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Dissension in the Ranks
An illustration of the deaths of Korah, Dathan and Abiram as described in the Book of Numbers, by Gustave Doré, 1865. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
JNS.org – The rabbi was busy doing marriage counseling with a couple in distress. He listened attentively to the wife’s tale of woe, and then nodded his head sympathetically, saying, “You’re right.”
Then he listened, with equal sympathy, to the husband’s side of the story. When the husband was done, he nodded his head in agreement again, saying, “You’re right.”
Whereupon the Rebbetzin who was standing outside the door listening said to her husband, “How can they both be right?!”
And the rabbi nodded his head, saying, “You’re right, too.”
In most conflicts, everyone is right and everyone is wrong. Both sides always bear some responsibility for the disagreement.
Yet this week in the biblical story of Korach, we read of an exceptional disagreement in which one side was completely right and the other side was absolutely in the wrong.
Korach was the clever, wealthy, aristocratic cousin of Moses who disputed Moses and Aaron taking the highest positions of leadership for themselves. Though it was God Himself who instructed Moses to become the leader of the Israelites and appoint his brother Aaron as the High Priest, Korach challenged their positions, accusing them of brazen nepotism.
In the end, God created a supernatural disaster for Korach and his henchmen. The earth itself opened and swallowed them into the abyss. It was a clear, Divine sign that Moses was 100% correct and Korach was 100% wrong.
But that is the exception. In most cases, whether the fault can be divided 50/50 or 80/20, there is always some responsibility for the disagreement on both sides.
I remember my wise grandfather once saying, “When two Jews fight, both are wrong.”
Chapter 5 of Pirkei Avot, “The Ethics of the Fathers,” distinguishes between a dispute “for the sake of heaven” which is a genuine, ideological disagreement, and one which is not “for the sake of heaven,” but is rather personal and vindictive. The former is illustrated by the classical Talmudic debates between Hillel and Shammai, whereas the latter is represented by the dispute of “Korach and his assembly.”
Commentary points out that the Mishnah deliberately does not call it the “dispute between Korach and Moses,” but rather “the dispute of Korach and his assembly.” Moses was completely innocent in this dispute. To even mention his name here would be justifying Korach and giving him some merit as an equal disputant to Moses. Not so. There was no moral equivalence whatsoever to Korach’s argument. It was completely subjective, cynical and malicious. And Moses was completely innocent here.
And yet, we read how Moses continued to make peace with Korach and his henchmen up until the bitter end. He even reached out with a message of peace to his two nemeses who had been provoking him from the early days back in Egypt—the infamously diabolical Datan and Aviram. Defiantly, they spurned his invitation and, in the end, they too went down with Korach.
Concerning the Korach catastrophe, Rashi goes so far as to say, “Come and see how grievous the effect of dispute is, for the earthly Beth Din does not punish a person until the age of majority and the Heavenly Beth Din does not punish until age 20. Yet here, even suckling babes perished.”
If dissension and conflict are the cause of such tragedy, then surely, we should be doing everything possible to avoid it in the first place or to nip it in the bud before it gets out of hand.
How sad and tragic to see dissension in our ranks, not only in politics, which is “normal,” but in families and communities on a personal level.
A congregant once told me he had experienced a miracle in his family. His two warring nephews had made peace. He never imagined it would happen. He was more excited than I’d seen him in years.
Conversely, how many family members never make peace until they are forced to say Kaddish and sit shiva together when they lose a parent? Sadly, I’ve also seen two separate houses of mourning for the same parent because two siblings refused to sit together even then.
Not long ago, I read of what must be the worst such tragic story. Two brothers were the only survivors of their whole family from the Holocaust. And at some point, there was a disagreement between them, and they never talked to each other for 30 years. And they died not talking! I can think of nothing sadder.
If there is a conflict in your family, I beg of you, please don’t wait for the other party to apologize. You take the initiative. You be the man or the woman and extend the hand of peace. Rise above it. Even if you are convinced that they are wrong, do the right thing.
Be a Moses, not a Korach, and be blessed for it.
The post Dissension in the Ranks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Father of Israeli Wounded in New Orleans: ‘Part of his Skull is Missing’
A member of the National Guard Military Police stands, in the area where people were killed by a man driving a truck in an attack during New Year’s celebrations, in New Orleans, Louisiana, US, Jan. 2, 2025. PHoto: REUTERS/Octavio Jones
JNS.org – In an interview, Israeli Hagai Levin described the impact of the injuries sustained by his son Adi, a member of the IDF Armored Corps, during the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans by an ISIS-inspired terrorist who murdered 14 people and wounded dozens of others. The terrorist also died.
“His state fluctuates, but I’m optimistic. I’ll bring my son home. His life will change—he’ll have metal rods in his arms and legs, an open head wound and part of his skull is missing,” Hagai said.
