Parshat Korach

The image of the earth opening to swallow Korach and his followers is
a powerful one -- "...and the earth opens its mouth and swallows -u'putzitah - them and all that they possess..." (Numbers 16:30)

Perhaps equally powerful is the connection drawn between this scene and one found at the very beginning of B'reishit.

Rabbi Munk, in Kol Torah, puts it this way:

"The kabbalists find a poetic justice in that the earth here repaired its failure of the time of Cain and Abel, when it opened to receive the innocent blood of a righteous man. Here it covered over sinful men, preventing further conflict instead of abetting it."

When chazal utilize the notion of the ground and other inanimate objects "sinning," it is an example of what is known in literature as the "pathetic fallacy" (based on the word pathos).

But toward what end?

It is safe to say that implicit in such ultimate accountability is an unspoken -but nearly shrieking -kal v'chomer(1), along the lines of..."Wow, if the ground which couldn't help itself, still needs to make up for any inadvertent role it played in Abel's murder, imagine how much more we need to make up for all our conscious, planned mishaps and misdeeds."(2)

Equally important is the context - it isn't just any wrong that the Torah tells us that the Earth must repent for, and it's not murder per se that is the problem. We learn about murder and the first sin in part from how the ground makes good. It is about "preventing further conflict instead of abetting it."

As with all lessons worth learning, the implications are broad -- and broadening.
This isn't about fratricide, or, a one-time Korach cataclysm.

This is a lesson about what is important, a mission and a challenge for us all.

That challenge can reassert itself as a question: to paraphrase Rabbi Munk, the question is are we preventing conflict - or are we creating conflict? We can and should use this question as a sort of behavioral litmus test -and use it often.

When considering choices, we should ask ourselves: will this new action ease tension, or increase it, will it help or hurt my relationship with my friends, family and community? (3)

It is reminiscent of the talmid chakham (scholar)'s ultimate goal, to be marb[eh] shalom b'olam, increasing peace in the world.

One final thought:

When we look at the Cain and Abel story itself, we find a final idea to guide us. On B'reishit 4:11, Rabbi Munk quotes Ramban, who notes that as punishment for the ground's swallowing Abel's blood, there would be only meager harvests until such time as the innocent blood was atoned for.(4)

That is the final lesson, and it can be reinterpreted in a natural way: when we do the wrong thing, it has an effect. And hopefully, when we do the right thing, when we care for others, and share with others, it can be its own reward.

In his book, The Ten Commandments of Character, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin provides a beautiful example of how doing good also leads to feeling good.

Here is the story.

Like many of us, Rabbi Telushkin receives calls from telemarketers, invariably coming at dinnertime, and complete with the butchering of his name. And so, also like many of us, he would not hide his displeasure, often slamming down the phone as he hung up on the caller. One day a friend asked Rabbi Telushkin to consider what type of people make these calls? In all likelihood, they are single mothers or other unlucky worker bees, people who take this job knowing they will be hated but unable to turn down the few dollars it offers them. The comment stayed with Rabbi Telushkin. At his friend's suggestion, the next time someone called, he very politely demurred, but wished the caller luck on future calls.

Two things happened. The caller was shocked and thanked him profusely. And for the first time in fielding these calls, Rabbi Telushkin got off the phone and felt good.

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1) Kal v'chomer, literally light and heavy, is one of 13 ways of studying the bible(this list appears in the daily morning prayers). In Latin, it is known as
a fortiori.

(2)This d'var torah can be phrased slightly different fashion. Jumping back to the earth and with a slightly different focus, we can say: there are certain times when we extend blame beyond what makes sense, when an extra degree of caution kaviyachol is appropriate, and that time is when conflict is the issue.)

(3) It reminds me of the old Jewish response when asked to evaluate everything from voting to a new car launch: "That depends. Is it good for the Jews, or bad for the Jews?" But for this, we really can and should be single minded.

(4)Continuing this theme, Rabbi Munk quotes the Sifra (Exodus 15:12) which says that at the Red Sea, God had to reassure the earth that it would not be punished for swallowing the Egyptians!