Is it proper to be an activist? Korach was an activist and Pinchas was an activist. Korach was a villain and Pinchas was a hero.
Is my favorite activist or influencer a villain or a hero? How do I know?
We live in a world where activism is considered to be a great moral achievement and the idea of activism is generally celebrated.
The Torah teaches us important lessons about activism. The Torah contrasts the activism of Pinchas to the activism of Korach, Dasan, and Aviram. The Torah tells us that the activism of Pinchas was admirable, and he was rewarded significantly for it, as opposed to the activism of Korach, Dasan, and Aviram was considered to be a great sin and they were punished for it in a severe manner.
What separates the two different agendas, what made the activism of Pinchas admirable and what made the activism of Korach, Dasan, and Aviram accused sin? Both Korach and Pinchas made claims that they were standing up for what they felt was the right causes? Korach claimed to be standing up for the injustices against the people, his allegations was that the governmental body of the Jewish people was corrupt. Isn’t that a good thing to do, to demand justice and to demonstrate against the alleged perpetrators of the crimes against the common people?
The difference is both obvious, and at the same time it is often overlooked. It is only appropriate to be an activist about a cause that is an appropriate cause, and just because we think that our cause is a good cause does not mean that we are correct. It is actually a bad thing if we are promoting an unjust cause. The damage that we can create by promoting an unjust cause can be very significant!
Korach made accusations against Moshe. He falsely claimed that Moshe and Aaron shouldn’t be the leaders of the Jewish people and he was attempting to overthrow their leadership. He was also claiming that Moshe was distorting the words of Hashem; that parts of the Torah were not really the word of Hashem, and that Moshe’s personal interests were interfering with his integrity.
These accusations were totally wrong and baseless. They inappropriately challenged the integrity of Moshe. Moshe selflessly dedicated his life to helping the Jewish people with humility, kindness, dedication, and integrity. It was totally inappropriate for him to be accused of being dishonest and biased in his leadership! Furthermore, the Jewish people needed Moshe’s leadership, he was actually their best leader and what Korach was trying to do would be hurtful to the Jewish people. Furthermore, Hashem had chosen Moshe to be the leader and Korach was trying to undermine the leadership that was specifically put in place by Hashem! Perhaps the most damaging thing that would have come out from Korach’s allegations is that it would have undermined the entire credibility of the Torah, especially the Oral Torah! Moshe’s integrity is the foundation of our trust in the truth and accuracy of the Torah, and Korach was challenging this whole foundation!
Korach’s allegations on the surface seemed to potentially be very incriminating of Moshe. He seemed to be standing up for social injustice and for the rights of all of the individuals of the people. He also had a number of arguments that seemed to be very convincing to back up his claims. They were so convincing that he was able to influence many of the leaders of the nation to agree to his complaints. However, the reality was that he was wrong, and his complaints were not actually accurate, and as a result what he was doing was an act of an inappropriate rebellion against Hashem and against Moshe, and he was undermining the foundations of the Torah. As a result, his activism was actually reprehensible and he and he brought about a death sentence to all of his direct followers!!
At the end of Parshas Balak, the Torah relates to us the story about Pinchas standing up for his values and carrying out a public execution of the Nasi of the tribe of Shimon. Rashi tells us that the reason that Pinchas thought that the right thing to do was to execute Zimri was because he was taught that this was the rule in the Torah. He had recalled that Moshe had taught him previously that this was the halacha/the will of Hashem in this scenario.
Rashi tells us that before Pinchas took matters into his own hands, he spoke to Moshe to ask him whether it was indeed the law in this case. He made sure to double check to make sure that he was doing the right thing by being proactive to solve the problem in this manner.
The Torah tells us that the cause that Pinchas was standing up for was the honor of Hashem. He had a love for Hashem and he saw the public disgrace of Hashem taking place in front of his eyes, and he had a passion to stand up for the honor of Hashem. Yet, the only reason that he took matters into his own hands and that he acted in the manner that he acted in was because that was in line with the laws of the Torah. Not only that, but he made sure to double check and to ask his mentor whether it was indeed the correct behavior in that given situation. Only then did he carry out his mandate to hold the perpetrators accountable.
To clarify, the most important thing that determines whether it is appropriate to be an activist about any given matter is to figure out whether your cause is actually a proper cause.
However, it is important to figure out how to determine whether your cause is proper or not. The only real way to do that is by accessing the truth about what Hashem teaches us about your cause. The only accurate system for determining the objective truth is through accessing the truth as Hashem teaches us in the Torah.
In the world that we live in many people are activists about whatever cause that they determine to be an appropriate cause to promote. However, there is often little consideration that is given to the question about whether the cause that they are promoting is actually a productive cause or not. There is also a problem because even if people would want to consider the possibility that their cause is not proper, they would not have a good place to turn to in order to figure out whether their cause is actually a just cause.
As a result, there are many people who promote causes that are not appropriate, yet they present them as just and proper causes. However, we need to learn the lessons from Korach’s mistakes. Korach and his followers were very influential, and they seemed to be promoting a very noble cause, however the reality was that the cause was actually corrupt. So too, our own causes may seem to be noble, and we may be able to convince many people that our cause is justified, however the reality may be that we are promoting a reprehensible cause.
The more influential that we are, the more careful that we need to be to make sure that our values are correct, and what we are promoting is actually proper and appropriate! We may think that we are being a hero when in reality we are acting as a villain!!
We are all activists in our own way. We aren’t all starting any new movements, we aren’t all giving big speeches, we aren’t all “influencers”, and we are not all demonstrating in any public manner. However, we still share our opinions in our own way, and we do have an influence over others who we share our opinions with. Before we share our opinions, we should check to make sure that we are dedicated to determine whether our opinion is actually correct!
Passion is great-when the passion is about the right things!!