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Shabbat Parashat Korach 5772

Korach | 3 Tamuz 5772 | 23/06/2012

Parashat Hashavuah: The Time and the Reason to Change Leadership

The question of initiating a monarchy, which arose at the time of Shmuel, raises two sets of issues when we read this week’s parasha and haftara. One issue has to do with the question of strong leadership in the first place. Korach and his followers claimed: “You have too much, for the entire congregation is holy, and Hashem is amongst them, and why should you raise yourselves (hitnasut) over the congregation of Hashem?” (Bamidbar 16:3). From Moshe’s response, we can see that it wasn’t that the protestors rejected Moshe’s leadership in general but that they were looking for a bigger portion of the leadership pie for themselves (see ibid. 10). However, when Datan and Aviram entered the picture, we see that they objected to Moshe’s dominion (serara) over the people, in general.

Ask the Rabbi: Receiving Permission to Sublet

I work on a campus, in a project funded by an outside foundation. As part of my employment agreement with the foundation, they rent on my behalf (I did not sign the contract, and the money did not go through me) an apartment on the campus throughout my employment (including vacations). I will be abroad during vacation and would like to make a little money by subletting the apartment (to a nice family). Do I need permission, and who should get the money: the foundation or I?

Ein Ayah: The Importance and Limitations of Independence

Someone who gets sick – the first day he should not reveal that he is sick, so that his mazal not become bad. Afterward, he should reveal to others.

P'ninat Mishpat: Transparency in Window Making – part II

The plaintiffs (=pl) were planning to move into a home they were building, and reached an agreement with the defendant (=def) to install special windows by a certain date. Pl paid tens of thousands of shekels – half of the order – as a down payment. Def came two months before the critical date and took measurements, yet much of the order was not ready on time. Def blames pl for not giving all the details necessary, especially the color of the internal shades. Pl responds that def never told him that such information was holding up the order. As the time to leave their old home and enter the new one approached, def agreed to provide temporary windows, but only if pl paid an additional quarter of the order, considering that half the work was already completed. [Last time we dealt with payment for temporary windows that pl had installed.] This time we will deal with the following additional claims: a penalty that pl claims to have paid their contractor for the delay in completing his work; payment for watchmen at the building site; time that pl took off to supervise the work; extra payment to extend the rental of their previous home.

Korach 5772
Microsoft Word Document

Korach 5772

This edition of
Hemdat Yamim

is dedicated
to the memory of
R' Meir
ben Yechezkel Shraga Brachfeld

o.b.m

Hemdat Yamim

is endowed by

Les & Ethel Sutker

of Chicago, Illinois
in loving memory of
Max and Mary Sutker
and

Louis and Lillian Klein, z”l

A weekly divrei Torah leaflet: A Glimpse at the Parasha, Ask the Rabbi, From the writings of Harav Avraham Yitzchak Hakohen Kook, zt”l, Pninat Mishpat (Jewish Monetary Law).