The Daily Ma’amar of our Rebbe Rav Eliezer Berland shlit”a, from 23 Sivan 5783, courtesy of the “Hashem Hu HaElokim” leaflet:
The secret of the soul root of Korach was in the nose (chotem) of Atika (The Ancient One), that there enters Yesod (Foundation) of Reisha d’la Ityada (the Head which is Not Known), in the secret of “Who were cut down before [their] time, whose foundation was swept away by a river” (Iyov 22:16), for the river which comes out of Eden — which is the Yesod of Reisha d’la Ityada — enters into the nose of Atika, in the secret of “For My praise, I shall withhold My anger [Echetam–language of Chotem/Nose] from you” (Yeshayahu 48:9).
Who were cut down before [their] time — this applies to the nose of Atika, for it is cut down before its time, and from it — from the nose of Atika — are all the greatest souls that ever were, like the soul of Korah, Datan and Aviram, Nadav and Avihu, that from their sheer greatness — because their root was in the nose of Atika, and therefore from their sheer merit, thought and saw for themselves the “merit” to dispute Moshe Rabbeinu, holy of holies — “Mouth-to-mouth do I speak to him…and he gazes at the image of Hashem” (Bamidbar 12:8).
And Korach claimed that “the entire assembly — all of them — are holy” (Bamidbar 16:3), as it is said, “I said, ‘You are angelic; sons of the Most High are you all” (Tehilim 82:6), for the contamination [of the primordial serpent] was eliminated from all of them, and all of them already merited to the level of the revival of the dead.
And even though it is written (Bamidbar 11:4): “The ‘Hasafsuf’ that was among them cultivated a craving” — the Midrash Rabbah says: “Hasafsuf” — these are the Sanhedrin, because they already reached the highest of levels, and merited to the event at Mount Sinai — to see Hashem face-to-face, as it says [Va’etchanan]: “Face-to-face, Hashem spoke to you,” and everyone merited to hear all Ten Commandments with all their details and exactments, and all the laws that were written and would be written until the end of all generations, with the book of Esther, and the books of Daniel, Ezra and Nechemiyah. And they merited to hear all that would happen to Israel until the end of all generations, and saw the Holocaust, and all that would develop from it.
And Korach, who was the head of the Levites, and merited to be their soul root, and thought that he was greater than Moshe Rabbeinu — the deep was opened up beneath him, and he and his three sons were swallowed up in the great abyss.
But in the end, the hand of the highest providence will redeem us, despite that at the moment, we walk from calamity to calamity, the hand of Hashem will overcome, as it is written, “Is the hand of Hashem limited” (Bamidbar 11:23)?
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