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).