Post-Oral Torah

I have found myself in the past few weeks almost obsessed with being melamed zchut, or giving the benefit of the doubt to all the various "bad guys" who have played a role in the recent parhsiyot. I stopped myself this week while pondering the fascinating character, Korach; shouldn't I be sticking more to the simple meaning of the story? Korach has the audacity to start up with the leader of Am Yisrael. He challenges the leadership of Moshe and Aaron, and he is subsequently punished by a stunning miracle, whereby the earth literally opens up from under him, and swallows him and his evil cohorts alive. What good is there possibly to be found in Korach, and why even bother to look?
Torah she'B'al-peh, the Oral Law, refers to the power given to the Jewish People to expound, elucidate, and be mechadesh or to be innovative in our understanding of the text. It is the power to literally uncover meanings in the text almost in a sense yesh mai'ayin, something from nothing. The Oral Law is dynamic and ever changing. That is why it is referred to as the Oral Law, because to give it a form or to limit it to the written word, is to deny it, it's very strength. It was actually prohibited to write down the Oral Law at one time, until Reb Yehuda Hanasi the compiler of the Mishna gave a monumental heter, to permit the writing down of the Mishna, in order to insure that the Oral Law would not be forgotten, G-d forbid. That original heter was eventually extended to include all of the Oral Law until this very day. Most Jews understand the Oral Law in a very limited way, they think of it merely referring to the Mishna, Talmud and the Halacha. The Oral Law is obviously much greater than that. Every Jew is in an integral part in the historical development of the Oral Law. And it is exactly that, a historical process. Take the famous verse in Exodus (21:24), an eye for eye, a tooth for a tooth etc.; the simple meaning would be literally marshal law, an eye for eye. I think it would be wrong to completely ignore the plain and simple meaning of the verse. However the Rabbis interpreted it to refer to monetary compensation. In actuality they were revealing the chesed or kindness "hidden" in the verse. This is not to negate, G-d forbid, the validity of the Rabbi's interpretation; that is exactly the power of the Oral Law. Torah was given to the Jewish people, in every sense of the word. Given, in the sense that we have tremendous autonomy in interpreting the Torah. I think to any serious observer, the Oral Law is a historical process of revealing the chesed in the Torah. Chesed, in a double sense, first the taking away of the simple harshness found in many verses, for example "an eye for an eye", and second on a deeper level, chesed refers to the lack of boundaries, in a sense taking a way the limited nature of the text of the Torah. Using the verse at hand, if we take a look later on in the historical process of the Oral Law, Chasidism looks at that verse and interprets it to refer to the reciprocity inherent in the spiritual realm. If one is somehow spiritually deficient in his "sight", he must somehow rectify his sight, by going through a process of fixing, which could entail looking at people and finding the good character traits in them. Chasidism, in fact, reveals the chesed in an extraordinary way, first by completely removing the entire aspect of physical punishment from the verse. In addition it has effectively expanded the limited nature of the text, by bringing the spiritual dimension into play here, and making it broad enough to essentially obligate a person to raise up humanity as whole in his own process of repentance.
I think it would be mistaken to assume that Chasidism represented the pinnacle of this process. We are all partners in this fascinating historical process. The Oral Law is at a point, now that the Jewish People have returned to their land, where it is almost begging to reach its pinnacle of removing the limited nature of the text to include all realms, and most importantly all of humanity. To reveal the chesed, as it were, which is inherent in all people and in all of nature. In effect, to reveal the divinity in all things. From a lone rock in some forest in Wisconsin, to a far away star, to a Friday night davening at the Kotel. This is what I believe is the meaning of the term "Toras Eretz Yisrael", the Torah of the Land of Israel. The Torah of the future, where the Oral Law has reached its pinnacle, of revealing the infinite nature of the Torah, and hence the divinity existent in all of creation.
This I think is the "Torah of Korach". Hinted by many of the great Chassidic Rebbes, and by the Arizal, is that the ideas of Korach, will be acknowledged as true in the future, when the process of tikkun olam is finally finished, and the world reaches a place of perfection. One can look at the text in a limited way and see the story in its plain sense, and for that matter all the amazing stories of the past few weeks. Or one can be part of the historical process of the Oral Law, and see the story from a broader perspective, and see that Korach is not as bad as he seems to be. To understand this better, I think it is essential to back up to last week's parsha, and see how one parsha flows into the next. Last week we read about how the spies came back with a bad report about the Land of Israel, and they were subsequently punished, by the painful decree that they would have to wander in the desert for forty years, and only the following generation would have the merit of entering the Land of Israel. Following this story the Torah does something very strange, God tells Moshe to command Am Yisrael of two mitzvoth, which they will have to perform when they enter Israel. It seems almost that God is mocking the People, "ha-ha, you can't go there".
