A thought on Parshas Korach

"...va'yakam Moshe va'yelech el Dasan v'Aviram..." "...Moshe got up and went to meet Dasan v'Aviram..." (16:25) The uprising in the desert had begun. Korach and his followers, along with the two nemesis instigators Dasan and Aviram, who had challenged Moshe's authority since their early days in Egypt, had drawn the proverbial line in the sand. Rather than confront or castigate them, Moshe approached them to attempt some resolution. Our sages have emphasized the strong value of avoiding machlokes - divisive fighting - and they use Korach's uprising as the prototype of a wicked and unjust macholokes. Moreover, the Torah instructs us (17:5) not to follow in the ways of Korach, which some consider a formal mitzvah in addition to being a moral standard to aim for. Rabbeinu Avigdor peers into the word machlokes. It is apparent to us that it has as its root the Hebrew work chalak, which means division. What other meaning might lurk within the word? He offers a midrashic acrostic. If we take the letters of the word (mem, ches, lamed, kuf, tof) we find that they represent, in roshei teivos sequence, maka, cherpa, lokin, kala, to'eva which mean "offense, shame, punitive, belittling, and abominable." The word itself thus hints at the deeper impact caused by divisiveness. Machlokes hurts, humiliates, bullies and repulses people. Rabbeinu Avigdor also offers a second perspective of the word's latent meaning. In backwards-acrostic, those same letters stand for, in roshei teivos sequence, tachlis, klala, l'olam cherpa me'via. This time, the acrostic actually forms a complete freestanding sentence, declaring "its ultimate curse is that it brings eternal shame." Thus, the word itself spells out the far reaching damage wrought by machlokes. I think that most of us know about the destruction which stems from interpersonal conflict. There are people, families, neighborhoods and communities that have been infected by contagious machlokes and who still reel from it decades later. When our sages chose to describe Korach and his followers as seeding machlokes, they were attentive to the deeper impact which lingered in our ranks long after the revolt was quelled. Machlokes hurts the individual as well as the group. Anyway you look at it, the word itself spells this out (when you peer through the kabbalistic lens of Rabbeinu Avigdor.) It is time to run from machlokes. Good Shabbos. D Fox