Alex Clare is a world-famous musician. What many people don’t know is that Alex grew
up as a Jew with little background. He
was not observant. However, as his music
career began to take off he also began learning more about Judaism and eventually
started keeping Shabbos.
At one point, a widely recognized record company called that they were
interested in signing him to a record deal.
He told them he would be honored, but he needed them to know he wouldn’t
be able to play any gigs on Friday Night or Saturday, as he was a Sabbath Observer.
“Sure, yeah, whatever. Just
sign,” was the response that he got.
As time went on and they were preparing to launch a new album, he
representative called and said, “Alex, we have a great gig for you, Friday
night at such and such place”. Alex
responded, “Remember, I told you I can’t do Friday night.”
“Oh, right, sorry, yes. No
problem. We’ll find something else.”
A different time he got a call about a great opportunity on a
Saturday. Again, he reminded his representatives about Shabbos.
Finally, they called and said, “Alex, we have a great
opportunity. It’s a Tuesday night in October”.
“I’m really sorry, “ said Alex, “but it’s in the second night of Sukkot”.
“Alex,” said the rep, “if you can’t do this gig, the company is
going to drop you.”
“So, drop me.” Alex said. And they did.
For a long time Alex had trouble paying his bills, until he
received a message from Microsoft that they wanted to use one of his songs in a
national ad campaign.
But he didn’t know that was coming when he made his decision so
many months and years earlier. A
decision that didn’t really make sense. A decision that he made because of his
commitment to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and His Shabbos.
We know from the text of the Torah that Korach and his followers
were unhappy with the leadership of Moshe & Aharon.
However, as is often the case, the medrash steps in to describe in
vivid detail some of the conversations this group had with Moshe Rabbeinu.
One day, Korach and his followers approached
Moshe wearing robes which were entirely blue, the color of techeles, and they
asked him:
“We know that any four-cornered
garment requires tzitzis with a thread of techeles, of blue. What would be the halacha if the garment was
entirely blue already? Would it still
require tzitzis?”
Moshe answered that it would. At which point, they began to laugh at
him. “How does that make sense? If the goal of the one thread of techeles is
to remind us of the sea, the sky, and ultimately of HKBH Himself, then clearly
a garment made ENTIRELY of techeles is already serving that purpose!?”
They then asked Moshe a SECOND question:
“If a room is filled entirely with
sifrei Torah, is there a chiyuv, a requirement, to place a mezuzah on the door
to that room?”
Moshe answered YES.
Again, they laugh at Moshe. “Is it really possible that a room that has a
mezuzah which contains ONLY the first and second paragraph of Shema is enough
to exempt a room from the obligation of mezuzah that multiple sifrei Torah do
not?!”
Chazal are clearly trying to teach us something about the essence
of the conflict between Korach & Moshe Rabbeinu. But the question, of course, is what is that
lesson?
Rav Soloveitchik asked this
question 49 years ago at a convention of the Rabbinical Council of America, and
he offered the following explanation:
The medrash, as usual, is picking up on Korach’s own words that are
told to us in the Torah itself:
]וַיִּקָּהֲלוּ עַל מֹשֶׁה וְעַל
אַהֲרֹן וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֲלֵהֶם רַב לָכֶם[ כִּי כָל הָעֵדָה כֻּלָּם קְדֹשִׁים וּבְתוֹכָם יְקֹוָק וּמַדּוּעַ
תִּתְנַשְּׂאוּ עַל קְהַל יְקֹוָק:
“The entirety of the Jewish People is holy. We are all Kadosh! So why have raised yourselves above the rest
of us!?”
On the basic level, Korach’s assertion was that all of Am Yisrael
had heard Hashem speak to them at Har Sinai.
Hashem declared that we are all “Mamleches Kohanim V’Goy Kadosh”. We are
all part of a kingship of priests and a holy nation. We’re all in this together. So why do you presume to rule over us? Why do you get to determine who the leaders
are?
But really, says the medrash, it was more than that.
Korach was out to create a new ideology. His argument was that since all Jews are
equal, it follows, then, that everyone stands on equal ground to interpret the
Torah and its laws. Korach wasn’t only
out to undermine Moshe’s political authority.
He was aiming to undermine his halachic authority as well.
So, how does he do that? By
showing his followers, and anyone else who is willing to listen, just how little
sense Moshe’s approach to Torah made.
Korach’s argument of Kol HaEida Kulam Kedoshim, that everyone is
holy was an attack on the sense that in some way there are going to be those
who hold religious authority and knowledge that is unique and separate from the
masses.
Rather, argued Korach, the Torah should be something that ANYONE
can interpret because it should make use of commonsense. So, when it doesn’t, it shows just how flawed
Moshe’s system really was.
And this is why he specifically attacks Moshe with these two
examples of Techeles & Mezuzah:
–
Because
in both cases, common sense would dictate that Korach V’Adaso are entirely
correct. Who needs a thread of techeles
if you have an entire suit made from techeles?
