Rav Shmuel Berenbaum, in his sefer, Tiferet Shemuel (coming out soon), asks the question, Why is it that Rashi tells us that Korach and his team started up with Moshe Rabbenu by wearing a Talet that was all blue, and asking him if a Talet is all blue, does it require Tzitzit or not? Then, when Moshe said it was required, they started to make a joke. If one single string is enough to absolve one from the techelet, surely if the entire garment is blue, it shouldn't need to have a blue string, they said.
He also asked, as it says in the Midrash, that if a house was full of sefarim, why would it need a Mezuzah. Why was that important? Their main claim against Moshe Rabbenu was that he wanted to be the boss over them. And if that was their claim, what does it have to do with these D’var Torah questions?
A while back, we explained that when a person is humble, doesn't hold himself high, and is not full of himself, that makes him a better receptacle to receive Torah. And therefore, Moshe Rabbenu, who was the most humble person, was also the greatest man of Torah. And Rav Shmuel Berenbaum says it actually works the other way as well. The more Torah you have, the more humble you become. He quotes a Mishna in Pirkei Avot (chapter 6, Mishna 1) that says, “Rabi Meir says, anyone who involves himself in Torah for the sake of Torah merits many things.” And one of the things he merits is, “it cloaks him in humility and fear of God.” When Moshe Rabbenu said, “What does God want from you? Just to fear Him,” the Gemara asks, “That’s all Hashem wants?” Yes. For Moshe Rabbenu that wasn't a big deal, because Moshe Rabbenu had so much Torah, that humility and fear of God were no big deal. Rabbenu Yonah says that the word Yirah/fear of God is interchangeable with Bitachon, because it's one in the same: If you fear God and God's on your mind, you're relying on Him. Fear of God means I'm not afraid of people, I'm only afraid of God. Rabbenu Bachye says this as well. When we say, “Don't fear others, and fear God,” it means rely on Him.
Torah connects you to God, and if you're connected to God, you're humble and you rely on Hashem.
Therefore, Rav Shmuel Berenbaum says, if a person is totally engrossed in proper Torah and he knows how to learn, that will bring him to humility and to bitachon.
So how could Korach say that Moshe Rabbenu was arrogant and that he was trying to boss them around if Moshe Rabbenu was great in Torah?
Their ploy was that they’d poke holes in Moshe Rabbenu’s Torah learning and show that they knew how to learn better than him, and thus he was not as humble as he claimed. Because if he was humble, then his Torah would not have these mistakes.
Of course, we know it was the exact opposite. When Hashem offered Moshe Rabbenu the job, he told Hashem (Shemot 4,12), “Send who you usually send, send Aharon, you have many messengers, give it to somebody else.
I'm not worthy, I'm not Chashuv to speak to Paraoh,” and so on.
And he brings down that throughout history, people who are not religious (or we could use the word anti-religious), don't appreciate the humility and the greatness of our Gedolim.
He brings down a story that the Maskim/ the conservative, reform people made a joke out of the then- leader of the generation, Rav Chaim, Ozer Grodzenski.
They made a picture of his Chief-Rabbi chair, empty with a noose around it, saying that whoever wants to sit in his chair will be hung. Meaning, all he wants is his own honor, his own kavod. Little did they know, how humble that great rabbi was. And all our great leaders, as we have said in the past, were and are extremely humble. That is their shining grace - their humility. That comes from learning Torah. So this is an important point. There are certain things, we'll call them almost magical powers, that Torah has that you can't explain.
How do you become humble? How does Torah make you humble? On a simple level, when you learn, you realize how limited you are. You start to learn and you see how difficult it is to understand and that brings humility.
But there's also a magical power. The Torah has holiness and it cleanses a person. Where was En Od Milevado first said in the Torah? At Matan Torah, in Devarim 4, 35, and we say it every single time we open the say Torah,
אַתָּה֙ הׇרְאֵ֣תָ לָדַ֔עַת כִּ֥י יְהֹוָ֖ה ה֣וּא הָאֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ין ע֖וֹד מִלְּבַדּֽוֹ׃
You showed to know, that Hashem is the God. En Od Milevado/ There is none else.
God showed us, at Har Sinai.
Rashi says in that place that when Hashem gave the Torah, He opened up the seven heavens, teared open everything and showed them that He’s the only one. The Rabbi says, every single time you sit down to a Gemara, or for any Torah that you learn in depth, you are back at Har Sinai. And you get that Emuna, Bitachon and humility that came from Har Sinai.
Therefore, the more we dedicate ourselves to Torah, the more humility, Emunah and Bitachon it will bring upon us and the more we will see God's Oneness. That's the power of Torah.
When someone is so steeped in Torah, it's almost ridiculous to make the accusation that he's not humble and not connected. And that's why Korach, Datan and Aviram had to poke a hole in Moshe Rabbenu’s Torah, before they made the claim that Moshe Rabbenu was arrogant.
What a beautiful, beautiful thought from Rav Shmuel Berenbaum, the late beloved Rosh Yeshiva of the Mirrer Yeshiva on the corner of Ocean Parkway and Avenue R.
Have a wonderful day and a Shabbat Shalom.