What Did the Money Do Wrong?

Korach rebelled against Moses, fine. But then the earth swallowed his bank account too. But what exactly did the money do wrong?

A Check from Amalek

Among American Jews, there are still traces of the old debate about whether it is proper to buy products made in Germany.

In Israel, for example, public vehicles — buses, taxis, and so on — were often made in Germany. In the United States, it was different.

Today, many Jews drive German cars. But fifty years ago, people would point a finger at a Jew who bought a German car.

That debate really began in 1933, immediately after the Nazis came to power in Germany. The Nazis boycotted Jewish businesses and spread propaganda saying that people should not buy Jewish goods. In response, American Jewry boycotted German products, and within a few months, German exports suffered a noticeable decline.

In the Land of Israel, however, a difficult dilemma arose.

The Jewish community in the Land of Israel was small. The British, who ruled the country, restricted immigration, and the number of visas they gave to Jews was very limited. Beyond the quota they set, no Jew could enter the gates of the Land of Israel.

But as always, every rule has an exception. The British wanted to strengthen the economy of the country, so anyone who brought one thousand pounds sterling with him to the Land of Israel received an entry permit.

The Nazi policy in 1933 was to allow German Jews to leave the country. They wanted to get rid of them. But they did not allow them to take cash out of Germany. Anyone who wanted to leave had to give up all his property in advance and immigrate to another country with nothing but the clothes on his back.

On the other hand, a Jew could not enter the Land of Israel without one thousand pounds sterling.

So, in general, German Jews were still not prepared to leave all their property behind in Germany and move to the Land of Israel with nothing.

Chaim Arlosoroff, who served as chairman of the Political Department of the Jewish Agency, proposed a solution: the money of German Jews would be used to purchase equipment and machinery from Germany, and in this way, they would receive their money back when they came to the Land of Israel.

So a special bank was established to serve as an intermediary between German Jews who wanted to move to the Land of Israel and importers in the Land of Israel who wanted to buy goods in Germany.

The importers bought the goods with the money that the German Jews had “lent” them. Then, when those Jews arrived in the Land of Israel, they received two-thirds of their money from the importers. This gave them the one thousand pounds sterling they needed in order to receive an entry visa to the Land of Israel.

But then a fierce argument broke out in the Land of Israel.

After all, American Jews were strongly boycotting German products in order to weaken and punish the Nazis — may their name be erased — in the hope that they would stop persecuting the Jews. And here, the Jewish Agency itself was making a “deal” with the devil himself — the Nazi government — in order to help their economy by exporting goods to the Land of Israel!

Looking back, it became clear that for six years — from 1933 until 1939 — this system of the Jewish Agency saved more than fifty thousand Jews from the terrible Holocaust.

It is true that there were many good intentions behind the idea of boycotting German products. But that idea did not save even one Jew. The “deal” of Chaim Arlosoroff, on the other hand, saved tens of thousands of Jews.

And in Judaism, the deed is what matters most (Arlosoroff was murdered in Tel Aviv shortly after he made this “deal”).

What Did the Property Do Wrong?

Today we read the Torah portion of Korach.

Korach has the misfortune of having his Torah portion read at the beginning of the summer, when many schools have already let out for vacation. So a lot of people never really heard about this man.

Korach was Moses’ first cousin. His father and Moses’ father were brothers. On top of that, Korach was an extremely wealthy man (Sanhedrin 110a).

One day, Korach gathered together a group of professional troublemakers and came with a complaint against Moses.

“Why,” he demanded, “did you appoint yourself as king? And why did you appoint your brother Aaron as High Priest?”

Korach’s argument was: “The entire community is holy.” After all, every Jew heard the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. So what makes Moses more important than anyone else in the camp?

But Korach’s real desire was that Moses should appoint him as High Priest. He felt that the position suited him much better than Aaron. After all, he had a distinguished family background, he was wealthy, and he felt that everything belonged to him.

Moses tried to persuade Korach and his group to climb down from the tree they had climbed up. But it did not help. They continued to insist, to provoke Moses and Aaron, and in truth, to rebel against G-d Himself.

Then suddenly, Moses made the following announcement:

“With this you shall know that G-d has sent me… If G-d creates something new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them… then you will know that these men have provoked G-d.”

And as soon as Moses finished speaking, the Torah tells us:

“The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their houses… and all their property.”
—Numbers 16:28–32

Korach and his entire group were swallowed alive into the earth.

But the Torah emphasizes another point: their property was swallowed too. All of Korach’s wealth — and he was a very rich man — went down with him.

So the question is obvious: Why did Korach’s property have to be destroyed?

Fine, Korach himself had to be removed. But why not use his wealth to help the poor, the widows, and the orphans?

Especially since the Torah has a prohibition called bal tashchit — the commandment not to destroy things needlessly. We are not allowed to waste something that can be used for a good purpose. We may not throw out usable food or burn clothing for no reason.

And we know that whatever G-d tells us to do in His Torah, He Himself does as well.

So if G-d instructed us not to waste or destroy useful things, why did He destroy all of Korach’s property?

Credit for Generations

The Rebbe often quoted the Sifrei, which says the following about the mitzvah of shikchah — leaving forgotten produce in the field for the poor:

If a person lost a coin, and a poor person found it and used it to support himself, the Torah considers it as if the owner fulfilled the mitzvah of charity — even though he had no intention of giving charity.

In other words, someone drops a dollar from his pocket, and he is upset about losing it. But in practice, a poor person finds that dollar and buys himself a sandwich to revive his soul. The person who lost the dollar gets credit for it. It is considered as if he fulfilled the mitzvah of charity.

Why?

Because in Judaism, what matters most is the actual deed. It does not matter what the intentions of the person who lost the dollar were. In practice, the poor person was revived through his money, and therefore the owner of the coin fulfilled the mitzvah of charity (Hstvaaduyot 5748, vol. 2, p. 545).

The Sforno, on the words “and all the property,” explains why Korach’s wealth had to be swallowed up too:

It was so that righteous people would not benefit from Korach’s work and property — similar to the case of a coin falling from someone’s pocket, being found by a poor person, and being used to sustain him.

In other words, if people had benefited from Korach’s property, Korach would have received credit for that mitzvah. And since Korach rebelled against Moses, G-d did not want him to receive that merit. That is why Korach was swallowed together with his property.

But in the end, Korach did receive a tremendous merit.

The Torah tells us in Parshat Pinchas: “The sons of Korach did not die” (Numbers 26:11). At the last moment, Korach’s sons repented, and they were saved from the punishment.

And from them came great people, including the prophet Samuel, who was one of Korach’s descendants. In the Book of Psalms, there are eleven chapters that were said by “the sons of Korach.”

So in the end, children can save even a person like Korach.

Because children exist in this world through their parents. Therefore, every good deed they do is credited to their parents as well.

Parshat Korach teaches us that if you are a person of means, and you donate money for holy purposes, that money can save you even after your hundred and twenty years. Every mitzvah done through your money, and every prayer recited in the synagogue that you helped build, is automatically deposited into your spiritual bank account.

But if you are not such a wealthy person, and you do not have enough money to build a synagogue — or even to dedicate a room — then, to secure your spiritual future in the World to Come, you should invest in the Jewish education of your children.

Because the mitzvahs and good deeds they will do one day will be credited to you.