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Bais HaVaad on the Parsha, Parshas Korach

Out of The Blue 

Excerpted and adapted from a shiur by Rav Moshe Yitzchok Weg 

July 1, 2022

They arose before Moshe with two hundred and fifty men from the B’nei Yisrael, princes of the congregation, those summoned for meeting, men of renown.

Bemidbar 16:2

Rashi quotes the Midrash that Korach and his assemblage came to Moshe wearing garments made entirely of techeiless. They asked him if these garments require tzitzis, and Moshe responded that they did. Korach and his group exclaimed in scorn that if an ordinary garment requires only one string of techeiless, a garment made entirely of techeiless should need no tzitzis at all.

Korach’s point is difficult to understand. Why should a garment made of techeiless be exempt from tzitzis? R’ Chaim Kanievsky suggests that he did not mean that a techeiless garment should not require tzitzis, but that its tzitzis should not require techeiless.

Another answer is that Korach was referring to the idea in the Gemara (Menachos 43b) that techeiless, of all the colors, is in tzitzis because it resembles the sea, the sea resembles the heavens, and the heavens resemble the Throne of Glory. Tzitzis are to remind us of the mitzvos, as the pasuk says, and Korach was arguing that an entire garment of techeiless provides this reminder, obviating the need for tzitzis.

R’ Elya Baruch Finkel says that Korach’s intellect was impaired by his jealousy, so his arguments indeed made no logical sense.

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