"He arrived at the Mountain of the Lord, toward Horeb (Exodus 3:1)." Moshe was searching for God, and God appeared to him in the Burning Bush. "And now, go and I shall send you to Pharaoh and you shall take My people the Children of Israel out of Egypt (Verse 10)." God wanted Moshe to go without any instructions other than to take Israel out of Egypt. "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should take the Children of Israel out of Egypt (Verse 11)?" Moshe didn't ask how he was to accomplish his mission, but, "Who am I?"  Moshe had to learn that he, the searcher for God, had to respond to seemingly impossible instructions by moving forward, a process of learning who he was and of what he was capable.  All the plagues, miracles and wonders performed through Moshe's hands were his way of discovering the power of a person who has discovered God. The person who is truly searching for God must use the search to learn who he is and understands that he will discover himself as he develops his relationship with God.

In this week's portion we read of Korach and his rebellion; "Korach son of Itzhar son of Kehot son of Levi took (Numbers 16:1)." What did he take? He wanted to take all the power of Moshe and Aaron as if it was for the taking. He ignored how Moshe and Aaron worked to become who they were and how they only discovered their strengths through their process of searching for God. Korach wanted the power. He was not searching for a relationship with God. He wasn't even searching for himself. He wanted the greatness without the search and discovery. He was a taker, not a searcher.

Moshe was not born Moshe. He was not a simple shepherd magically transformed by the appearance of an angel. He was a searcher for God who used his search to become an extraordinary human being. The greatest teachers are not those born with the gift or selected by God to become a miraculous personality. They are the people who actively search for God and who constantly work on themselves to merit a relationship with the Creator. They find themselves as they search for God.

The authentic great teachers I was privileged to meet were all people who, as they searched for God, diligently worked at becoming who they were. The frauds were all people born with extraordinary minds who assumed that they, as Korach, could take the power and trappings of their brilliance without sedulous striving to refine their character. No wonder we honor Rabbi Akiva who only began to study at age forty, and the xenogenic Rabbi Meir, the son of converts, who was not born destined for greatness. They found the answer to, "Who am I," in their search for God.

How can we know if our search for God is sincere? If we discover the answer to, "Who am I," in the process. The person who observes all the commandments, who consistently prays, but does not discover more about himself in the process, is not searching for God. The person who opens a Chumash with excitement that he is about to learn more about himself as he learns about God, is a searcher. He will discover new strengths and potential.

My heroes are not the people born to greatness, but those who have a sincere desire to discover God and find themselves in the process. I may envy brilliance, but I don't honor it as I do the person who understands that to discover God one must work to become a beautiful human being.

The six days of work that lead to Shabbat are the days of Moshe the searcher. The person who simply waits for the magic of Shabbat, is waiting as a Korach, a taker. Shabbat is not for the taking. It is for those of us who use every aspect of our spiritual lives to find the answer to, "Who am I?"

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Simcha L. Weinberg
President 
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