Korach: The Separatist Agenda of Ego's Fantasies and Illusions

The whole idea of living in the material world is to make it a place where the Divine Presence may dwell with us. We do this when we first create that space in our own consciousness. What would be the point of living if we don't do it with the One who created us and all that exists?

There is a major void in our consciousness when we are not aware of who we truly are, and we become fully aware of our identity once we realize that we emanate from the Creator and His love. We have said this many times to emphasize that all that exist came from God's love, therefore His love is our true Essence and identity. The unawareness of this universal and transcendental truth is what we call “living in ego's fantasies and illusions”.

In the split consciousness we have, in which we are “divided” into the duality of good and evil, true and false, right and wrong, positive and negative, etc., the Creator endowed us with free will to enable us to choose what is the most convenient for us to do. He gave us His Torah to instruct us that “convenient” means the best for us as long as it is also good for others and our immediate surroundings.

In this primordial principle we assimilate God's Presence in our consciousness, hence in our lives. Good, right, true and all that is positive are the essentials to live in the unity and oneness that love is, because love unites us through its ways and attributes.

As long as we live in, with and for them we are never separated, neither from each other or from God because love is our common bond with each other and also with Him. Not living in this awareness is the clearest indication that we are separated from love and living in ego's separatist agenda.

Ego defines our sense of individuality because we perceive each other as individuals, and this does not mean to pursue individualistic agendas by separating ourselves from others. Separation is the worst of all illusions, simply because we can't live separated or isolated from each other.

We learn this since we were born in this world. We can't live alone because we were created by God to be united by love as our common Essence and identity, and also united to Him because we are here by His love for all His Creation.

Within our “divided” consciousness (we put it on quotation marks because this is how we are conditioned to perceived ourselves and the material reality) we have all potential archetypes, negative and positive, to choose from.

This means that we have the potential to become like Moses and Aaron, or like Korach and his proxies. Ego, as our powerful sense of individuality, can lead us either to Love's ways and attributes that unite us with each other and with God, or to illusions and fantasies that separate us from each other and from God.

At this point in the history of our collective consciousness we must be aware of what unites us and what separate us. We have learned this by our own experience throughout history, and we have the Torah to instruct us and to remind us about the means to do it in our Creator's ways, not ego's ways.

Let's insist again and reiterate that our “separation” from God's ways -- His Love as He wants us to understand it through His attributes stated in the Torah -- is the most illusory of all illusions we may have.

Indeed, this is the greatest dilemma as confusion we have, and it requires as well the greatest certainty and clarity of all. We end our separation from the Creator when we become fully aware of love as our uniting and bonding connection with Him and the rest of His Creation.

Korach is the individualistic separatist that we must remove from our consciousness in order to fill his space with the collectivist unifying awareness represented by Moses and Aaron. We have to be watchful and mindful in all our discernment, thoughts, ideas, feelings, emotions, passions and instincts in order to lead them in Love's ways and attributes, and maintain our consciousness united in the potential goodness of their purpose (see our commentaries on Parshat Korach: “Overcoming Ego's Illusions” of June 9, 2010 and “Discerning Truth from Illusion” of June 19, 2011).

God gave us the precious gift of life to be experienced as individuals who depend on the care for one another, and this care is love. As He cares for us providing our daily sustenance and nurturing us with His grace, He also wants us to care for each other and provide for each other.

We know this by experience, by empirical evidence, and the Torah instructs us and reminds us about this. We live in times that compel us to eradicate the separatist mentality and replace it by the unifying consciousness that love invites us to live for the goodness of it.

Expecting others to change their separatist mentality first and then we change ours is part of Korach's approach, while Moses' and Aaron's approach is first to start the process to transform our individual consciousness. After all, it is about our individual and personal Redemption from ego's fantasies and illusions. Once we all do it, collective Redemption will come. May it manifest fully and promptly in our days!

Parshat Korach: Discerning Truth from Illusion

This portion mainly refers to the first dispute challenging the national leadership of Moses and the spiritual leadership of Aaron among the People of Israel.

This dispute not only questioned Moses and Aaron's leadership but the Creator's will and plan for Israel. Division was imminent as night and morning are divided by divine decree. Only in the light of the morning any eventual dispute must be cleared.

Morning is the reflection of clarity, and in the light truth can't be overshadowed by the fantasies and illusions of darkness represented by Korach's rebellion.

"He (Moses) spoke to Korach and to all his company, saying, 'In the morning, the Lord will make known who is His, and who is holy, and He will draw (them) near to Him, and the one He chooses, He will draw near to Him'." (Numbers 16:5)

God's love lives in the truth of His light that symbolizes His ways and attributes. In God's ways there are no divisions, rebellions or separations because He makes known what is part of it, what is holy to Him that is always close to Him.

In the awareness of love, only its ways and attributes prevail because love does not cohabit with anything different from what is inherent to God's ways. In love everything lives and fructifies because God's love sustains all life. Hence death is just the reflection of the illusions and fantasies of ego's darkest desires. Only God's love redeems us and brings us back to life in order to live again in His moment-to-moment miracles.

Only in our individual and collective awareness of God's love as our essence and identity we can embrace the true meaning of life, and be able to overcome death.

"(…) and behold, Aaron's staff for the house of Levi had blossomed! It gave forth blossoms, sprouted buds, and produced ripe almonds." (17:23)

This awareness (Aaron) must lead all aspects and dimensions of consciousness (the entire Israel) because that is our covenant with the Creator and His love.

"Any devoted thing in Israel shall be yours (Aaron's)." (18:14)

In this awareness we understand the following verse.

