from the Rebbe on this week's Parsha, Parshas Korach. The parsha starts with the words ויקח קרח, קרח took, etc., etc., and Rashi says, פרשה זו יפה נדרשת במדרש ר' תנחומא. This parsha is nicely explained in the Midrash of R'' Tanchuma. Now, in פשוט פשט, this is an introduction to what Rashi says later. Rashi continues to explain what happened there by the case of Korach, what was what motivated Korach to go against against Moshe Rabbeinu, and the whole story. But as an introduction, Rashi says that this parsha is nicely explained in Midrash R'' Tanchuma, and Rashi goes on to explain what it says. But the Rebbe, besides explaining the simple פשט in Rashi, what why Rashi does this, and that's a separate inyan, the Rebbe also says בדרך רמז, as a hint, what Rashi is trying to hint here. It says in Chassidus, based on Kabbalah, that the machloket, the argument of Korach against Moshe and Aharon, mainly was that he wanted to be a Kohen Gadol, he also wanted to be a Kohen Gadol. So, it

says in Kabbalah and in Chassidus that this all came from the fact that לעתיד לבוא, when Mashiach will come, the Leviim will become Kohanim. And Korach wanted that what is supposed to happen in the future when Mashiach will come should already happen then. It was a mistake because Hashem didn't want it to happen yet. The time hasn't come, and if you went to say something, to do something against what Hashem wanted, obviously it's wrong, and it turned into a real machloket against Moshe Rabbeinu. But it started off with something positive, so to speak, with a mistake. But when you make a mistake in the beginning and you go further on, it could go so far away from the truth that it became like Korach. Just like in Chassidus we learn that the מרגלים, pashut peshat in פסוקים you see they were terrible, but Chassidus explains that they had it started off with a good idea, a wrong idea, but a good idea, which means they had an idea that they wanted to stay in the מדבר, not to go into Eretz Yisrael, not to get have to get involved in all the physical things. They could stay in the מדבר and learn Torah and daven and connect to Hashem all day. But that's not what Hashem wanted. And the same with other things that we find that in simple peshat it seems to be that it is completely negative, but be'emet behind it is a something positive which turned away a little bit from the truth, and mimela if you go on that way, who knows how far it could go. Especially בנוגע קרח, we know Korach, in order to be the bar plugta, to be the one to fight with Moshe Rabbeinu, must have been a great person. No one would have followed him if they wouldn't see how great he is. And we do find in Chassidus and Kabbalah, and there's even a מדרש פליאה, that Moshe that Korach was so great, certain things that he was even similar to Moshe Rabbeinu, Korach was so great. So how is it possible all of a sudden he should go against Moshe Rabbeinu? And the answer is that it started off with his thinking that since when Mashiach will come, eventually the Kohanim, Leviim will become Kohanim, and the biggest Levi, obviously, will become the Kohen Gadol, so Korach thought it's the time, he wants that to happen now. And maybe at one certain degree he was at that level already, בצידיה, from his side. But that was wrong, the Oibershter didn't want it to happen. And if it started with a mistake and he continued with it, it ended up with a real, real fight against Moshe Rabbeinu. But the bottom line is that originally what was his thought, that he wanted things that are going to happen when Mashiach will come should happen already. And that's the remez in the words of Rashi: פרשה זו יפה נדרשת במדרש ר' Tanchuma. Both of the words, the Rabbi explains, that in simple peshat, this is completely wrong, there's nothing good here in the story of Korach, in from the side of Korach. So Rashi says, פרשה זו יפה נדרשת, that in derash that it makes it yafeh, it makes it nice. Derash is like the remez, similar to remez, that's behind the פרשה. So Rashi says, you should know that even though ויקח קרח is bad, but פרשה זו יפה נדרשת, if you derash it and you look deeper, there is something yafeh here, there is something good here. And then Rashi continues that this is B'midrash R'' Tanchuma, that what he wanted is something that should happen then that is going to happen only when the Tanchuma comes. The word Tanchuma actually here it means a name of a person, but it also comes from the word tanchumin, tanchumin means comfort. When Mashiach will come, that's when we'll have the real comfort. That's why one of the parashiyot, the תנ״ך that, one of the haftarot we say is נחמו נחמו עמי יאמר אלקיכם, so nechamah, that is the time of Mashiach. So Rashi says here, פרשה זו יפה נדרשת, the derash behind it of what Korach wanted is yafeh, because it this is something good, because it's going to happen in R'' Tanchuma, in the time when tanchumin will come. And it was wrong at this time, because the time hasn't come yet. So this is how the Rebbe taytshs these words בדרך רמז: פרשה זו, this פרשה, יפה נדרשת, in derash there is nice into it. Because he wanted already what should be B'midrash R'' Tanchuma, in the time of tanchumin, and when Mashiach will come, this will takeh happen. But as far as Korach was concerned, it was wrong because at that time the time hasn't come yet, and that led up to the big machloket. And the

lesson the Rebbe says we could take from here is that you meet a Yid, any Yid, and superficially the way he looks is completely negative, you have to know that be'emes in the drash, which means in what's behind it, in the depth of the person's neshama, even what he's doing is good, he just doesn't know about it. But inside it's always יפה נדרשת. The drash, which means the deeper part of a Yid, is always good. It's just sometimes, and when it comes out, it comes out in a negative way. But be'etzem, every Yid is good and there's always the good in it. Similar to what the Rebbe teitches in the Gemara where it says that a person should even do תורה ומצוות שלא לשמה, even if it's not לשמה, not for the proper reasons, you should still do it, and the Gemara's lashon is שמתוך שלא לשמה בא לשמה. Because through שלא לשמה, מתוך, through doing this mitzvah, or the mitzvot or whatever he does not לשמה, that eventually he will come to לשמה. But the Rebbe's teitch is different. Why should you do it even if it's שלא לשמה? שמתוך שלא לשמה, the toch, the inside, the depth of the שלא לשמה is really the לשמה. When a person does a mitzvah even though he has other reasons for it, other intentions, be'emes inside it's good, inside it is because it is לשמה, he wants to do what Hashem wants. But בגילוי it doesn't always come out. And the Rebbe says this in many, many things, that you look at the inside, even though superficially it seems negative. And the same thing with here, that Korach be'etzem there was something good that he wanted. That was really what is inside in his machloket. But lefo'al, since it wasn't the right time, so, and it was against Hashem's will, so it turned into the machloket Korach. But the lesson we take is the positive part, that a Yid always, you always have to look that there's something positive in what a Yid does, and therefore, you have to help him and try to reveal what is there hidden inside, that it should come out בגילוי.