“And Korach Took…” (Bamidbar 16:1)

The Midrash Tanchuma explains how Korach attacked Moshe Rabbeinu. He asked, “If a garment was made from techeles, does it also need tzitzis? A house must have a mezuzah on the doorpost. What about a house which has sifrei Torah in it? Does it also need a mezuzah (which only contains 2 of the 275 parshios in a sefer Torah)?”

To both of these Moshe Rabbeinu answered that they are obligated to have tzitzis and mezuzah, respectively. Korach scoffed at him and said, “Your position is unreasonable – you must have made ALL of this up yourself!”

I would like to share with you an incident that transpired in the USA. There was a group of women who wanted to start a davening group and they also wanted to wear talleisim. They asked Rabbi Soloveitchik from Boston how to proceed. He told them, “Before you begin with the full mitzvah, first wear just the tallis without the tzitzis. Then come back to me in a month and tell me if this helped your davening”. The ladies came back a month later and said that wearing the tallis indeed helped them improve their prayer and invigorate their davening. Rabbi Soloveichik told them, “Wearing a four cornered garment without tzitzis has no halachic significance and would be a sin for a man. It’s obvious that what generated your ‘religious high’ was not Mitzva fulfillment, rather something else. Under such circumstances you should abandon the entire idea!”

Rav Chaim Brisker explains that we sometimes know of reasons (ta’amim) for mitzvos, but they are not necessarily the reason that we do the mitzvah, rather they are ways for us to relate to and appreciate the mitzvos (the word ta’am in Hebrew also means flavor). Even in a situation in which the reason seemingly no longer applies, doing the mitzvah would still be required. Likewise, even in a situation in which the reason still applies, but there is no mitzvah, doing it would be useless. An example of this would be if someone would say, “Chazal tell us that we should celebrate Sukkos in the Autumn, for if done in the seemingly proper time of Spring, people will come to understand it as just a ‘camping excursion.’” If someone would then have his Pesach Seder in a Sukkah in the Spring, he has not fulfilled the mitzvah of Sukkah at all. It seems to be that it is tantamount to an advertisement that I once saw, “Celebrate Pesach in Mitzrayim!”

The kedusha with which the mitzvos that we do empower us is because they are mitzvos. Rabbi Shraga Grossbard explains that if one were to have a home full of sifrei Torah, even Korach did not suggest that one is fulfilling a mitzvah with all these Torahs. Rather he was just suggesting that the mitzvah of mezuzah would not be necessary in such a situation. Similarly, having a garment that is made completely of techeles could preclude the need for the mitzvah of tzitzis, but the garment itself would not be a fulfillment of any mitzvah. In short, what Korach was saying was that the concept is important, rather than fulfilling the commandment. I have heard similar comments from “Conservative Jews” who have told me, “It is the NOTION of the mitzvah that is important. How exactly one executes it is not of primary interest.”

The story of Korach teaches us the exact opposite. Following all the technical aspects is extremely important. The Chofetz Chaim gives a moshel about this concept. A person once came to the bank to redeem bonds that were taped together, dog-eared and crumpled. The teller sat with the man to get everything in order and gave him the full redemption value (that kind of service cannot be done on the internet!). The next man in line came with his certificates neatly placed in a folder. The teller told him, “I am sorry, these are all worthless because the redemption period has already expired for these certificates.” The man was livid! “You spent so much time with the fellow before me and his crumpled papers, and still gave him full value, but mine you just discard?” The teller patiently explained, “His were within the limited redemption period, and yours are not.” The Chofetz Chayim used this in order to negate the idea that praying after the prescribed time with more kavana is better than praying on time with less kavana.

A lesson to learn from Korach is that while the thought and ideas are important, what is more important is the question “Did we do the mitzvah as commanded?” There are those who use the ideas behind the mitzvos as a basis to make up their own religion. This “picking and choosing” from Yiddishkeit has unfortunately brought about many new “religions” during the past few thousand years.

Just as the sons of Korach admitted, “Moshe emes, v’soraso emes” – meaning that we follow our mesorah, so too our fulfilling Mitzvos as our heritage teaches is what will keep us on the right path.