Mazal Tov to Shua & Caylee Werdiger and families on the birth of a son!
JBD – Jews of the Melbourne CBD is now on LinkedIn. Follow us here.
Shabbat starts on Friday at 4:55pm and ends on Saturday at 5:57pm. The weekly Torah portion is Korach.
Mincha 1pm continues at Ainsworth Property – GF/459 Collins Mon-Wed. Join the WhatsApp group where we take a count to confirm each day.
Weekly sushi & shiur will continue on Wed at about 1.10pm (after mincha) at A-P GF/459 Collins – and via zoom. Current topic: paying employees in a timely fashion. Details here and on the WhatsApp group.
Thought of the Week with thanks to Levi Rosenbaum.
Korach and his followers mounted an insurrection against Moshe and Aharon with good intentions. They wanted the observance of Judaism to be in the manner most relevant to the individual: If one feels closer to holy books, that should suffice instead of tzitzit. If one felt moved by the ketoret (incense offered up only by a kohen), they should use that medium to connect to G-d.
Korach’s motive was to undermine the rules, not the Torah itself. However, with the benefit of hindsight, we see
that religiously observing Torah’s everlasting laws has kept us connected throughout the generations.
This concept applies to the idea of teshuvah – repentance. Since Torah is eternal, there is no prescribed time to begin its observance; provided one gets there before the end, they are considered a righteous Jew.
The sons of Korach did teshuvah, but at the moment of the earthquake, they only had an inspiration to do teshuvah; if they had already done teshuvah, they would not have been swallowed up at all.
This is why they were consigned to a “special place in gehenom”. Even the hint of sincerity to follow the Torah’s path was enough to warrant their survival, and opportunity to live a Torah-observant life.
This concept also explains why the ground was used to punish Korach. Everything in this world exists to achieve the purpose of creation – a physical dwelling place for G-d. And the lower something is physically, the higher its spiritual source.
Therefore, land, which is lower than plant, animal and human life has the greatest potential for spiritual. In this story, the ground was used to punish those who defied G-d, but it also provided the platform for Korach’s sons to achieve the greatest levels of teshuvah. This shows that no matter how far one is, they can always return.
Every single Jew has the spark within them, so even if they might seem “underground” and entirely removed from their roots (pun intended), the potential to re-connect is everlasting.