Korach- From the teachings of the Or Gedalyahu

In Parshat Korach, as we know, Korach amasses his own kehillah to challange Moshe. Now when the Torah names the bigshots in Korach's party, the pasuk lists him as "Korach ben Yitzhar ben Kehat ben Levi." Now as Rashi brilliantly points outs, its does not say "ben Yaakov" or "ben Yisrael" anywhere. And why would one have assumed that it should? Because in Divrei HaYamim, when it lists the families for the duchen-ing, Korach's lineage is listed with "ben Yisrael"! Rashi writes that Yaakov Avinu had davened that his name not be mentioned by machloket, as is the case in the parshah. But why? And what is the difference between Parshat Korach & Divrei HaYamim?

The answer given in Or Gedalyahu is essentially that Yaakov Avinu davened that his named not be mentioned by machloket because he didn't want the middah which he handed down to his children to be cursed and distorted. Yaakov Avinu represented the middah of Emet. Just as talmidim take on middot of their rebbe, so too children would naturaly take on good middot of their parents. The Chiddushei HaRim explains that the middah of Emet is everlasting without change, as truth remains constant and cannot be distorted. Therefore Yaakov really davened that his middah of Emet not be mentioned near machloket, which is just the opposite of what Emet represents. However, by the duchening, Yaakov's name is mentioned because Emet lasts forever, and certainly Yaakov's middot and strength would join with the Leviim in later generations when they do the great mitzvah of duchening.

Another explanation is based on that which the Torah says, "תורה צוה לנו משה מורשה קהלת יעקב". Yaakov Avinu passed on to future generations the sense kehillah. This is why Yaakov davened not to be mentioned by Korach's kehillah; because that kehillah was in itself against the Kehillat Yaakov as he was actually breaking away from the main chunk of Am Yisrael. Korach mistakenly thought that he was promoting the middah of Achdut. So Yaakov did not want his strength of achdut connected to Korach, as achdut is itself a base of Emet. That is why Korach could not truly unite people together, because he was lacking achdut. His group was united against Moshe, but in truth they were not united amongst themeselves.