How we use our time (Korach)
The Jewish people were on a journey towards the land of Israel. They thought of Israel. They dreamt of Israel. And every day they marched and were ebbing closer to Israel. As Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Neria explains: ‘as long as the idea of moving to Israel overcame the hearts of the people, the eyes of the nation were set towards the future. The Aliyah to Israel and the conquering of the country were the central priorities of the nation. The present moments of travelling in the desert were considered to be very temporary and the nation did not pay much attention to what was taking place.’
But then the march was stalled by the Mitonenim, and soon afterwards, the episode of the spies totally derailed the entire enterprise. No longer were the nation going to arrive in Israel in a matter of weeks. Instead, this entire generation would need to wander for 40 further years and none of them, with the exception of Yehoshua and Kalev, would enter the land.
They went from a mood of hope, with a vision and a goal, to a state of hopelessness where nothing that they did would make any difference to their fate. But without a vision and a goal, people quickly become bored, and rather than being productive, they can often find themselves being drawn to petty disagreements. True, there are lots of reasons for Korach’s rebellion. But the key reason was boredom, frustration and hopelessness.
We see this idea in Pirkei Avot when Rabban Gamliel the son of Rabb Yehuda HaNassi teaches us (Avot 2:2): ‘Excellent is the study of the Torah when combined with a worldly occupation, for toil in them both keeps sin out of one’s mind; But [study of the] Torah which is not combined with a worldly occupation, in the end comes to be neglected and becomes the cause of sin.’
But what happens when we aren’t busy? What happens when we have retired and have stopped working? And what happens when we lack focus or goals? The answer is that in such situations we are tested to see how we choose to live, how we use our time and resources, and whether we seize opportunities for the good.
There is a curious verse in Parshat Beshalach (Shemot 15:25) soon after the Jewish nation were blessed with the manna and the miraculous well which would accompany them for 40 years, as well as the miraculous clothes which did not wear down for all the 40 years that they were in the wilderness where we are told that it was there that God tested the people. But what does this mean?
According to the Chizkuni, God was saying to the people that: “I will test them to see whether they will preoccupy themselves with the study of the Torah. Since I am providing them with ready-made food, without them needing to invest any toil or effort, I expect to see that they choose to use their time well and therefore constantly involve themselves with the study of Torah.”
What we see from here is that one of the great tests of God is how we use our leisure time and what we do when we have choice and control over our time.
Understood this way, and basing ourselves on the profound insight of Rabbi Neria, we can explain that while the people were very disappointed after the episode of the spies and after losing the reward of reaching Eretz Yisrael, at this moment they were being tested to see how they use their remaining time. Would they learn and teach Torah? Would they perform mitzvot? Would they be kind to each other? Or would they create arguments to entertain themselves?
Of course, the person who modelled the right approach to disappointment was Moshe, and once he was told that he was not going to enter the land, he dedicated himself entirely to mitzvot and to teaching Torah. But unfortunately that is not what many of the people did, and Parshat Korach is the outcome of their choice.
Interestingly, when it comes to Sukkot, we are told that we are to take the Arba Minim ‘on the first day’ (Vayikra 23:40). However, as we know, Sukkot falls on the 15th of Tishrei, not on the first of Tishrei. Given this confusion, the Midrash Tanchuma explains that Sukkot is not the first of the month, but rather, ‘the first day of counting sins’.
Of course, during Ellul, and then certainly from Rosh Hashanah until Yom Kippur, we are meant to be totally enveloped in our Avodat Hashem. Then, between Yom Kippur and Sukkot we are busy building our Sukkah and acquiring our Arba Minim. In fact, there is even a custom to start building our Sukkah on Motzei Yom Kippur so as to keep ourselves busy (see Rema on Orach Chaim 624:5). Explains this way, this is why the first day of Sukkot – which is the first day we can relax after a long period of busy focussed Avodat Hashem - is considered to be spiritually dangerous, because this is the first day when we have spare time, and so this is ‘the first day of counting sins’.
Bringing all these ideas together, when we have more time in life, we have great opportunities to do good. However, we also run the risk of getting bored, of losing focus, and of causing trouble. And so the lesson from Parshat Korach is a simple one: Yes, life brings disappointments. And yes, there are times when the goals and destinations we have hoped for are dashed. But while certain things are not in our control, we can choose our attitude, as Viktor Frankl wrote in ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”
Chodesh Tov & Shabbat Shalom!
Rav Johnny Solomon
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