This week’s parshah focuses on the
dispute between Korach and his followers against Moshe Rabbeinu. While on the outside
it appears as Korach may have potentially had some legitimate points, the
mishna in Pirkei Avos erases all doubts of that. “כל מחלוקת שהיא
לשם שמים, סופה להתקים. ושאינה לשם שמים, אין סופה להתקים. איזו היא מחלוקת שהיא לשם
שמים? זו מחלוקת הלל ושמאי. ושאינה לשם שמים? זו מחלוקת קרח וכל עדתו.” “Any dispute which is for the sake of
Heaven will have a constructive outcome; but any dispute which is not for the
sake of Heaven will not have a constructive outcome. What sort of dispute was for
the sake of Heaven? The dispute of Hillel and Shammai. And which was not for
the sake of Heaven? The dispute of Korach and his entire company.” (Avos
5:17). As much as Korach claimed he was acting on behalf of the entire nation,
he really only wanted some extra honor for himself.
But what exactly makes something a מחלוקת שהיא לשם
שמים, a dispute for the sake
of Heaven, and what makes it the opposite? Let us examine the dispute of Hillel
and Shammai and see what made it so special.
The gemarah in Eiruvin
(13b) asks why we decide the halacha like Hillel over the opinion of Shammai
(except for a handful of cases)? The reason given is because when they taught
over the halacha in the beis medrash of Hillel, the teachers of Hillel’s school
would give over the halacha they learned from their rebbi, Hillel, but not
until they had given over the opinion of Shammai as well! The biggest
thing Hillel was concerned with is that the truth of Torah should be
told. Even in their own beis medrash, in order to make sure the students gave
equal credence to both opinions, that they should consider either opinion when
they made their personal halachic rulings, they told over their “opponents’”
ruling first.
(Not to detract from Beis Shammai, the gemarah says that neither
school held back from eating in each other’s houses or from marrying into each
other’s families. There was a tremendous amount of respect and admiration on
both sides of the aisle. However, in this specific act, Beis Hillel went above
and beyond what was expected.)
The Rambam in his
commentary on the mishna explains that this is the difference between a dispute
for the sake of Heaven and one that is not. When two people come together with
different opinions, if the point of their discussions is to find out the truth regardless
of who is right or wrong, there will be a constructive and peaceful outcome
at the end of it, no matter how much they might fight during the actual
discussion! However, someone who comes and argues simply to have their opinion
heard and will not stop until it is, nothing good will come of it. This,
explains the mishna, was the dispute of Korach. Korach did not want to have a dialogue
with Moshe, in fact, the medrash explains that they went out of their way to
avoid any dialogue with him. He simply wanted to win the argument regardless of
the truth.
There are numerous
examples found in all sections of Torah where we see how important Shalom, peace,
is to the Torah’s flourishing and how destructive machlokes can be. To bring
one example of each: we know the famous teaching that when Bnei Yisrael reached
Har Sinai, they reached a status of, “כאיש אחד בלב אחד”, “one man with one heart”. The entire
nation had reached a stage of unity. It was at that time that Hashem decided
that we were ready to receive the Torah. On the opposite end, Chazal tell us
that the reason for the destruction of the Second Beis Hamikdash was because of
baseless hatred between people.
In all times, but
specifically now when we are all davening for the return of the three kidnapped
boys, it is imperative for us to be unified. Instead of coming into a
conversation like Korach, let’s try to be like Hillel and Shammai. Two of the
greatest minds the world has ever seen, yet, when they met, their concern was
not for their own opinions, but that the truth should win out. If we can
reach this lofty goal, or at least show we are working toward it, there is no
question that it will be a tremendous zchus for all of Klal Yisrael.
V’Shavu Banim L’Gvulam. May we be zoche to see the Beis Hamikdash
rebuilt speedily in our days!
Shabbat Shalom!
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