ויקח קרח בן יצהר בן קהת בן לוי ודתן ואבירם בני אליאב ואון בן פלת בני ראובן”. רש”י: “לקח את עצמו לצד אחד להיות נחלק מתוך העדה לעורר על הכהונה…” (במדבר ט”ז, א’)”
Rashi: “He took himself to one side to be split from the congregation, to contest the kehunah…”
On face value, there was no greater champion of the tzibbur than Korach. His challenge to Moshe, “the entire congregation, all of them, are holy, and amongst them is Hashem”, while misguided and disingenuous, still stands out as an eloquent, even moving, affirmation of the greatness of the tzibbur. Korach claimed that the tzibbur was so great that any Kohen Gadol, even one as exalted as Aharon Hakohen, was extraneous: They came and stood in front of Moshe. They said to him, ‘a tallis which is dyed completely with t’cheiles: is it obligated in tzitzis or exempt?’ He said to them, ‘it is obligated.’ They began to laugh at him, ‘is it possible that a tallis without t’cheilis is exempted by one string of t’cheiles, but a tallis which is completely t’cheiles does not exempt itself’? (Rashi, 16:1) Klal Yisroel, reasoned Korach, is a tallis that is completely t’cheiles: every single thread.
But Rashi tells us that the exact opposite was true: Korach rejected the tzibbur. Rashi describes Korach not only as an antagonist of Moshe and Aharon, but as separating himself from the entire tzibbur: “He took himself to one side to be split from the congregation…” Likewise, it was the role of the kehunah, which Korach so bitterly opposed, to bring Shalom within the tzibbur, as we see from the priestly blessings which conclude with a blessing for Shalom: “…וישם לך שלום”. And this was particularly true of Aharon Hakohen, who is considered the paradigm “איש שלום”: a “lover of Shalom and pursuer of Shalom.” (Avos 1:12)
True, Korach declared the entire congregation holy, but that alone does not create a tzibbur; a tzibbur requires Shalom. And Shalom does not mean that we all smile at each other and exchange compliments. A tzibbur could be compared to an orchestra: there are violins, drums, trumpets, flutes, etc. The purpose of Shalom is that all of the instruments should play together. If the celloist is playing Bach, and the pianist Beethoven, there will be no symphony, even if they both play beautifully and smile at each other the whole time. An “עדה”, a tzibbur, means that there everyone is found within, and we need to deal with and at times grapple with each other in order to arrive at Shalom. Korach “took himself to one side”; he rejected this avodah of the tzibbur where different sides meet together.
Let us take an example from the Beis Medrash. Imagine an avreich in a Kollel who refuses to listen to others. When posed with a question, he immediately insists that he knows the answer. Obnoxious. He rejects any idea that is unfamiliar to him. Narrow-minded. He goes to great lengths to deny any proof that contradicts his way of thinking. Stubborn as a mule. But the very same phenomenon can take on a much more pleasant form. “Wow”, he says, “that’s a beautiful pshat!” He listens to your proofs and follows your train of thought. He even shares with you a few maarei mekomos that support your approach. But he never, ever changes his pshat. He does not want to make Shalom with you; to take his mehalech and your mehalech and all the intricacies and proofs and create something new. As the popular saying goes: “כל אדם והאמת שלו”—each person and his truth. You have your pshat and he has his. He only has “his side”. So despite his compliments, and they might even be genuine, his pshat does not change. He does not believe that he needs the tzibbur, and thus the tzibbur will not influence him.
As sweet as it sounds, “the entire congregation, all of them, are holy”, if the intention is that each individual is holy on his own, and he does not need Shalom because he does not need the tzibbur, then in truth it is a complete rejection of the congregation. A congregation, as we said, means that everyone is found within, together. And we need each other in order to come to truth, so we need Shalom. Together, the congregation is holy.