changing his mind.
The JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh, recognized as one of the best interpretations of the Tanakh, tells us that God asks Moses to “let me be” so that his anger may blaze against the people and that he may destroy them. Later in that passage, it says God “renounced the punishment he had planned to bring upon the people.”
Planned to bring is not decided to do.
After all, plans are flexible, and when we decide to go another way because the original plan won’t do what we need, is that changing our mind?
Well, OK, yes- we can say we changed our mind, or we can say we changed the plan, never having really made up our mind, absolutely.
So, the final decision, which is a decision which I will not change my mind about, is that there is a difference between planning to do something and deciding to do it, and the only thing that determines the final decision is what is done.
God had decided to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, and he did; God planned to destroy the people and make a nation from Moses, but that plan changed and the people were not destroyed.
God also planned to destroy them after they refused to enter the land (Numbers 14), but Moses explained why that would be a bad idea and God changed his plan. Instead of destroying all the people, he only destroyed the generation that came out of Egypt. He didn’t change his mind, he simply changed the plan.
So, you can see that where I may have introduced a reason to doubt God’s word, in the end it is our understanding (both linguistically and culturally) of what he said that might lead us to think he has changed his mind.
What God has said and what he has done over the millennia proves, beyond a doubt, that we can depend on him, always.
God may change his plans for you, based on what you do, but you can absolutely trust that every promise God has made, or ever will make, is a guaranteed done deal.
Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, buy my books, and join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word’ (please read and agree to the rules).
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That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
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Parashah Shelach L’cha 2022 (Send for you) Numbers 13 – 15
The Israelites are now at the border of the Promised Land, and they suggest to Moses to send spies in to reconnoiter the land before attacking it.
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This seems like a good idea to Moses, so he chooses one prince from each tribe (12 men in total) to search out the land and report back.
After 40 days in the land, the spies come back and report that it is a wonderful land, bringing back samples of the fruit and other natural resources. But they also report that the towns are fortified, and they saw the sons of Anak (giants) in the land.
Joshua and Caleb were excited to enter, and faithfully declared that they should attack because God will give this wonderful land to them. However, the other 10 princes said that they would be destroyed and had no chance of winning against such a strong and fortified people.
This distressed everyone so much they wanted to stone Moses, but God appeared and told Moses that he will destroy these people and make a new, better nation out of Moses.
Moses begs God not to do that, saying (as before) that if God destroyed the people, his name (meaning his reputation) would be weakened, as the other nations would say God destroyed the people because he wasn’t able to do as he said he would.
So God relents, and tells Moses that these people will not enter the land, and to turn towards the desert. Their punishment will be that whereas they cried their children would be taken as slaves, it will be their children who inherit the land, and not the parents.
Moses is told that for every day they were in the land, they will wander in the desert one year until all of the generation that despised God’s word by revolting against him and not entering the land will be dead.
Upon hearing of their punishment, the people immediately repent and say they will now do as God said, but it is too late. Moses warns them not to attack because God is not with them and they have no chance, but they follow one terrible mistake with another and ignore Moses’ warning.
Of course, they are defeated horribly, pushed all the way back to Hormah (which means “utter destruction”).
This parashah ends with God repeating the Levitical rules for sacrifices, the showbread, and the wearing of tzitzis. The final entry is a story of a man collecting sticks on the Shabbat, and for that sin God commands he be stoned to death.
I want to change up a little today, and instead of talking about the parashah, I want to talk about the Haftorah reading, which is in the Book of Joshua, Chapter 2.
This may be a good time to digress a bit, and review about the reading of the Torah.
A predetermined portion of the Torah, called a parashah, is read each Shabbat; there are 54 readings for the one-year cycle, with some readings doubled to keep pace with leap years. All Jews, everywhere, come to the final sentences of the Torah at the same time, which is the 8th day of Sukkot. We call that day Shemini Atzeret (8th day of assembly) and Simchat Torah (Joy of Torah). On this holiday, the Torah is paraded around the neighborhood, accompanied by singing and shofar blasts, and once back in the synagogue, as the congregation dances and sings, the Torah scroll is rolled back to Genesis.
The Haftorah is a section of the other books of the Tanakh (Old Covenant), usually from one of the books of the Prophets, which are read in addition to the parashah. The haftorah is chosen because the events there relate to the events in the Torah reading of that day.
OK, that being said, let’s get back to todays’ message.
The haftorah for today occurs some 38 years after the events in the Torah. Joshua is now the leader of the Israelites, and they are outside the land, having just defeated Og and Sichon.
Unlike the mistake Moses made when he sent 12 men into the land, Joshua sends only two men to spy out the land, knowing that he can trust these two to bring back a true report.
Remember: these men are not former slaves, for that entire generation (except for Joshua and Caleb) have died. These two are men raised in hardship, living and growing up in the desert, and aren’t conditioned with the mindset of a slave.
The men reconnoiter Jericho and while there, they come to the house of Rahab, a prostitute, who hides them from the King of Jericho making the spies promise to protect her family when the Israelites come to attack the people in the land.
The men do so, and report back to Joshua that the people in the land are scared stiff, and already emotionally defeated.
How does this reading relate to the Torah portion? Well, it seems pretty obvious: Joshua learned that the more people you send to do a job, the more reports you will have to deal with.
It is like that old adage: too many chefs spoil the soup.
We need to learn from this that when we trust people, the more people we trust to accomplish something, the less likely it will get done correctly. This doesn’t mean to take on everything alone- that is another type of mistake.
My father, God rest his soul, used to tell me when I was a young boy and asked to help him with a project, that he wanted to do it alone so that if it went wrong, the only person to blame was himself. That made sense to me at that time, but as I grew older and placed in positions of leadership, I realized how wrong that attitude was.
People in leadership positions have an obligation to teach all they know to the ones who they are in charge of, to make that person a greater asset to the company, or congregation, or just to help them become a better person.
For those of us in a position of spiritual leadership, that means when choosing shammashim (Hebrew for “leaders”) within the congregation, you must follow the biblical requirements for a leader.
In the New Covenant, you can find these in Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9; Hebrews 13: 7 and 17-19. However, you must also remember that these are all from the Torah portions in Exodus 18:21 and Deuteronomy 1:13.
We must be careful to not choose by friendship or by influence, and especially not by financial support. Too many congregations are led by those who are the greatest tithers, and that is not assigning by ability, but by bank account.
Moses sent too many people, and Joshua sent just the right number of people.
Moses sent those who were in positions of honor, while Joshua sent those who he trusted to give a proper report.
What’s the bottom line? We must choose those who demonstrate the qualities specified in the Torah when we assign people important positions within our congregations, following the example that Joshua set for us.
Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, buy my books, and join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (please make sure you read and agree to the rules).
And remember: I always welcome your comments.
That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!
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Taking a Break and Reposting an Oldie and a Goodie
The link below will take you to a message I posted in April, 2021 and relates to a personal experience.
After reading this, if you are thinking to yourself that it can’t be true because you have never encountered this sort of bigotry, then thank God that you have not been stained with exposure to such evil.
But, believe-you-me! It exists, and world-wide!
That’s it for today so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!