What Do You Really Want?

Korach felt there was an injustice in Moshe and Aaron taking the leadership for themselves. He claimed

"כִּי כָל הָעֵדָה כֻּלָּם קְדֹשִׁים"

"The entire congregation is holy."

He mocks Moshe by asking: If a garment is made entirely of techeiles, the special blue dye, does it still need techeiles on the tzitzis string? If a house is full of Torah scrolls, does it still need a mezuzah which contains a small section of one?

The message was clear. Why should one person be above everyone else?

But then Rashi tells us something else entirely.

Korach was upset because Elitzafan ben Uziel had been appointed nasi, prince over the tribe of Levi. Korach felt the position should have been his.

Which one was the argument about – equality or prestige?

If Moshe had turned to Korach and said, "You know what? You're right. The position is yours."

Would Korach have continued arguing about equality?

Probably not.

The truth is, we are also guilty, because most of us do this, at least a little.

We tell ourselves we're upset because things aren't fair.
But really it’s jealousy.

We tell ourselves we're arguing over principle.
But maybe we're hurt.

We tell ourselves we're trying to help somebody.
But maybe we want to be appreciated. Or respected. Or needed.

There is something dangerous about wanting something badly and not being honest about it.

Because then we start telling ourselves stories.

The other guy gets promoted and suddenly we're experts on all his faults.

Someone else gets the kavod, respect we wanted and we start talking about equality.

Our spouse hurts us and we tell ourselves we're just standing up for what's right.

The thing we say we're upset about and the thing that's actually hurting us are not always the same.

If Korach would have just been honest with himself and others, maybe they could have worked something out, but instead he got swallowed alive.

And sometimes, because we’re not honest with ourselves or others, we feel the same happens to us.