Parshas Korach - Korach's punishment

The passuk says in this week’s sedrah (פרק י"ז, פסוק ב')

אֱמֹר אֶל אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן אַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֵן וְיָרֵם אֶת הַמַּחְתֹּת מִבֵּין הַשְּׂרֵפָה וְאֶת הָאֵשׁ זְרֵה הָלְאָה כִּי קָדֵשׁוּ

Speak to Elazar the son of אהרון הכהן and he should pick up the incense pans from among those who were burnt, and he should strew the coals yonder, because they have become sanctified.

Rashi explains

"כי קדשו" - המחתות ואסורין בהנאה שהרי עשאום כלי שרת

The incense pans have become sanctified and are אסור בהנאה because they (the men who used them to bring קטורת) made them into כלי שרת.

The רמב"ן asks on Rashi

ולא ידעתי טעם לאיסור הזה שהרי קטורת זרה הקריבו וזר שעשה כלי שרת להקריב בחוץ באיסור אינו מקודש

I do not know why the incense pans should have been הקדש because the people who brought קטורת using these incense pans were זרים (not כהנים) and they brought the קטורת outside of the משכן?

• Normally a כלי שרת is only נתקדש if it is used by a כהן to the עבודה, why then does Rashi say that the incense pans became כלי שרת because אש מן השמים fell on them, ultimately they were not used by כהנים doing the עבודה in the משכן?

The מדרש תנחומא says

ויקח קרח. מה כתיב למעלה מן הענין, דבר אל בני ישראל ואמרת אליהם ועשו להם ציצית. קפץ קרח ואמר למשה: אתה אומר, ונתנו על ציצית וגו', טלית שכולה תכלת, מה היא שיהא פטורה מן הציצית. אמר לו משה: חייבת בציצית. אמר לו קרח: טלית שכולה תכלת אינה פוטרת עצמה, וארבעה חוטין פוטר אותה. בית מלא ספרים, מהו שתהא פטורה מן המזוזה. אמר לו: חייבת במזוזה. אמר לו: כל התורה כולה מאתים שבעים וחמש פרשיות שיש בה, כולן אין פוטרות את הבית, ושתי פרשיות שבמזוזה פוטרות את הבית. אמר לו: דברים אלו לא נצטווית עליהם, ומלבך אתה בודאם. הדא הוא דכתיב: ויקח קרח.

[We learn from the juxtaposition of the פרשה of ציצית to the story of Korach, that] Korach said to Moshe, “If you have a טלית which is entirely dyed with תכלת, is it פטור from ציצית?”

Moshe replied, “It is חייב in ציצית.”

Korach said to Moshe, “If the טלית itself cannot absolve itself of the obligation of ציצית, how can four threads absolve it of its obligation of ציצית?”

Korach further said to Moshe, “If you have a house full of ספרי תורה, is it פטור from a מזוזה?”

Moshe replied, “It is חייב in a מזוזה.”

Korach said to Moshe, “If a ספר תורה which has 275 פרשיות in it cannot absolve the house from its obligation to have a מזוזה, how then can a מזוזה, which only has two פרשיות, absolve the house from its obligation?

You were not commanded these מצות from Hashem, and you made them up.”

• The מדרש תנחומא brings a proof from the juxtaposition of ציצית to the story of Korach that Korach attacked the מצוה of ציצית, but how does the מדרש know that Korach also attacked theמצוה  of מזוזה?
• Why did Korach not state his proof forwards, “If a מזוזה absolves the house of its obligation, then surely a ספר תורה can absolve the house of its obligation.” Why did he only state his proof backwards, “If a ספר תורה cannot absolve the house of its obligation then surely a מזוזה cannot absolve the house of its obligation”? 

The ספר נאות דשא explains as follows:

The מדרגה of the כהן גדול is only commensurate to the מדרגה of the בני ישראל on behalf of whom the כהן גדול does the עבודה in the בית המקדש. Conversely also, the מדרגה of the בני ישראל  is only commensurate to the מדרגה of the כהן גדול who does the עבודה on their behalf. Both are bound to each other and the efforts of each influence the outcome for all involved. Moshe told קרח that the reason that we only have one כהן גדול is because the כהן גדול himself represents the mutual bond of כל ישראל ערבים זה לזה  in their joint efforts in עבודת ה'.

