29 Jun ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL
The Torah, in describing
Korach’s revolt against the
authority of Moshe, states
that Korach argued that
“the entire nation is
equally holy”, i.e. they
were all present at Mt.
Sinai and all received the
same Torah directly from Hakodosh
Baruch Hu. Why, Korach asked, should
Moshe alone be the final authority on all
halachic matters? Shouldn’t each
individual have the right to interpret the
Torah according to his own understanding?
This attitude of Korach is not unique to him
alone. Any intelligent human being wants
others to respect his intelligence, and
prefers to maintain his independence in
making decisions that affect him. People
do not like being subservient to others.
According to the tradition recorded in the
Talmud (Shabbos 88a), at the occasion of
Ma’amad Har Sinai Hashem had to force
the Torah upon the Jewish people by
threatening to bury them alive if they did
not accept it (Shemos 19:17). The
commentaries have great difficulty with
this statement. The Torah seems to say
explicitly that the entire Jewish nation
accepted the Torah at Har Sinai out of their
own free will (Shemos 24:7). Why did
Hashem have to force it upon them? The
Medrash Tanchuma (Parshas Noach)
suggests that perhaps the two passages
referred to above correspond to the two
parts of the Torah. The people were
prepared to accept the Torah Shebiksav, as
this comes directly from Hashem; man does
not find it that humiliating to humble
himself before Hashem. The Jews were not
that keen on accepting the Torah Shebeal
Peh, which includes much rabbinic input,
and whose main principle is “Lo mesora
hakosuv ella lechachomim” (Chagigah
18a). This aspect of Torah dictates that one
person’s view is binding upon another, i.e.,
your opinion counts more than mine. This
concept is a very bitter pill to swallow. The
Jewish people, who had just gained their
freedom from Egypt, were not yet prepared
to accept the rabbis’ role in developing the
Torah Shebeal Peh. Therefore, Hakodosh
Baruch Hu had to force the Torah Shebeal
Peh upon them. Many generations later,
after the miracle of Purim occurred, the
rabbis instituted the first mitzvah
midirabanon, of reading the megillah. At
that time, according to tradition of the
Talmud, Bnei Yisroel accepted anew the
oral Torah; this time out of their own free
will. The rabbis of that generation, the
Anshei Kneses Hagedolah, established
the texts of blessings and prayers and
standardized the observance of the
mitzvos. The Seder Olam Zutta remarks
that after the passing of the prophets
Chagai, Zecharia, and Malachi, prophecy
terminated (until the return of Eliyahu
before the coming of Moshiach), and a
new period began. Hence forth we had to
“bend our ear, and listen to the words of
the chachomim”. This passage apparently
refers to this new period where Bnei
Yosroel had accepted the authority of the
rabbis, and therefore the Torah Shebeal
Peh was able to develop much more than
ever before. This acceptance was the
rejection of Korach’s position that
Judaism should be “every – man’s
religion”, that each person who learned
Torah should be entitled to his own
opinion. The nation as a whole had
officially accepted the authority of the
chachomim to develop the Torah Shebeal
Peh . We sometimes hear from religious
people in our own circles that since Rav
Soloveitchik has passed away, there is no
one around to whom they can refer their
shaalos. Many of those people use the
passing of the Rav as an excuse to ignore
the piskei halacha of contemporary poskim.
They elect to make their own halachic
decisions, justifying themselves by arguing
that everyone in our generation is entitled to
express their opinions equally, and all have
equal authority. This was Korach’s view,
who stated that “the entire nation is holy”, we
all learned Torah together, and “all men were
created equal”. The Rav himself spoke out
explicitly against such an attitude (See
Reflections of the Rav, Volume One,
Chapter 13).