by Karen Singer Avrech
This past Shabbat our rabbi delivered the traditional Shabbat T’shuvah drasha, (homily). His essential message was that Modern Orthodoxy is doomed unless the importance of traditional halacha (jurisprudence) is understood and respected. Recent trends have favored “dynamism” and “innovation” to match the times, but have neglected the legalistic principles that have sustained the Jewish people for thousands of years.
Our rabbi explained that revolutionaries since Korach have championed the idea that we are all holy, decrying Moses’s leadership as elitist and unfair. Korach was demanding the egalitarianism of the “Progressive.”
The lesson that Moshe taught Korach is that yes, we are all created in G-d’s image and he has chosen us as his holy people, but there is another, essential aspect of holiness.