קרח however, thought that there is no need for the מדרגה that one person strives towards, to be tied to the מדרגה that anyone else is on. He thought that if every person was free to achieve whatever מדרגה they wanted and not have to drag the כלל together with him, they would be able to accomplish a far higher מדרגה than if they were all mutually bound together in their עבודת ה'.

The same reasoning was reflected in קרח’s other complaints against Moshe:

ציצית , which are joined to a person’s בגדים, represents the will of a person to do מצות מעשיות. On the other hand, the פרשיות in a מזוזה represent the will of a person to acquire the חכמת התורה, in such a way that his house will become a place which is dedicated to learning תורה.

קרח said, “If a house is מלא ספרים,” meaning that the person’s only wish is to acquire the חכמת התורה, then why does the person have to plough his will to acquire the תורה back into עוה"ז, indicated by his affixing the מזוזה to his house. Why can the person not forget about עוה"ז entirely and only concentrate on his learning. Surely, if you tell the person who wants to learn that he always has to drag עוה"ז with him, that will prevent him from reaching the מדרגה that he could otherwise have accomplished?

Conversely,  if a person has a בגד שכולה תכלת, indicating that the person’s entire will is to perform מצות מעשיות, why does he need to have the חוטים of the ציצית which represent the חוט של חסד that ties a person to עוה"ב? By constantly reminding a person, even when they are in the midst of doing מצות that relate primarily to עוה"ז, that they should be cognisant to always maintain a correct demeanour as befits someone who strives for עוה"ב, you will hamper the person in their undertakings, because they may doubt that their earthy involvement is one hundred percent correct.

Moshe said to קרח, I will show you what will happen if you take the will of a person to involve himself in עוה"ז (even in a good way) separately, or if you take the will of a person to involve himself in the חכמת התורה separately.

The 250 men who gathered to bring קטורת made קרח’s mistake of a בית מלא ספרים, they thought they could reach high מדרגות in עבודת ה' by ignoring עוה"ז altogether and seeking to be as close to Hashem as possible. The result of this is that they were all killed by the אש that came out מלפני ה'. Hashem showed them that this will to be close to Hashem, uncoupled from the cares of עוה"ז, could never be עבודת ה' לשמה, and would ultimately result in their using their מדרגה for their own purposes שלא לשמה, in a treasonous manner.

The fate of קרח, who was swallowed alive by the earth, was indicative of קרח’s mistake that as long as you have a בגד שכולה תכלת, that means a person is happy to involve themselves in מצות מעשיות, then the person does not need to worry about being on a high מדרגה of רוחניות, and they can do without the חוט של חסד that reminds them of their connection to עוה"ב. Hashem illustrated to Korach that if a person adopts this attitude then they will lose any connection to having correct thoughts in their worldly actions, and their worldliness itself would destroy them.

Because a person exists along the spectrum of והנה סלם מצב ארצה וראשו מגיע השמימה, he always has to consider all aspects of his own being and also the state of the whole of כלל ישראל with whom he is in confluence with, when he performs any מצוה. His Torah should be ploughed back into elevating עוה"ז, represented by the מזוזה, and his מצות מעשיות should always contain a connection to דברים רוחניים, represented by the חוטים of ציצית.

Therefore, the answer to the questions above is as follows:

• The מדרש knows that קרח attacked the מצוה of מזוזה because it is the same attack as קרח’s attack on the מצוה of מזוזה, just the other way around.
• The מחתות became כלי שרת even though they had not been used in the משכן because this was exactly what Hashem demonstrated to the 250 men, that such would be their fate if they performed the עבודה outside of the משכן, in other words, if they performed the עבודה in a way which was only meant for their spiritual edification and was not meant to be shared among the rest of the בני ישראל.
• קרח asked his question backwards and not forwards, because he meant to say, “If it is not within the wherewithal of a person to achieve purity of motive even if they are entirely dedicated to a life a עבודת ה', then how is it possible for a person to achieve purity of motive if they are only attached to a מצוה which is a token of their good intentions.”

Because קרח was כופר in the אספקלריא המאירה of משה’s נבואה, he did not understand that the קדושה of the מצות is of a far higher מדרגה than any person can possibly achieve, and that through observing the מצות a person can connect themselves to the wholesomeness of the והנה סלם מצב ארצה וראשו מגיע השמימה which leads a person to complete שלמות.