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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.

The Torah points out that when bad things happen to the Jewish people then it is necessary for the Jews to look into themselves as to why these things are happening. There are no coincidences because God is in charge.

The Torah states that the convert is required to celebrate Passover as is the natural born Jew. That is because without Passover there would be no Jewish nation for the convert to join.

The Torah places a lot of importance on the Rule of Law. This is a concept that without it we will descend into a lawless society which will be no good for us. The Torah is against someone being above or below the law.

At the end of the Nazir’s term of Nazirut he is required to bring a Sin Offering. The reason is that he while he was a Nazir that he had taken himself out of society. The Torah wants us to a part of society.

In the Torah we see that individuals are recognized for their leadership roles but that a same time we are encouraged to build a society from the bottom up.