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Drash for Shabbat Korach By Natalie Waxenberg - June 15, 2007 The story in this week's Torah portion, Korach, centers around the story of the most serious rebellion during the Israelite's 40 year trek through the desert. And, it sounds like something you'd see at a big summer blockbuster movie. Rebellion, envy, people being swallowed up by the earth! In fact, it might make a pretty good scene in the sequel of "The Reduced Torah: Part II". Right, Rabbi? Korach, one of Moses' first cousins, along with Dathan and Abiram, begins to challenge Moses and Aaron's authority as leaders. Korach and his men say, "You have gone too far! For all the community are holy, all of them, and the Eternal is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above the Eternal's congregation?" Well, as we all know, God chose Moses to lead the people out of Egypt to the Promised Land. However, Moses is quite shaken by Korach's question and responds that the next morning, God would decide who would lead the people. Sure enough, God makes His preference loud and clear. The earth opens up and swallows Korach and his followers then closes over them "and they vanished from the midst of the congregation." At this moment the rest of the Israelites, inspired by Korach, feared for their lives. They had been caught up in the enticing words of a charlatan. They lost focus, they lost hope, they lost belief, faith, and trust in their God and their appointed leaders. So, what can we learn from this weeks portion? I think the main lesson is to have faith - faith in God, faith in our Rabbis and leaders, and most importantly faith in ourselves. Ultimately we need to trust that the choices that God makes are the right ones. The saying "Things happen for a reason" comes immediately to mind. If God doesn't want something to happen, it won't. That morning in the desert, God made the decision to open up the earth and end the lives of those who were persuaded by Korach. It happened for a reason. Shabbat Shalom.
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