Dear CBO Family,
Our Parsha conveys our greatest fears through Korach, Moses’ own cousin. He is swallowed up whole by the earth after he instigates a coup against Moses. This fear was in the hearts of the people, as we know from the reports from last week’s spies that the Land of Israel is going to “swallow up its inhabitants.”
Any time the Israelites were about to take on a risk, this similar message popped up in their minds: “You are going to be swallowed up by _________ if you take this risk, don’t even try, better to be slaves than face another challenge.” They would rather stay wandering than take a risk. They would rather go back to an old slavery than face an unknown which could be challenging, but likely different from the beast of a fear that lives in their minds. If they stopped to think about the costs of listening to this internal (and now external) beastly message, they may have seen that stepping into the land also has great potential for a sense of home, happiness, and abundance.
Each of us has one of these beastly messages inside and it is understandable. In some ways, the voice is there to protect us from something that is potentially painful, but in the process of protecting us, it can also hold us back and down. The voice can say painful things in the name of “protection” and can sound like an insult to us, and about us. It often attacks our worth and says thinks like:
“You’re weak and can’t stand up for yourself.”
“You’re stupid.”
“No one believes in you.”
“You can never do enough.”
“You don’t deserve____________.”
“You should stay where you are.”
It uses words like: “Never,” “always,” “can’t,” and “should.”
After hearing these messages internally often enough, it winds us up and we get to a breaking point where we actually manifest our greatest fear by lashing out against others, like Korach, and/or paralyzing ourselves into inaction. We, like Korach, make our fears a reality, confirming them and starting the cycle all over where we never make a change and stay wandering away from abundance, happiness, and home.
This gives us food for thought about the messages that run through our minds and how we might make empowered and thoughtful decisions about how we want to face the world and it’s blessings and challenges.
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Bernstein
Affiliated with United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism