Let Our Prayers Be Heard - Parshat Korah

Let Our Prayers Be Heard - Parshat Korah

How many times have we cringed after a quick response to a troubling comment or after an impulsive reaction to a difficult situation? What does it mean for us to wish for just one more moment to think about what we should have said or done?

We’d prefer not to consider our impulses are so powerful, but they are. Still, our impulses have more impact when we ignore them and disregard the lessons they teach us about ourselves and how we relate to others.

This is best seen in the brief encounter between Korah, a cousin of Moshe, and his group of dissidents who bring argument and challenge to the structure of their leadership. There, Moshe falls on his face in reaction to Korah’s complaint. While the physical gesture is not an exemplary reaction to a difficult situation, the pause is extraordinarily telling. Moshe’s reaction is a prism through which our own instincts may be refracted through our intellect. Falling on the face implies careful consideration before passion dictates purpose.

But such presence of mind and measured response is not easily acquired. It takes habit to refine our impulses and to express our deepest thoughts and feelings in ways that can be heard. Moshe reacts to Korah’s defiance with the same words lodged against him, “You have gone too far” or “Rav Lachem”  (16:7).

This habit of thoughtful reflection is not left for the most refined spirits among us. This quality of consideration and deliberation is not reserved for the most morally and intellectually capable. If anything, the message of the Torah is not to demonstrate one person’s view, but to illuminate each one of our capacities to reach the heights of tolerance, understanding, compassion, and responsible action.

We call this exercise prayer. It’s what Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav captured when he taught, “Life makes warriors of us all. To emerge the victors, we must arm ourselves with the most potent of weapons. That weapon is prayer.”  To take on the tools of prayer is to embrace the struggles against our impulses head on.

Recently, Rabbi Feinstein addressed the graduates of our Valley Beth Shalom Day School with words he learned from Rabbi Schulweis [z"l]. When translating the concept of a religious practice focused on our personal responsibility, praying to God wasn’t to entreat the gifts of a supernatural force who bestows a benevolent kiss upon the most devoted adherents. Rather, prayer is seeking the potential to live with the highest aspirations of care, dignity, and decency through our own actions. Rabbi Schulweis would pray, “May God lift up the fallen, May God heal the ill, May God redeem the captive...Through Me.”  Through Me. Prayer is the capacity to extend the time between impulse and impact where the influence of goodness may flow through us. Prayer is the capacity to allow the very best and most important values we stand for to be expressed through our actions. “Through me” is the most empowering gift prayer bestows upon us.

It’s what Moshe needed as he ‘fell upon his face.’  It’s what we wish for each time we react without fully measuring the consequences of our behavior. It’s what we pray for each time we gather as community lifting our voices up in song, in adoration to proclaim that “through me” we will become a little more gentle, a little more kind, a little more understanding.