"All the gifts of the holy [offerings] which are set aside by the children of Israel for the Lord I have given to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as an eternal portion; it is like an eternal covenant of salt before the Lord, for you and your descendants with you." (18:19)

We must assimilate the image of the high priest in Israel as the place and time in our consciousness where and when we are permanently connected to God's love. This awareness is our portion, the land in our life in the material world.

"The Lord said to Aaron, 'You shall not inherit in their land, and you shall have no portion among them. I am your inheritance and portion among the children of Israel'." (18:20)

In our connection to God's love our mission is to direct all levels of consciousness in His ways and attributes, which are indeed the place He want us for Him to dwell among (in) us.

All we are and do must be infused and expressed with love, the true essence we are, and the best we have in life. Love is the cause and the effect with which we consecrate all we are and do.

"From all your gifts, you shall set aside every gift of the Lord, from its choicest portion, that part of it which is to be consecrated." (18:29)

When we discern love from the mirages, illusions and fantasies of materialistic life, we are able to live free from the darkness these engender. In love there is no space for transgressing its ways, because we are free from any wrong doing.

When we elevate every dimension of consciousness as the vessels to be filled with God's commandments through His attributes, we realize that this is the true meaning of life and our redemption from death. That is the message of the final verse of this portion.

"After you separate the choicest part from it, you shall not bear any sin on account of it, but you shall not profane the sacred [offerings] of the children of Israel, so that you shall not die." (18:32)

Parshat Korach: Overcoming Ego's Fantasies and Illusions

Korach and his followers represent ego’s interference when we, the children of Israel, pursue the higher consciousness (represented by both Aaron and Moses) which is in constant connection with God's love.

Our sages say that Korach stole one of the three Pharaoh’s treasures hidden by Joseph. As we said, quoting mystic Chassidic mysticism, Pharaoh represents ego’s goal to convince our consciousness that “the river is mine, I made it” (Ezekiel 29:3, 9). Ego usually wins when it makes us believe that we are separated from the oneness God is. Separation is ego’s fundamental reason to exist, and it argues against rules different form its own agenda.

"The entire community is holy and God is among them, why do you raise yourselves above the congregation of God?" (Numbers 16:3)

This is like hands and feet complaining against the head because it has control of the body, saying, “If the whole body is holy, why the head has to be in control? Each part of the body can also be in control.”

In the clarity of our intellect’s aim to higher consciousness, and not in the darkness of selfishness, ego’s agenda must be confronted.

“Come in the morning, and God will show who is His, and who is holy... and whom He has chosen will He cause to come near to Him.” (16:5)

We have said many times that love does not cohabit with anything different than its ways and attributes, and this means that all levels of consciousness (the lowest and the highest) must follow God's ways and attributes in order for us to be always close to Him. In this process, our material nature is properly elevated to love’s sublime heights, and the negative dimensions return to material illusions where they belong.

The illusions and fantasies of ego’s desires end up devouring our consciousness and everything truthful in which we believe.

“The earth beneath them opened its mouth and swallowed them and their houses, and all the men who were with Korach and all the property. They, and all they possessed, descended alive into the grave; the earth covered them up, and they were lost to the assembly.” (16:32-33)

The text does not mention that they died, and it clearly implies that they descended alive into the grave. The density of matter represented by the earth swallowed them, and this density as the symbol of the inability to free ourselves from negative traits and trends. The consequence was their separation from the unity of the people of Israel with God.

The portion continues reminding us that our higher consciousness has to be in charge of our permanent connection with God.

“(…) as a reminder for the children of Israel, so that no outsider, who is not of the seed of Aaron, shall approach to burn incense before the Lord, so as not to be like Korach and his company.” (17:5)

These outsiders are ego’s illusions that pretend to break our oneness with love as the material manifestation of God's love. Later the text tells us about a miracle to illustrate the preeminence of the high priest in our consciousness, and the transforming, reviving power of God's love.

“(…) and behold, Aaron's staff for the house of Levi had blossomed! It gave forth blossoms, sprouted buds, and produced ripe almonds. It brought forth blossoms, produced budding fruit, and bore ripe almonds.” (17:23)

In Hebrew, ness (miracle) also means “elevation” which is the purpose of miracles because they elevate our consciousness. In our Jewish daily prayers we thank our Creator in regards to this.

“(…) for Your miracles that are daily with us, and for Your wonders and Your loving kindness that are with us at all times, evening, morning and noon. (…)”

The preeminence of the high priest is reaffirmed again.

“And God spoke to Aaron, ‘Behold, I have granted to you the gifts raised to Me, all the hallowed things of the children of Israel.”, “Out of all that is given to you, you shall set aside all that is due as a gift to God; of the choicest thereof, the hallowed part of it.” (18:8, 29)

It is clear that in our relationship with the Creator we have to be and do with the best of our talents and abilities. If God's love created us in His image and likeness, the only way to conceive Him and to truly know Him is being and doing His ways and attributes which are also our “hallowed things”, “the choicest thereof”, the most sacred expressions of all levels of our consciousness and nothing less.

Maimonides reminds us this.

“Everything that is for the sake of God should be of the best and most beautiful. When one builds a house of prayer, it should be more beautiful than his own dwelling. When one feeds the hungry, he should feed him of the best and sweetest of his table. When one clothes the naked, he should clothe him with the finest of his clothes. Whenever one designates something for a holy purpose, he should sanctify the finest of his possessions; as it is written, ‘All the fat is to God’ (Leviticus 3:16).” (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Forbidden Things to Bring on the Altar 7:11)