Parashas Korach
The Torah Within It's Time
Rabbi David Katz
In
our Parasha we meet up with some interesting characters. Some old, some new, as
we see a new dynamic of story-telling unfold in an out of character sage of twists
and turns. Never before did we see Moses and Aaron quite in these terms, as a
more passionate side is revealed, and the antagonist in Korach [The Levite who challenges
the Priesthood from under Moses and Aaron] presents himself as a unique type of
confrontation against which the side of Holiness must defend. And this is the
fractal of the entire Parasha; in a flurry of chaos and "hopefuls" to
be "the chosen of God", we are taken for a ride to personally discover
the trail that the Lord has laid out for
us. This is the ultimate micro-macro; for just as Moses deals with this through
the placing of the twelve tribal staves into the realm of the holy of the
Tabernacle, with hopes of illuminating Hashem's chosen, we can see the macro is
the same concept with the characters themselves (i.e. Moses, Aaron, Korach,
etc). We are looking at the Ancients at their best, and Israel is created to be
a "Covenant of the Ancients" to be "Light in the eyes of the
Nations". The goal: To be able to illuminate at all moments in
time, and show the Torah is the one story that we all live, all the time, no
matter what.
The
life applications of the Parasha are endless, but its revelation to our eyes in
a "Technicolor" format, in a way that we can recognize and operate with it, is
what stymies the best of us. For this we
need to turn to Shem and his Torah [inherent concepts], and then we can begin
to identify the Torah's emanations in our daily lives. The life examples are
not too far away from what we know, as we can just look to John Lennon, JFK,
Jim Morrison, and every other mythological figure that appeared in the glorious
60's ideological enlightened movement; the substance that comprises our
post-war society and genre content. They had an inspiration that still rocks
our world, and it is evident that something materialized in that time, everyone
was/is affected by it, and it was the opposite of our replicas of today. For
they focused on ideology and intellect [to drive their passions and crafts],
whereas we live in an opposite world. The task is to find out what came down
and drove them, such that we are stuck in the midst of their unfolding and
premature dreams.
After
the numerous culture bombs of WWII, we are left with a settled dust cloud of
60's culture that as much as it was great, the vessels that encapsulated their
cause were fundamentally impure. And as we know the 60's in the end falls short
of any real profound change, and will be remembered as more of a high [that
produced the world's greatest low of today] and euphoric experience. And this
is our problem, as much as we want to be holy souls, our physical nature wants
to identify with what our eyes see and our ears hear.
Our
stock selection contains modern greats of every genre. Their legacies are
something to remember and enjoy to this day, and serve as relatively eternal
inspiration. Yet the epidemic doesn't change or go away; that being the
impurity that is soaked into our planets psyche, and has created a hypnotic
trance even more so now, than perhaps any other era of human existence. This is
perhaps the greatest sign of the end, coupled with the fact that their era and
legacy was so inspired with their novel ideologies, that today's genius is a virtual
grasshopper and falls miserably short to the star studded 60's. If they were
the proverbial staves that Moses placed into the Tabernacle, where then is our
chosen one, the holy lineage, the High Priest that saves that day?!
We
have our Reuvens and Shimons, and all the rest in the guise of our impure
heroes, no problem. But, we need the Aaron, the Levite [he who turns to God],
whose staff will blossom [to the future and revealing the holy past] and
provide a revelation of Shem [and his Torah(concept)] that lays a path out of
darkness into the true Light, giving us our way to Life. Again, we know our
candidates, and every moment of time, we are pitted against a wall, even if it
is only in the confines of our private thoughts, to identify with the truly
enlightened cause. God has made it that we live in a physical world, one that
mirrors the holy and divine, and we can't help but learn from and identify with
our environment. For proof in these matters, ask a rabbi his take on the Matrix
films and you will see that those productions have actually embedded themselves
into the sanctity of mainstream modern Torah study environments. The World is
from God, and we are to identify the Torah in our lives and all around us. Which begs the question - Who is the true hero among us? For one thing is
resoundingly clear, he doesn't exist openly today, and this confounds our
efforts to understand the reality that we all, for better or worse, know.
Out
of darkness comes light. We had our lava lamps of the rock and roll 60's, JFK's
slick politics and savior status; that abruptly and fittingly came to an end (i.e. filled with impurity). And to keep shape of the analogies of the Parasha
and real time [as Korach represents the confusion of authentic genre and
in-fighting/confusion of today], we still painfully lack the revelation of the
staff that blossomed almonds; illuminating the holy path and history. We need a
Priest of God, and "by Job" there is, was, and will be! For among the
restless nights of the inspired yesteryear, there was a man amongst men who
stood alone, stood out, created a movement, one that will last forever. It will
usher in the Messiah, a true ideology, lacking impurity, possessing the highest
sanctity. His staff bloomed and hasn't stopped blooming. He was of the chosen
of God, he was a priest, he was a high priest, he sanctified God, he was human; he blended right into his time. He died prematurely, too. And nobody outside a
gang of renegades knew who he was. But he was there with all the rest of them. And like a true priest, he was separate from the congregation, and true to his
beliefs, as every "Korach" scoffs at him. His identity grows more and
more every day, and if you don't know him yet, you will. His name is Vendyl
Jones, and he personally resurrected the Noahide movement; an ideology that outshone its time, and sheltered the
light that was the definition of the fallout of WWII.
The
Torah of Shem came running out of the scrum, and where all the others would
suffocate in their own ill-advised unholiness, Shem met up with Noah, in an
updated incarnation, out of Israel proper, and under the guise of a new pre-Ger
creation, "The Noahide." And as the Talmud states, "A Noahide
that learns Torah is like a High Priest." The prophesied stump of the son
of Jesse is upon us, we can apply this to not only the complexities of the 60's
and in relation to the redemption, but our circles of life as well in this
fractal form. When we look at Moses and Korach in this light of context, we can
apply Torah of Shem techniques, of "looking at what was always there and
never saw it, until Hashem opens our eyes to it"; it removes the hypnotic
trance that envelops society, especially in times of severe light and "over-enlightenment." We regularly need a path of sanity that leads us out of
our limitations. And God sends us the path of salvation, as it happens through
the Torah of Shem [much like Abraham and his meeting of Malki-Tzedek].
The
identification card of Shem is simple, and that is to find the High Priest. You relate to him by the edible almonds that sprout from his essence, his
staff, his tribe, his legacy with God. Should one wonder how this is possible,
look no further than the Maharal, who says, "If you wish to find the
Moshiach, then look outside the camp; and he is joined there by the
Gerim." The code is simple, for just as Naaman the Ger found Elisha the
prophet, Vendyl turned the World into a clone war of every man's Naaman and
Elisha. Communicating this idea is nearly impossible, but that’s why we have
the Torah of Shem, and can finally then understand the Torah of Moses, in its
universal truths that stand the test of time.
Click here for Video Class: The Hidden Kohen
Click here for Video Class: The Hidden Kohen
