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Why does Rashi (רש"י) say Datan and Aviram were "dead" when they merely lost their wealth? The shiur develops a fundamental insight: the Gemara (גמרא)'s phrase "yardu michnasam" — they went down *from* their possessions — reveals that only one who defines himself *by* money experiences poverty as death. Yaakov Avinu could lose everything and rebuild because his self-worth was internal; those who measure themselves by wealth are truly devastated when it's gone.
The shiur opens with a puzzling episode from Parshas Shemos. When Moshe kills the Egyptian taskmaster who was beating a Jew, he acts within Jewish law — a gentile striking a Jew is a capital offense. The next day, when Moshe intervenes in a fight between two Jews, they challenge him: "Will you kill me as you killed the Egyptian?" Yet fighting between Jews carries no capital punishment, only monetary restitution or lashes. Why would they fear Moshe would kill them for a non-capital offense? The answer must be that they viewed Moshe's killing of the Egyptian as *illegitimate* — not as a legal execution but as murder. Only if they thought yesterday's act was criminal would they fear becoming his next victim. This leads to a deeper question about Datan and Aviram themselves. When Hashem (ה׳) tells Moshe in Midian to return to Egypt, He says, "All the men who sought your life have died." Rashi (רש"י) identifies these men as Datan and Aviram — yet they clearly resurface later in the Torah (תורה) as Moshe's chief antagonists. Rashi explains: they were alive, but "yardu michnasam" — they went down from their possessions — and one who is impoverished is considered dead.
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Shemos 2:11-15
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