Korah for Today.x

Haim Vital: On an Opponent of Isaac Luria, My Teacher

Isaac Luria's soul was one of the sparks of Moses (i.e. he was a reincarnation of Moses). Now there was a man in our neigborhood who rejected him my teacher and engaged in controversy with him. Luria said to him:

"You still reject me and engage in controversy with me. Had I wanted to, I could have made so that the earth would swallow you up. But I don't wish to hurt anyone."

We pressured him to tell us who this man was. He explained that he was Korah reincarnated, who now had the chance to find his tikkun, i.e. to save his soul, by listening to Luria, i.e. Moses reincarnated.

However this man doesn't want to do this, and persists in earlier controversy.

(Vital, Eleh Toldot Isaac)

Against Hierarchy

"Why then do you raise yourselves above the Lord's congregation?” (Num. 16.3)

Korah argued that there is no hierarchy in Israel, since God is among them,

i.e., God dwells within them all equally,

as it says in the midrash:

In the Messianic age God will invite all the righteous to dance, that is,

dance is in a circle,

where no one is closer [to God at the center] than anyone else.

Korah argued that this is the case now as well!

(Mei Hashiloach, Mordecai Joseph Leiner, 1800-1854), translation Eli Reich)