“There are still injuries we’ll fully understand only in a month when we begin the head rehabilitation process. But he’ll return to us, and for that, we’re moving our home from the Golan Heights to Tel Aviv to be closer to Tel HaShomer Hospital [Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan].”
Adi remains bedridden, as does his friend and fellow IDF soldier Y. (who chooses to remain anonymous out of safety concerns). “I miss everyone terribly and am deeply grateful to the Jewish community here for their support,” Y. said.
The pair’s visit to New Orleans was part of a planned three-month road trip that took them from Nebraska to Los Angeles and then on to Texas and Louisiana. They did not make it to their planned destination of Florida.
Having seen the security camera video of the attack, Hagai said that the vehicle driven by Shamsud-Din Jabbar “hit Adi head-on, crushing his legs and head, dragging him along the road, and pushing his friend to the side.”
While praising the hospital as operating at an “incredible standard” and saying that “we are receiving exceptional care,” Hagai said that “despite their travel insurance, a single day of hospitalization here costs roughly the equivalent of the entire annual budget of Israel’s healthcare system combined. The expenses will exceed a million dollars.
“We are facing a long recovery ahead. He’s spent two weeks in the emergency room and will need several months in rehabilitation with complex surgeries. We won’t return to Israel before April.” Hagai said.
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Netanyahu Hosts Trump Envoy on Gaza Hostage Talks
Steve Witkoff, founder of the Witkoff Group, gestures during a rally for Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden, in New York, US, Oct. 27, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
JNS.org – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Saturday afternoon with President-elect Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, in what was described as a “surprise visit” to discuss the multilateral negotiations with Hamas for the release of Israeli hostages and a ceasefire in Gaza.
Witkoff arrived in Israel after talks in Doha with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.
Channel 12 cited a “senior Israeli” saying that Trump has been personally involved in the matter over the last couple of days, expressing his desire to urgently cement a deal before he enters office on Jan. 20.
Netanyahu is expected to hold a security assessment after which he will decide whether to send an Israeli delegation to Doha headed by Mossad and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) chiefs David Barnea and Ronen Bar, respectively.
According to Ynet, “additional progress” has been made in the negotiations but disagreements remain.
The report mentioned the transition from stage one of the proposed truce—a “humanitarian” phase of releasing hostages—to stage two as the main hurdle. The sides are arguing about legal wordings and each is insisting on keeping a degree of “freedom of action,” Ynet reported.
Qatari-owned, London-based newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed quoted a senior Hamas official as saying, “The final vision of the agreement is finished. There are arrangements between the mediators regarding the announcement of the agreement. We are all waiting for the envoy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to arrive in Doha and render his approval for the latest amendments.”
However, various Arab- and Hebrew-language reports gave conflicting reports on whether Hamas agreed to hand over a list of live hostages held in the Gaza Strip.
During a press conference at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., on Tuesday, Witkoff, a Jewish businessman and longtime friend of the president-elect, expressed optimism about the ongoing discussions.
“I believe they’re doing an excellent job in Doha,” Witkoff said. “I’m hopeful that by the [Jan. 20] inauguration, we’ll have positive news to share on behalf of the president. It’s really the president’s vision, his reputation, and his words that are driving these negotiations. So, hopefully, everything will come together, and lives will be saved.”
When asked whether a deal could be reached before his inauguration, Trump said, “There better be.” He reiterated his stark warning about the fallout for Hamas if the hostages are not released.
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Los Angeles Issues New Evacuation Orders as Thickening Smoke Causes Health Emergency
Flames rise from a structure as the Palisades fire burns during a windstorm on the west side of Los Angeles, California, US, Jan. 8, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ringo Chiu
i24 News – The Palisades fire raging in the Los Angeles region shifted east on Friday night, triggering new evacuation orders and further aggravating the titanic health and safety emergency in America’s second largest city.
Palisades is the largest of six simultaneous wildfires that have devastated Los Angeles County neighborhoods stretching across an area larger than San Francisco since Tuesday, killing at least 11 people and damaging or destroying around 12,000 structures. The numbers are expected to rise once it is safe enough for firefighters to conduct house-to-house searches.
The LA Department of Public Health said it had declared a local health emergency and issued a public health officer order in response “to the widespread impacts of the ongoing multiple critical fire events and windstorm conditions.”
The statement further said that “the fires, coupled with strong winds, have severely degraded air quality by releasing hazardous smoke and particulate matter, posing immediate and long-term risks to public health.”
Allegations of leadership failures and incompetence were flying, with Governor of California Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass singled out for opprobrium.
Newsom ordered state officials to determine why a 117 million-gallon (440 million-liter) reservoir was out of service and some hydrants ran dry, calling it “deeply troubling.”
Los Angeles fire chief, Kristin Crowley, said city leadership failed her department by not providing sufficient funds for firefighting. She also pointed out the lack of water. “When a firefighter comes up to a hydrant, we expect there’s going to be water,” she said.
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