20 Jun PARASHAT KORACH: THE CRACK IN THE DAM

Parashat Korah tells

the story of the quint-
essential mahaloket –

fight. The story is that
of the rebellion led
by Korah, who set
out to challenge the authority of
Moshe Rabbenu. Learning this story
can teach us so much about why and
how we need to avoid fighting.
At one point in the story, Moshe
sends a message to two of the leaders
of the rebel group – Datan andAviram
– asking them to come meet. Moshe’s
intent was to try to talk things out and
hope to make peace.
But Datan andAviram refused. They
sent a nasty message back to Moshe,
saying that no matter what, they were
not coming to meet with him.
The Midrash says something
startling about Datan and Aviram’s
response. It says that they went so far
as to tell Moshe, “Even if we will end
up going to Gehinam and being

punished forever because of this,
we’re not ending this fight. We don’t
care about anything.”
It is very possible that the Midrash
does not mean to say that Datan and
Aviram actually said this. Rather, it
means that at a certain point during
this fight, Datan and Aviram realized
that they were wrong. They
understood that Moshe Rabbenu did
not make himself the leader out of
arrogance and selfishness. But it was
too late. Once the fight got started,
there was no turning back.
A fight is like a crack in a dam. Once
there is a crack, the water starts
flowing through it until eventually
the whole dam falls apart, and there’s
a destructive flood. The same is true
of a fight. Once a person gets into a
fight, it is so, so difficult for him to
back down. He feels compelled to
persist, to keep going, to stand his
ground, to take the fight to the bitter
end, NO MATTER WHAT!!!

This is why fighting is SO VERY
DESTRUCTIVE. Because people
can’t stop. Once they get started,
they’ll sacrifice everything to win the
fight. They’ll even ruin their lives.
Rav Haim Palagi writes that he
never saw a fight that did not end
destroying lives. Rav Haim
Shmulevitz writes that he has seen
yeshivot which were able to withstand
the greatest tests and challenges. But
when a fight starts in a yeshiva, it
almost always ends up destroying it.
This is why Korah’s revolt ended in
such a dramatic fashion – with the
ground opening up and swallowing
the rebels. Hashem wanted to show
that there is nothing more destructive
than fighting. So He did something
drastic, something completely out of
the ordinary, to show just how
destructive fighting is.
The lesson for us is not to let this
crack open, not to let the fight start.
When we hear something hurtful, or

if there’s something we disapprove of
or don’t agree with, we need to think
very, very carefully before turning it
into a fight. Far more often than
not, IT JUST ISN’T WORTH
IT. Whether it’s with a spouse,
another family member, a friend or a
business associate, we need to be so
careful not to let the crack open in the
dam.
Because once it does, destruction
will almost invariably follow.
Let us always remember the great
danger of fighting, and do everything
we can to maintain peaceful relations
with the people around us.