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Parashat Hukkat, Numbers 19:1-22:1
by Rabbi Russ Resnik
Surely it was taught: Ten things were created on the eve of the [first] Sabbath at twilight. These are they: the  well, the manna, the rainbow, the writing and the writing instruments, the Tables, the sepulcher of Moses, the cave in which Moses and Elijah stood, the opening of the ass’s mouth, and the opening of the earth’s mouth to swallow up the wicked. (SoncinoTalmud, Pesachim 54a)
On a trip to Israel a few years ago, we were driving north along the western shore of the Dead Sea. Our guide pointed to the mountains of Moab across the sea in present-day Jordan. Through the haze we could see Pisgah, the high point to which the Lord directed Moses in Deuteronomy 3:27: “Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift your eyes toward the west, the north, the south, and the east; behold it with your eyes, for you shall not cross over this Jordan.” There, Moses begged the Lord for the chance to set foot in the land that had been the focus of his hopes and yearnings for the past forty years, but it was not to be. In an unknown and unmarked spot on that mountain, Moses lies buried to this day.
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A drash on Parashat Korach (Numbers 16:1–18:32)
by Rabbi Paul L. Saal
Congregation Shuvah Yisrael, Bloomfield, CT
Do you ever have a really bad day, when it seems like everyone and everything is working against you? Moses sure did. In fact it must have seemed to him like he had fourteen thousand and six hundred days like that and most of them are  recorded in the book of Bamidbar. This week’s parasha, Korach, records a mutiny of sorts which becomes the arch-type for rebellion in Jewish thought, and could also have been the standard for a really bad day but for the intervention of Hashem.
As Americans we do not feel that uneasy about the concept of challenging of authority. In fact this is a country which was birthed out of an act of rebellion. America is a culture where you can sprawl graffiti upon the wall that reads “Challenge Authority” and another person will cross it out, subsequently challenging your authority! So when we hear of elected officials evoking executive privilege we collectively get nervous. In general there has been a public distrust of governance in the last several years. In the parlance of the sixties, “Don’t trust the Man”
And aren’t the Jews the original authority challengers? Abraham smashed his father’s idols, Nathan pointed his finger at a guilty King David, and Elijah made himself an overall nuisance to Ahab and Jezebel. So then why does Torah take such a hard line against Korach and his cohorts?
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Parashat Shelakh, Numbers 13:1-15:41
by Michael A. Kashdan
Ahavat Zion Messianic Synagogue, Beverly Hills, CA
Parashat Shelakh commences with chapter thirteen of the book of Bamidbar (Numbers). This chapter tells the sad tale of  the twelve spies. Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch – based upon the second verse of the parasha (Num. 13:2) – comments on the type of people that these individuals were supposed to be. Each individual spy was supposed to be outstanding “ba’hem” (“in their midst”). So the spies were not to be from the head of the people, but from the midst of them. They were, however, to be individuals who stood out from others by virtue of their ability and their character. Whether or not the spies had previously held formal positions, the fact that each is described as a “nasi” – the same term that the State of Israel uses for its head of state (currently President Shimon Peres) – may give some added appreciation of the importance of their roles.
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