ב"ה
There was shock and incredulity. There was grief and agony. There was passionate disagreement and fervent expectation and many, many unanswered and unanswerable questions.
Just about everything imaginable was happening--except for the natural, predictable thing which everyone expected to happen.
Numbers 16:1-18:32 Week of July 2-8 
In this week's Parshah, we encounter many faces of Korach: Korach the rebel, Korach the comedian, Korach the charlatan, Korach the materialist, Korach the spiritualist, Korach the democrat, and Korach the Torah section--what they all mean, and what they mean to us.
"What’s wrong with Korach?" I asked innocently. "He had a valid platform, after all." "Korach was a rabble-rouser!" my guest retorted. "He was just jealous of Moses and wanted a more prestigious position for himself." "How do you know?" I persisted. "Maybe G-d spoke to Korach as well?"
World War I, the rise of Communism, the coming of age of modern science, the Holocaust, the renaissance of Jewish life in America, the Sixties, the feminist movement, the information age, the end of the Cold War--one man was there, where they happened as they happened, and had something to say and do about them all.
http://www.therebbe.orgContinue
Hmmmm, I like that image of the king saying, "Let's farbreng, just you and I." It helps explain the generic dictionary-definition of farbrengen as "spending time". Because at a farbrengen, it's just being there that counts. I thought about the two elder chassidim who began their farbrengen by pouring themselves a thimbleful of vodka, then sang soulful melodies and simply gazed at each other to convey their profound emotions, without uttering a word all night. As dawn broke, they poured the two untouched thimblefuls back into the bottle, stood up from the table and went out to meet the day.
"Because I greatly respected the Rebbe," Dr. Green recalls, "I dropped the condescendingly forgiving tone that scientists usually assume with laymen, addressing the Rebbe as I would a colleague whose ideas I rejected. I bluntly stated that he was wrong, specifying what I saw as faulty and unscientific in his arguments. I concluded my letter by saying that the Rebbe had best stick to his field of expertise, Torah, and leave science to scientists."
It was merely the expectation that I would see the Rebbe again. Or, to be more precise, that he would see me. I knew that I would, at some point in the future, stand fully exposed before him, his eyes piercing through my best "look good" to see who I really am.
And though I knew that he would love me in spite of what I did or didn't do to live up to his expectations, I wanted him to love me for what I did do to live up to his expectations. |
 With Chabad centers all around the globe engaging in activities and programs to promote Jewish education, unaffiliated individuals are now being given the opportunity to learn more about their heritage. 
Avot: Chapter Four Advanced Study: The Spiritual Elitist Korach misunderstood the true relationship between the priesthood and the nation... Story: A Poisonous Proposition How Maimonides outwitted his rival...
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