~ One Hundred Words on the Parsha - Korach

ויקח קרח בן יצהר בן קהת בן לוי

"And Korach son of Yitzhar, son of Kehas, son of Levi took..."

It is unusual for the Torah to give such an extensive yichus. (As far as I know, this is the only time the Torah lists names all the way back to a great-grandfather.)

In this case, it would seem that the propensity of Levi to instigate fights - he instigated the brothers against Yoseph - was passed on to his great-grandson Korach.

The take away is that often our actions have long term effects which can surface even generations later. Levi was held partially responsible for his great grandson's wicked actions.

May we, as parents of future generations, lead the way with only good examples.

~ One Hundred Words on the Parsha – Korach

ראשונים יתנו לה'

All מצוות that are positive, בין אדם למקום have a ברכה said before doing the מצוה. מצוות that are בין אדם לחבירו do not have a ברכה. Why is there a ברכה said on the מצוה of תרומה, giving produce to a כהן?

The גר"א answers that the פסוק talks about תרומה as being given to ה'. Therefore, even though it is a בין אדם לחבירו, it is considered as a בין אדם למקום and therefore has a ברכה. Parenthetically, the גמרא says that the כהנים get their portion of the תרומה from שלחן גבוה - ה‘s table.

A deeper understanding could be that a person is coming in contact with a כהן as a representative of ה' so that he will receive heavenly influence from כהנים who are heavenly people and are involved in heavenly work in the בית המקדש.