The answer I think lies in why the spies were sent in the first place. The Zohar explains that Moshe knew at this point that he was not going into Israel with the rest of the people. He therefore sent the spies to bring back something from the Land. What exactly is it that Moshe wants them to bring back, fruits!? It is possible that Moshe wanted a Torah from the land, he wanted a "taste" of Torat Eretz Yisrael, a taste of the expansiveness of the Torah, of which it's true nature, as it were, can only be realized in a sense, in the Land. What happened was, is that the spies messed up, with the exception of Kalev and Joshua, who concerning Kalev the Ishbitzer says he prayed before he went "Unveil my eyes, that I may see the wonders of the Torah" (Psalms 119:18), the spies on the other hand only saw the external aspect of the Land. So after the terrible decree of wandering the desert for 40 years, and the People are in the midst of unprecedented despair, God gives them an incredible present, he gives them the very essence of the land; Toras Eretz Yisrael a Torah from the Land, a taste of the true expansiveness of the Torah! This is represented in the two mitzvoth, which can only be performed upon entering the land.
So along comes the great visionary Korach, he realizes at this point that we can obtain this great understanding of the Torah, right here in the desert. They gathered together against Moshe and Aaron and said to them: "You have taken too much! For the entire people is holy, and God is among them, so why do you exalt yourselves over the congregation of God?" (Numbers 16:3). This is presented in the Torah as Korach's main argument. Basically a holistic view of the world, equality between all beings, God's presence is equally apparent in all. A very worthy vision, just a few millennia too early. The ground opening up from under him, and swallowing him alive silences Korach, almost to say, you will grow again, your time will come, but not yet.
How can one learn Torah in this incredible way, how does one constantly reach beyond the limits of the text as we know it? How can we taste Toras Eretz Yisrael? Obviously there are many different ways, but I think the key is something I heard from Reb Moish Geller, in the name of his Rebbe, Rav Shlomo Carlebach; to do everything, "besheim kol yisrael", in the name of all of humanity. You can break the limits of a good deed, or the narrowness of your own spiritual journey, by being mevatel, or nullify yourself to humanity, and the universe as a whole. When you learn a page of Gemara, learn not only for yourself, but also for all of existence. By this we can continue in the path of the Oral Law, and bring Korach's vision into reality, and finish the process of tikkun olam, to reveal God's presence in everything.
After the episode of Korach and his company, the Jewish people still don't understand who the good guys are, and they turn on Moshe and Aharon saying, "You have killed God's people!" At this point God loses patience so to speak, and unleashes a devastating plague. Moshe tells Aharon to light the Ktoret, the Incense, and that this will stop the plagues. Aharon does so, and stands "between the living and the dead", and the plague is stopped. One of the explanations Rashi brings for why the Ktoret is the remedy for the plague is that until now Am Yisrael thought the Ktoret was some sort of poison, so God wanted to show that it's really a healing remedy. But how could we think the Incense was a poison? It's a sweet-smelling offering to God! So we know that the Ktoret has 11 types of spice, and one of them is the chelbanah. The chelbanah smells awful, and it represents the sinners among Israel. The secret of the Ktoret is that even the most disgusting person can be included in holy service, and that in fact without him the service is not complete. The Gemara says, "Any prayer that doesn't have the prayer of the sinners of Israel is not a prayer".
There are three ways to deal with ugliness. One is to get depressed and give up. We know that's not the way. It's not even worth talking about. Then you can ignore it, you can say that whatever is ugly here doesn't count, it's nullified in the context of the basic goodness of people. This is what Korach suggested, "the entire community- all of them are holy!" The problem with this is there's no room for criticism, for facing up to the negative things about myself and working to fix them. There are some things we just don't talk about. Not only that: there's no room for my uniqueness in that way of seeing things, because I'm made up not only of my strengths but of my weaknesses too, and of how I deal with them. Instead I'm just part of the herd. And the third way is the way of the Ktoret: I know I have problems, but I'm going to find one good thing about myself that I can focus on. Then I'll find another. I'm not ignoring the darkness, but I'm placing it in the light. And when we place the chelbanah within the other spices, its disturbing smell is still there, but it somehow actually adds something to the whole, and what could've been a sickly-sweet smell becomes more real.
We thought that what the ktoret was about was losing ourselves in the whole. We thought what God wanted of us was to disappear, to become washed out, to be outstanding poster boys and girls of the Jewish Idea. But what God wants from us is that we develop our uniqueness in Torah, which we take the chelbanah and keep it as it is- smelly and disgusting. But just putting it in context makes it essential and useful - not sweet- and it's a stink I can't live without.
Korach's camp was buried in the earth, and according to our Sages they stayed there, they continued to live in a grave. This is because all they wanted was to disappear into the collective, and that's what happens in the grave. But in the words of the Piasetzna Rebbe, "A person must individuate himself with the essence of who he is: not only must he not remain imprisoned by social rules, cultural customs, or accepted thought without the ability to see beyond them but he must also have a mind of his own. Without this, not only is he not a Jew but he is also not even a human being. This means bringing out that which is unique within you, that which depicts your very self. Your Torah learning or divine service should be not just an expression of your intelligence but of your very essence as well. The way you approach Torah learning or prayer should represent you. When someone hears a Torah thought or a specific spiritual practice, let him be able to identify it as typically yours. [tr. Y. Starett]" So God wanted to teach us a lesson: the Ktoret- the process of being included- is a healer, a remedy by which you can find and connect to your unique soul.