There are so many ways to practice Judaism. Chazal tell us that there are seventy faces to the Torah. Fascinatingly, we often feel that anyone who practices differently than we do must be getting it wrong. Anyone to our left is too lax, while anyone to our right is too extreme. We’re stubborn in our conviction that our way is the right way. Everyone else must be wasting energy.
Parashas Korach tells us that this is a mistaken and dangerous way to think.
Korach was a rebel, as he challenged the structure of leadership, the hierarchy that Moshe represented. In Korach’s eyes, all Jews were equally holy. The way I understand it is that he imagined a flat circle of holiness. Moshe, however, represented something else, a concentric circle with Hashem at the center and each person orbiting closer or further depending on their role, not their worth.
Korach asked a famous question: If a tallis is made entirely of techeiles, why does it need tzitzis? It's a clever question, yet it misses something…
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