The following is a brief summary of some of thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce these vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.
R' Frand first quoted Rashi who states that this Parsha is very well explained. The Pri Megadim clarifies that this is due to the nature of the subject matter. Prior to Sukkos would not be an opportune time for a shiur on Pesach. But due to the subject matter of Machlokes, it is always a good time for a discussion, summer, spring, winter or fall.
R' Frand also said a vort related to the curious "minhag" that when a Chosson attempts to speak at his Tish, the friends always cut him off. The Belzer Rebbi states that this is a lesson to the Chosson from this week's parsha that "you don't always need to have the last word" and right before his wedding is the best time to learn it.
The third thought that R' Frand said was more substantive and it related to the first words of the Parsha in Bamidbar 16:1 "וַיִּקַּ֣ח קֹ֔רַח." Rashi asks what did Korach take? The entire Parsha is devoid of reference to Korach taking anything!
The Gemara in Sanhedrin 109 states that Korach got a bad deal. But again, what is the bad deal? If a person buys a car and its a lemon, that's a bad deal. But what did he acquire.
R' Frand quoted the Sefer Be'er Yosef which cites Rashi who asks - Korach was a smart man, why did he chase this. R' Frand said parenthetically that we can see Korach was smart as he chose this point to challenge Moshe. Korach's issues with Moshe had certainly been percolating for a while. But he waited until Moshe's stature in the opinion polls was at its low point as Moshe had just told the Jews that they would not be entering the land of Israel for another forty years.
But this was certainly a bad deal as he had no better than a 1:250 chance in succeeding in his challenge. So why did he pursue it? Because he saw in the future that he would have Shmuel as a descendant and that 24 Mishmaros of his descendants would have prophecy. Based on this view of himself, he thought he was on par with Moshe.
But according to the Sefer Zayis Ra'anan which was quoted in the Be'er Yosef, Korach was mislead because he did not see the chicken and the egg. He gave an example of the Bechorim who have inherent Kedusha. The reason for their special status is because they had caused a great Kiddush Hashem in that Hashem had separated between the Bechorim of Egypt and the Jewish Bechorim. They were living examples of Hashem's ability to deliver a specific punishment to one set of people while sparing another.
The Sefer Zayis Ra'anan states that similarly Korach was Zoche to have a Shmuel and the prophets who followed him, because he unwittingly created a Kiddush Hashem of great proportions. He challenged Moshe and Aharon publicly and Hashem made a great miracle. His role in causing this Kiddush Hashem was certainly not intentional, but he was rewarded with Shmuel and his progeny, simply because he engendered a Kiddush Hashem.
Based on this, the Be'er Yosef explains what the bad deal was that Korach selected. Because would a person rather have himself and his family swallowed up by the ground in exchange for being the forefather of Shmuel HaNavi? No, that was a bad deal, because his public death in an unnatural manner was not worth having a descendant like Shmuel.
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