Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Korah Numbers 16:1-18:32
By Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel - “And Korah the son of Yitzhar the son of Kehat the son of Levi and Datan and Aviram the sons of Eliav and On son of Pelet the sons of Reuven rose up before Moses.. And they gathered against Moses...” (Numbers 16:1-3).

What was the precise content of the rebellion of Korah and his cohorts against Moses? Rashi (ad loc) cites a midrash which defines the rebels’ claim and at the same time connects our Torah portion with the conclusion of last week’s reading, the segment which deals with the ritual fringes: “Behold (said Korah, Datan and Aviram), I argue against (Moses) and nullify (by means of logic) his words (of Torah) ... What did they (these rebels) do? They stood up and assembled 250 heads of court, mainly from the tribe of Reuven and clothed them in garments which were completely colored royal blue (tehelet). They came and stood before Moses. They said to him: is a garment which is wholly royal blue obligated to have ritual fringes or not? Moses said to them, ‘Such a garment is obligated.’ They began to mock him, Is it possible that a garment of another color be freed from the obligation of ritual fringes with but one fringe of royal blue, and this garment, which is wholly royal blue, not be freed of the obligation?..’

Korah and his cohorts were scoffing at Moses’ message of Torah on the basis of analytical logic, a logic which threatened to destroy the very premise of the commandments. Were they justified in their argument?

In order to understand the proper response to their claim, let us examine an interesting custom surrounding the commandment of the ritual fringes. Apparently, there was an old custom in the land of Israel to touch one’s ritual fringes during the recitation of the Shema each morning, to hold them in one’s hands, to pass them over one’s eyes, and to kiss them. The tenth century Babylonian scholars, Rav Hai Gaon and Rav Natronai Gaon, attempted to uproot this custom, arguing: “why handle the ritual fringes at all after one looked at them at the time of putting them on, and made a blessing over them? When we reach “you shall bind them..” in the recitation of the Shema, do we then have to touch the tefilin (phylacteries)? When we reach “You shall write them..”, must we then go home and place our hands on the mezuzah..?” And in Orhot Haim (Part 1, Page 3) Moshe Gaon is cited as saying, “one who does such things (with the ritual fringes) must be taught and adjured not to do them any more...”

Nevertheless, not only did the custom refuse to fall into oblivion, but it even became more pronounced in succeeding generations. The sixteenth century Shulhan Arukh (Set Table) codifies: “There is a commandment (sic) to grasp the ritual fringes in the left hand corresponding to the heart at the time of the recitation of the Shema, an action suggested by the Biblical words, ‘these words shall be placed upon your heart.’. There are those who follow the custom of looking at the ritual fringes when they reach the words, ‘You shall look upon then’ and to pass them over their eyes. This is a worthy custom and expresses love for the commandments.” (Orah Haim 24, 2-4).

Rav Moshe Isserles adds:

“There are also some who follow the custom to kiss the ritual fringes when they gaze upon them, and all of this demonstrates love for the commandments.” (See Magen Avraham, Be’er Hetev and Mishna Brurah ad loc, who all concur).

Why is the commandment of ritual fringes singled out from all of the others to be fondled and kissed-and this, despite Gaonic condemnation of the practice?

For insight, let us review a most novel and striking interpretation of the “sin of the scouts” offered by my rebbe and mentor, Rav Joseph B. Soleveitchik ztz”l, in response to a problematic opening of last week’s portion of Shelach: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying ‘Send forth for yourselves men who will scout out (lit. tour) the Land of Canaan ..” (Numbers 13:1, 2).

Why would G-d possibly suggest a reconnaissance mission to look over the land, to decide whether or not its conquest would be a realistic achievement? Why place Divine will into the hands of a “committee”?

The Rav maintains that the verb latur does not mean to “scout out” in terms of “to evaluate”, but rather “to seek out with passion,” just as the end of the Torah reading uses the same verb - in the context of the commandment of ritual fringes - to instruct that we not “seek out with passion after the stirring of “our hearts and our eyes” (Numbers 15:40). Hence the Rav Soloveitchik insists that just as our Talmudic Sages enjoin that an individual dare not become engaged without first “seeing with passion” his/her spouse-to-be, so the Almighty wanted a mission of Israelites to bring back a verbal picture of the land to inspire the nation with passionate zeal for the conquest which lay ahead. Tragically, Moses did not properly understand the Divine word of instruction, dispatched an investigative reconnaissance mission, and forestalled redemption for thousands of years...

The land of Israel and the Torah of Israel are both Biblically called morasha (Exodus 6:8, Deuteronomy 33:4), a word which literally means heritage but which the Sages of the Talmud link to “me’orasa,”(eros, love), or fiancee’. A successful marriage, a proper conquest of and inhabitation in the land of Israel, the knowledge and performance of Torah are each fraught with unsuspected road-blocks and tantalizing temptations along the way; only the passion of love which defies logic, romance which supersedes reason, can provide one with the requisite strength to overcome all obstacles in pursuit of these worthwhile and critical goals.

In the novel Remember Me to G-d by Myron Kaufman, an assimilated German-Jewish patriarch is unsuccessfully attempting to dissuade his son at Harvard from marrying a Radcliffe gentile. “But you never taught me to love Judaism”, remonstrates the son. “Why should I not embrace the Christian woman?”

In the commandment of ritual fringes, the white represents clear logic while the royal blueis reminiscent of the eternal mystery of sea and sky, the blue-white sapphire visible at the mystical moment of glimpsing the Divine (Exodus 24:10,11). The sin of the scouts and the command of the ritual fringes - united by a verb which means passionate love - come to teach that there must be an emotion which supersedes intellect, a love which overcomes logic, in the realms of Torah and Israel. And Torah must be passionately pursued if the commandments will prove more powerful than other sensuous seductions. Hence the ritual fringes, reminding us of beloved commandments which come from heaven, must be fondled by our left hand (corresponding to the heart) and kissed by our mouths. Only a beloved and passionate fruitful Torah has the capacity to overcome a bald and arid, cold and dry logical Korah.

Shabbat Shalom.