Parsha Pearls: Parshas Korach

 For My honor you did not protest!
Not Just Anyone Can Interpret the Torah
When the Wicked Do Mitzvos
No Peace for the Wicked
Not Even a Needle

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Today we are faced with legislation by the Zionist government to draft all Torah-observant Jewish men into their army. Why did Hashem send us this threat? What are we to learn from it?

Perhaps all these years we were like the sun and the moon: we protested the army for the honor of human beings, for the yeshiva bochurim, so that they could continue to learn Torah. Protesting for the honor of Torah scholars is no small thing, just as protesting for the honor of Moshe Rabbeinu was no small thing. But we did not protest the army for Hashem’s honor. Hashem commanded the Jewish people to stay in exile until moshiach comes, not to establish a state and an army and not to wage wars. The Zionist army is the antithesis of all of that. We should have stated openly that we refuse to serve because fighting in that army is a rebellion against Hashem. That is why Hashem is now setting the Zionists loose upon us, to threaten us and scare us into joining them. We must do teshuva and begin to protest openly for Hashem’s sake. Let us hope that it will not be too late, as in the case of the sun and moon, and Hashem will accept our protest and our Kiddush Hashem.

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Today as well, the Zionists are telling us that we have to fight in their army. Through this evil decree, Hashem is speaking to us: “Where is your army? The Zionists risk and often sacrifice their lives for their false religion, for what they imagine is Hashem’s will. Why don’t you show any dedication and self-sacrifice for true Judaism?”

It took them a lot of hard work and mesirus nefesh to build their rebellion against Hashem, and it will take a lot of hard work and mesirus nefesh for us to undo what they did. Some of us may have to sit in jail. Some may have to go without money and some may have to move to lands where they have no home and no income.

At the same time, the current decree may be the first step to our yeshuah. The decree has united religious Jews in realizing that the Zionist state is not a safe or spiritually healthy place for a Jew to live. As a result, perhaps many religious Jews will leave Eretz Yisroel. Others will be denied the bribe of Zionist support due to their refusal to be drafted, and they will be free to speak their minds. Let us pray that Hashem guide all of Klal Yisroel in the right path.

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In our generation as well, we see the religious proponents of Zionism claiming that their beliefs and practices are true to the Torah, and bringing proofs. We must remember Reb Moshe’s words: that the Torah is not open to all to interpret, only to the great poskim of the generation. And none of the great poskim ever issued an halachic ruling permitting the establishment of a state. At the time the state was established, many ruled explicitly that it was forbidden, and the others refused to answer the question. (See Mikatowitz Ad Hei B’Iyar, Chapters 6-8.)

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We can apply the Akeidah’s words to the secular Zionists of our time: since they have denied all the foundations of Judaism and separated themselves from our people, we need not worry that we will be punished for their deeds. A state founded and run solely by them would not be counted in the eyes of Hashem as a sin of the Jewish people. However, we must be concerned about the religious Zionists, for they are definitely part of our nation and the principle of “arvus” – shared responsibility – applies to them. It is their participation in the state that causes us all to be responsible for this great sin. How great then is our obligation to rebuke them and bring them back to the true path of Torah!

… This are significant excerpts, full reading:

https://torahjews.org/2023/11/26/parsha-pearls-parshas-korach

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Moshe FEINSTEIN –