Korach: 5782 - Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld with a wonderful story for the weekly parsha: "And Korach took," a bad bargain - a wonderful story. At the conclusion of Rabbi Betzalel Mizrachi's daily Daf Yomi class in Nachlah. Watch

00:00 Please. Rashi asks, the Midrash asks: Korach was a clever man—what led him to such folly? They tell a story about a simple peasant who spent everything he earned on drink. He would get drunk and end up lying in the street. Once, while he was lying there drunk, a priest passed by. Seeing him in that state, the priest told his servant to take him to the church and look after him. They brought him in, cared for him, changed his clothes, and put him to bed. When the man woke up, he suddenly found himself somewhere unfamiliar. He had no idea where he was. He saw that he was wearing a priest’s robe. Maybe he really was a priest? But he remembered that he was Ivan the drunk. How had he suddenly become a priest? Still, there he was, wearing a priest’s robe in a church. So perhaps he was a priest after all. He couldn’t decide: was he a priest or not? Finally, he decided to test it. There were plenty of books there, so he would open one. If he understood what it said, he was probably a priest; if he didn’t, he wasn’t. He took a book, opened it, and looked at it. He didn’t understand a word. He couldn’t even read or write. But that didn’t settle it for him. True, he couldn’t read, but he was wearing a priest’s robe and he was in a church, so he was still unsure. Was he a priest or wasn’t he? In the end, he decided: “I must be a priest after all. If I can’t read, that must mean none of the priests can read.” That was Korach’s folly. You can

02:08 drink again.