Who needs a mezuzah when you have sifrei torah throughout your home!?
The message Chazal are driving home with this medrash, then, is
that this philosophy of commonsense ONLY in the understanding of Torah sorely
underestimates the sophistication of the halachic process and represents a false
ideology.
And, the Rav argued, we can appreciate why this approach is
mistaken if we look at the world of Physics.
Aristotelian & Greek philosophers are studied rigorously to
this day. However, their approach to
physics has largely been proven wrong.
Why? Because the foundation of Arisotelian physics was common sense.
For example, Aristotle believed that objects fall to the ground
because they are heavy. Meaning, he
considered gravitational pull to be the result of weight. And while this seems to make sense, after all,
while observing a heavy object, it would seem that its weight is what brings it
down, we know that this is, of course, incorrect.
Galileo & Newton abandoned the commonsense approach to
Physics. Instead, they argued that we
must take reality and conceptualize it.
They took our experiences of light, sound, and color and converted them
into quantitative, mathematical entities. Through that process, one that takes training,
deep study, and mentoring, Newton eventually developed his Law of Universal
Gravitation, which showed that weight, in truth, is the RESULT of gravitational
pull, not its cause.
If humanity would have been satisfied with the commonsense approach
to Physics, with Aristotle’s approach, we would never have discovered the
ability to fly a rocket into space.
Math and science are not simply a compilation of formulas. There is
a method. So, too, argued the Rav, the
halacha is not simply a set of rules and guidelines, rather there is halachic
methodology. And just as the
discovery of new formulas and theorems in math and science requires rigorous
training, l’havdil, so does the truest, deepest appreciation for the
understanding of Torah Sheb’al Peh and the “discovery” of novel ideas and
approaches.
But because that is true, because the halachic process is one that
depends on a methodology, and is NOT always dependent on commonsense, it can
make the results of that analysis, at times, more difficult to accept.
And that is when we are confronted, in every generation in its own
way, with those who call for a more commonsense approach to halacha. A halacha that matches the realities of the
world in which we live.
Of course, we want the Torah to be relevant and to provide meaning
and value to our lives, and the goal is that we find that most of the time. Additionally,
there are times when flexibility and even some level of change are appropriate,
when done with appropriate guidance from those very same experts we discussed
earlier, the Talmidei Chachamim in every generation. COVID taught us the importance of those Talmidei
Chachami who guided us to offer us novel approaches which changed the way we
had done so many things for so long.
But there will also be times when the Torah can’t fit exactly in our
comfort zone. Our real commitment is
tested specifically in those moments. And it is in those moments that we attach
ourselves to a thousand-years old mesorah that has outlasted the movements to
change it over and over again.
And perhaps this is why Chazal specifically used the mitzvah of
tzitzis to bring the dispute between Korach & Moshe to light.
We know that
the ideal performance of the mitzvah of tzitzis involves strands of two
colors: Lavan & Techeles, white and
a deep blue.
Commentators
have for centuries gone searching for the explanation, a deeper meaning behind
these colors.
And the Rav, in
a totally different place, very poignantly explains the symbolism of the dark
blue techeles string mixed in with the majority of white strings.
White is always
associated with “clarity, rationality, and that which is
self-evident”.
The Navi
Yeshayahu, in referring to the power of Teshuva, states:
אִם-יִהְיוּ
חֲטָאֵיכֶם כַּשָּׁנִים כַּשֶּׁלֶג יַלְבִּינוּ
“If your sins
are like scarlet, they will be purified like white snow”
And while the
white strings are meant to represent that which is clear, rational, and
understood, the string of techeles represents that which is murky, unclear, and
mysterious.
רש”י explains that techeles
is the color of the sky as it begins to get dark.
The גמ’ in Sota 17a also states:
היה
ר”מ אומר מה נשתנה תכלת מכל מיני צבעונין?
מפני שהתכלת דומה לים וים דומה לרקיע ורקיע דומה לכסא הכבוד
“Techeles is
similar to the color of the deep waters of the sea, which in turn is similar to
the color of the sky, which is the color of the Kisei HaKavod, the throne of
Hashem.”
If the white
represents those elements of life we can clearly understand, the techeles
reminds us there will be times in the human experience, times within our lives
and even within our spiritual growth, when there will be mysteries that elude
our precise understanding.
The tzitis,
therefore, are the ideal symbol of what Korach and his followers couldn’t
appreciate: A mix of white and blue, a Torah that is sustained NOT through commonsense,
but because of a people who are committed to the halachic process, even when it
is more difficult to understand.
Yes, sometimes
the blue seems to overwhelm the white, but in the end, it is our commitment to
live in the world of a mixture of white and blue that has sustained our people
for millenia. And it will be the secret
to our success for generations to come.