Rabbi's Corner

Asher Lemmel was born in a shtetl on the Ukrainian prairie. He had never traveled to either Berditchev or Vinnitza let alone to Kiev or Warsaw. But he had heard of all kinds of stories about the beautiful Black Sea coast in the southern Ukraine. He dreamed of visiting the beach, smelling the enchanting sea breeze and eating freshly roasted fish. For weeks and months, Lemmel worked his fingers to the bone saving kopeck after kopeck to make his dream come true. He eventually saved enough money (100 rubles) to be able to hire a wagon to go to Vinnitza and from there by train south to Odessa and the Black Sea.

After arriving in Vinnitza, Asher Lemmel found himself completely overwhelmed by the bustling city. In his shtetl, he knew everyone, and everyone knew him. But here, he was confused by the train station with all the people arriving and departing at once. He asked the ticket teller how to find the train to Odessa. Impatiently, the ticket teller handed him a train schedule and told him to pay for his ticket and move through the line. Asher did so taking the train schedule, printed in classic Russian script, and walking away. But there was a problem. Asher Lemmel had never learned to read or speak very much Russian. After all, everybody in his shtetl spoke Yiddish. Unable to fully understand the train schedule, he concluded that to the best of his knowledge that the train to Odessa would be departing from the east-side platform.

Not far away, closely watching him was a group of well-dressed, slightly drunk Russian noblemen. They decided to have fun with this man who appeared to them to be a perplexed Jewish “country bumpkin.” They asked him if he needed help. Asher Lemmel replied: “This is the east-side platform, yes? Does the train for Odessa leave from here?” One of the noblemen retorted: “Of course not, silly Jew! Odessa is south of here. Does it seem logical that the train leaving from an east-side platform would reach a destination in the south?” Asher Lemmel looked at the paper again and seemed certain that it read “Odessa – east-side platform.” But the Russian nobleman had shaken his confidence. Suddenly, a train approached on the south-side platform, and Asher Lemmel was urged by this Russian nobleman to board it immediately. He did so.

Odessa should have been an 8-hour train trip from Vinnitza. After 24 hours of traveling on the train, the conductor appeared requesting that passengers either produce their tickets or pay their fare. Asher Lemmel showed the conductor his train ticket and asked the conductor when they would arrive in Odessa. The conductor replied: “Dimwit! We are on our way to Siberia! This is the east-bound train!” Asher Lemmel was astounded: “But I boarded in Vinnitza on the south-side platform! I want to go south!” The conductor angrily told Asher Lemmel that the side of the platform of the train station had nothing to do with the direction in which the train was traveling. Oy vey! As the train schedule which Asher Lemmel held had said, he realized then that he should have boarded the train on the east-side platform. Poor Asher Lemmel! Instead of surf and sand, he was bound for ice and snow. He should have paid more attention to the paper.

In this week’s parashah, Parashat Korach, we read the following words: “And Korach took….” (BaMidbar 16:1) The parashah tells of the rebellion of Korach and his followers, a rebellion which ends in their demise. The Midrash describes how Korach used his own reason and logic to challenge both Moshe’s and HaShem’s authority over the B’Nei Yisrael (Children of Israel). In front of Moshe, Korach spoke to his myriad of followers saying: “If one tiny mezuzah, with only two passages of Torah, is able to protect an entire house, then why affix a mezuzah to a house full of books which contain thousands of passages from the Torah? Does such a house really need a mezuzah?” He then turned to Moshe waiting for his answer. Of course, Moshe answered that such a house does indeed need a mezuzah. Korach’s reaction was to make fun of both Moshe and the Torah requirement for observing this mitzvah (commandment). What Korach was trying to do was to reduce the mitzvot of the Torah, which had just been given by Hashem to the B’Nei Yisrael at Har Sinai (Mount Sinai), to a set of statutes governed by mere human logic and reason. This, in effect would separate Korach from both the leadership of Moshe and the obligation to follow the Torah thus inflating his standing among his followers. But this, as we see, was a tragic mistake for all involved.

1. our own day, we find far too many members of the B’Nei Yisrael thinking about the mitzvot of the Torah in the same way that Korach thought of them. If it is not logical, if it does not make any sense to them, they throw Torah aside and move on. The problem with such thinking is that they then have no foundation for being members of the B’Nei Yisrael. They end up searching for meaning in this often meaningless world with the result being that they come up “empty-handed.” They then try to counter this by announcing to the world that they are seeking a more “spiritual life” than what Judaism has to offer. But the fact remains that there is nothing better than following Torah to attain a more spiritual life! Our Torah is like the train schedule that Asher Lemmel held in his hand. All he had to do was follow the words that he could read. He then would have reached his desired destination. All we have to do is follow the mitzvot of the Torah, each of us to our own best ability, for by doing so, we will then reach our desired destination of attaining peace in our hearts and holiness in our souls.