Judging ourselves by judging others
A large portion of Parshat Korach is dedicated to the story of Korach and his rebellion against Moshe’s leadership. The dramatic ending of the story (when the ground opens up and swallows all those involved alive along with their possessions) is shocking, but not more so than its beginning with the reality that someone would dare to challenge Moshe, the greatest leader of the Jewish people to this day.
Furthermore, not only did Korach challenge Moshe but he posited that Moshe was in personal pursuit of glory and leadership!
What?! This is the same Moshe who was called “anav mikol adam”- more humble than any man on the face of the earth; the same Moshe who, several times, tried to dodge being chosen by Hashem to lead the people; the same Moshe who thought that his brother Aaron was the more appropriate leader to take the Jews out of Egypt; the same Moshe who asked to be erased from the entire Torah rather than allowing his nation to be exchanged for another, simply because he cared deeply about the wellbeing of the Jewish people. How could anyone question his motives and his deserving to be the leader?
There is a simple yet profound lesson to be learned from this: people often “see” in others the qualities which they themselves have.
For example, if I am the type of person who is always thinking of others and their wellbeing and if I am trusting and humble, I will most often see those qualities in others as well, to the point where people will call me “naive”. However, if I am motivated by the pursuit of honour and status and am always thinking about what I want, then I will assume that this is how others are thinking as well.
We often live in the world which we create based on the way we look at given situations. Or, as they say: “It takes one to know one.” Korach assumed that Moshe was power hungry and took the leadership for himself because this is exactly what Korach would do! But in reality it was him casting judgement on himself, not the reality of Moshe that we all know to be true.
In life we are faced with many opportunities to “judge” people and their actions – may we always do so favourably, because at the end of the day, it is really more a judgement on ourselves than it is on them.
Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Lipner