Rabbi Yitzhak's Blog

This week's parsha contains the story of Korach and his followers, who contested the legitimate rights of Aharon and his sons to be the Kohanim [Priests]. We know that the result of this was a terrible plague, while the earth swallowed up the rebels.

At the end of the parsha we again learn of the Jews complaining about the priesthood of Aharon. The verse says "Speak to the children of Israel and take from them one staff from each father's house, from all their leaders according to their fathers' house, twelve staffs; each man's name shall you inscribe on his staff." [Bamidbar 17:17].

Hashem is trying to settle this once and for all. Hashem is going to prove, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Aharon is the one He intends to be the Kohain. The Princes of each tribe had to give over their walking sticks and the proof would come through these staffs. The Tribe of Levi was to be represented by Aharon and his name would be written on the staff from that tribe. The person's staff which miraculously sprouts will be the one chosen by Hashem to be the priest.

Aharon's staff was the one that flowered, and it gave forth almonds. The commentaries ask an interesting question. Normally, when fruits grow, the flower or bud that preceded the fruit falls away. Why are both the flower and the fruit simultaneously present on Aharon's staff? The Talmud [Yoma 52], in fact, explicitly mentions that the staff was hidden for Eternity --together with its flowers and its almonds.

How did this happen? Obviously it was a miracle -- the same Hashem who made the walking stick sprout can make it sprout and have flowers and fruit simultaneously. But, why? What is the significance of the flower remaining?

Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt"l, offers a beautiful insight. What is the flower to the fruit? It is a preparation -- first the plant blossoms, and then fruit emerges. In spirituality and in mitzvos, preparations are important.

In the secular world, people are only interested in the final product -- the bottom line -- the fruit. The effort, the time, the preparations are all wasted if one does not produce. When it comes to matters of holiness, when it comes to learning -- the exact opposite is true. Hashem wants the effort. The preparations that a person performs before doing a mitzvah are important to Hashem like the mitzvah itself.

That is why the flowers remained. Hashem is sending us a message: "The fruits developed and came about, but that which preceded them is also important to Me." That is the groundwork. In every other endeavor in life the groundwork and the preparation and the toil do not count, but by spirituality they do count. Therefore, when the staff was hidden for Eternity it was hidden with its flowers and with its fruit, because to us, preparation is significant.