A Tribute to the Rebbe on the Eve of His Yahrtzeit

This week's Torah portion features the Scriptural debut of the political coup. That’s right. The classic power grab is as old as the Bible. Korach was sharp, charismatic and wealthy. He was also incredibly manipulative and, I would guess, deeply insecure. The basic thrust of his demand for a shot at the leadership was classic “disingenuous folksy.”

His campaign slogan? “We are all the same. Down with the hierarchy.” “Viva la Revolución!”

The sardonic logic of presiding over a breakaway movement driven by an anti-leadership agenda is strikingly Orwellian: “We are all as holy as Aaron the High Priest... but some of us are holier than others.”

The justice meted out to Korach and his entire political party was poetic in the power of its symbolism; its literal apocalyptic gruesomeness notwithstanding.

The earth of history, manifest as proxy for its own inherent goodness, tends to swallow up whole those who would dress up sinister dystopian intentions in the deceptive garb of utopian couture.

Ultimately, respect is commanded by those who deserve it, not those who demand it.

Tomorrow night marks the Yahrtzeit of the Rebbe. I want to point out two highly fortuitous juxtapositions here. Firstly, we have the rare once-in-a-lifetime leadership of a Rebbe who refused to be named successor of the movement for a full year after the passing of his predecessor–against the backdrop of the self-promotional campaign of Korach.

The moral genius of a figure whose greatest legacy lies in its resistance to being pinned down to any legacy sheds light on the mystery of a movement that continues spinning off new generations of fresh and determined leaders cast in that same mold—decades after his passing.

Second:

On a certain level, the "earth" that swallows Korach does so even in his lifetime: hence the term for someone or something that is "swallowed alive" refers to one who exists and roams his world albeit zombielike. Again, in contrast to that is its antithesis, seen in the accelerated motion of the irrepressible and somewhat kinetic energy of the Rebbe, laid to rest in an earth that has proven powerless over the ongoing vibration and force of his extraordinary vitality. The counterintuitive surge of life from within the soil of death offers us a rare glimpse of eternity and the ways that death can be overpowered by the soulful continuity of love, deep wisdom, and truthful ideas.

Who would have figured that everlasting life could be this down to earth?