D’var Torah Korach

The earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them and their houses, along with all the men who were with Koraḥ and their property. (Numbers 16:32)
Our Sages taught that the “mouth of the earth” is among the things created at twilight of the first Shabbat eve. [Avot 5:6]
Ben Ish Ḥai [Rabbi Yosef Ḥayyim of Baghdad 1834–1909] explains that our Sages’ teaching is intended to stress the severity of the sins of baseless hatred and of dissension, of which Koraḥ and his company were guilty. The Holy One, blessed be He, did not wait for the infraction to actually occur, but prepared the harsh punishment in advance of the world’s creation. Therefore, the practical lesson of our Sages’ teaching is that “one must avoid dissension as he avoids fire, lest he become as Koraḥ and his congregation.”
At first glance, it may seem more appropriate for the Creator to have prepared the “mouth of the earth” at the beginning of creation, when the earth itself was formed. Ben Ish Ḥai suggests that the teaching that the “mouth of the earth” was created specifically at twilight is related to the Sages’ teaching that the six days of creation correspond to the six millennia during which the world will exist [Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 97a]. According to this parallel, Erev Shabbat corresponds to the end of the sixth millennium (the time of redemption), which is our era.
The Second Temple was destroyed because of baseless hatred [Babylonian Talmud Yoma 9b], and “if the existing Temple was destroyed because of this sin, all the more so can it not be rebuilt as long as we are mired in dissension.” Thus, the creation of the “mouth of the earth” specifically on Erev Shabbat is the Creator’s hint of our obligation to avoid dissension, and in particular, it is an appropriate message for our generations, “which on the eve of redemption must be doubly careful to avoid the sin of baseless hatred.” Ben Ish Hai concludes his comments by writing “through avoiding baseless hatred, we will merit the building of the Temple, speedily in our days.”
May we have the wisdom to do our part to hasten the building of the Third Temple. (by David Magence)

Shabbat Shalom!
The Va’ad