“The earth beneath them opened its mouth …” (Bamidbar 16:32)
In this week’s Parsha we learn the story of Korach. Korach was the leader of a machlokes, a rebellion against Moshe and his brother Aharon, during the journey of the Jews from Egypt to the Land of Israel. As a punishment for his rebellion and fighting, he met his end by miraculously being swallowed up by the earth. Although Korach was killed, his children were saved, as they were righteous individuals. Why did all of Korach’s immense wealth have to be swallowed up with him, instead of being inherited by his sons?
The Sforno explains that had Korach’s children inherited his wealth, Korach himself would have merited reward in the afterlife for having indirectly brought about benefit to them. A child is to a certain degree the extension of his parents even when they are no longer alive. As the Shelah remarks, Heaven takes the character of a person’s parents into account when he is being judged. A wicked son of upright parents is judged more harshly than a wicked son of wicked parents, and so on.
When parents are judged, the deeds of their children are similarly taken into consideration. The good deeds a child does in this world affect the spiritual state of the parents in the next World, but Korach was found unworthy of this benefit from his children, and so they were unable to inherit his wealth. Machlokes is extremely dangerous and could ruin lives and many relationships. We learn that machlokes is like fire. Just like you must stay away from fire, you must stay away from machlokes.
There is a story related to this topic in Sefer Aleinu L’Shabei’ach: Rav Mordechai Zuckerman zt”l said over that at the end of the Chofetz Chaim’s life a machlokes broke out in his yeshiva in Radin. One day, the Chofetz Chaim entered the Beis Medrash of his yeshiva, his body trembling, and his face red with anger, and announced, “The Yeshiva of the Chofetz Chaim was founded on peace, and the machlokes should flee from here!”
“From the time I heard the Chofetz Chaim’s words,” said Rav Zuckerman, a fiery hatred toward anything related to machlokes entered my heart. Anyone who saw the Chofetz Chaim speaking so vehemently against machlokes could never again allow room in his heart for such things.”
I saw in a Sefer that the Hebrew word for quarrel, machlokes מַחֲלוֹקֶת, also spells חֵלֶק מוֹת, a portion of death, and if a person accustoms himself to seeking out the faults of others and highlighting them, this way of life will most certainly lead to his spiritual death. Our Sages teach us that “All of Klal Yisroel has a share in the world to come.” Korach, however, because he quarreled, lost his share – it died with him. Be careful, machlokes is like fire! Let’s all strive to be close to one another and love our fellow Jews!
