But Moses and Aaron fell face down and cried out, “O God, the God who gives breath to all living things, will you be angry with the entire assembly when only one man sins?” — Numbers 16:22

The Torah portion for this week is Korach, which means “Korah,” from Numbers 16:1–18:32, and the Haftorah is from 1 Samuel 11:14–12:22.

In this week’s Torah portion, we read about Korah leading a rebellion against Moses and Aaron. His “movement” was co-sponsored by two disgruntled men, Dathan and Abiram, and he gained 250 followers. But when God made His intention clear that He planned to wipe them all out, Moses and Aaron pleaded on their behalf. They prayed, “O God, the God who gives breath to all living things, will you be angry with the entire assembly when only one man sins?”

In their mercy and grace, Moses and Aaron intervened and defended the other men, claiming it was really Korah’s doing. They raised a good point that is still debated today — should others be punished because of one person’s sins?

Albert Einstein once observed, “A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.”

All people, even from a scientific perspective, are really one entity. And so, yes, it makes perfect sense that the actions of one affect us all. Just as a problem with our foot affects our entire body, toxic fumes in China can disrupt the atmosphere around the globe. Judaism says this principle holds true spiritually as well. The sins of one person impact us all.

The Sages explain this idea with an analogy of a boat carrying many passengers. One passenger decides to drill holes under his seat. As the other passengers yell at him to stop, he foolishly explains, “You have no right to tell me what to do – it’s MY seat. Go worry about your own seat!” But as we all know, if that man drills holes under his seat, the whole boat can sink.

And so it goes with us. We are together traveling in a vessel we call the world. If the ship goes down, we all go down. By the same token, if the boat gets somewhere, we all get there, too. We are all interconnected and influence each other whether we like it or not.

In what way will you influence the world today? Every day, we can make the world more physically toxic and spiritually polluted. Or, we can bring light and healing, love and restoration. In what way can you be a change agent for good today?