The Commandment of the Red Heifer is one of the hardest to understand. One of the lessons from it is that sometimes there is no good decision. That we have to make a choice between a bad decision and a worse one.

The 3 Torah Portions that we are in the middle of tell of the dangers that we face as a people and to our mission. They are there as a warning to the enemies, both within & without, that we will face.

One of the prime differences between Moses and Korach was that Moses did not care if it was his job or not. He would do it because it had to get done. Korach would say "It's not my job."

The major difference between Moses and Korach was that Moses really didn't want the job. His greatness was his humility.

The dispute between Korach and Moses was really an ego trip on Korach's part. In such a case it would have ended with Korach and his followers fighting with each other, much like the crew of the Bounty who killed each other after they mutinied.

The Torah guarantees equal opportunity but not equal outcome. The outcome is up to the individual, God gives us the tools, it is up to use them properly.

The rebellion led by Korach was logical. If the purpose of the Torah was to make us better people then why do we need all these commandments? What he failed to see was that keeping the commandments was a sure way of making us better people.

The mistake of the scouts was that they manipulated the facts to meet their agenda. The Torah warns against this by concluding this week's portion by admonishing us not to follow our eyes and heart but our intelligence and faith.

An example of someone who gave to the community and felt a vital part of the community was Benedict Stambler. When he saw that the recordings of Cantor Rosenblatt were about to be lost he took the initiative to rerecord them.

The problem of the Jews was fear of succeeding in taking the Land. It meant that they would be responsible to do all the things that the Torah commands. That the Commandments were no longer theoretical but practical. They would now have to work.