KORACH, NUMBERS 16:1-18:32
Botticcelli, Sandro - The Punishment of Korah and the Stoning of Moses and Aaron - 1481-82.
In our Parshah there is a two-pronged attack against the appointment of Aaron and his sons to the priesthood, and against Moses as the leader of Israelite nation. This ultimately comes down as a rebellion against God.
Aaron and his sons’ appointment to the priesthood begins in the Book of Exodus at 28:1, when Hashem makes a declaration to Moses:
וְאַתָּה הַקְרֵב אֵלֶיךָ אֶת-אַהֲרֹן אָחִיךָ וְאֶת-בָּנָיו אִתּוֹ, מִתּוֹךְ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל--לְכַהֲנוֹ-לִי: אַהֲרֹן--נָדָב וַאֲבִיהוּא אֶלְעָזָר וְאִיתָמָר, בְּנֵי אַהֲרֹן.
“And you shall bring near to you Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that they may minister unto Me in the priest's office, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's sons”.
Contrary to Hashem’s declaration, Korach, Aaron’s cousin wants to open or maybe reopen the Priest’s office to everyone or at least to the First Born. It was the First Born who at Mt. Sinai offered up the sacrifices to Hashem:
Exodus 24.5 -
וַיִּשְׁלַח, אֶת-נַעֲרֵי בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, וַיַּעֲלוּ, עֹלֹת; וַיִּזְבְּחוּ זְבָחִים שְׁלָמִים, לַיהוָה--פָּרִים.
"And he sent the young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt-offerings, and sacrificed peace-offerings of oxen unto the LORD".
נַעֲרֵי, young men or youths is interpreted as the First Born (Talmud Bavli, Zevachim 112b).
Although the First Born had a taste of offering sacrifices, they lost that privilege at the Sin of the Golden Calf.
The Priesthood was, is and will be an exclusionary office. Korach is assisted by 250 First Born tribal leaders, including possibly some Levites. They too wanted the privilege to offer sacrifices on the Altar, the Mizbeach (מזבח). They maintained that offering sacrifices, i.e.. being Priests, should not rest exclusively with Aaron and his family.
Secondly, Dathan and Abiram are causing a problem for Moses. They are leaders from the Tribe of Reuben. They do not want to wander and die in the dessert for the next 39 years. For better or worse they want to return to Egypt, the home that they had known. After all, they will not be allowed to enter the Promised Land.
However there is no turning back. In comparison to the ten spies who were killed outright, the generation of the dessert were given a life sentence without any hope of parole.
Moses needs and has the full support of Hashem. The ground opens up, as if it is a living being and swallows up Korach, Dathan and Abiram. The 250 co-conspirators who are carrying their fire pans bring down a heavenly fire that consumes them all. It is similar to what happened to Aaron’s sons Nadav and Avihu.
You play with fire and you get burned.
A PRACTICAL WOMAN SAVES HER HUSBAND'S LIFE
In the Parshah, Korach is assisted by three co-conspirators: Dathan, Abiram and On son of Peleth. Korach, Dathan and Abiram perish, but On’s situation is in clouded in mystery.
The Midrash (Numbers Rabbah 18:20) comes out and says that On’s wife saves the day: On’s wife was wise and practical. She sums up for her husband that he is in a lose-lose situation. Then she gets him so drunk that he falls asleep.
When the boys come by to fetch her husband, she stands at the entrance to her tent and loosens her hair. This unseemly act causes the boys to turn tail and run off to their doom.
-----------------------------------------------
I heard a shiur by Rabbi Riskin in which Moses’ punishment not to enter Israel (Parshat Chukat next week) is directly attributed to his encounter with Korach in this week’s Parshah. No one sticks up for Moshe. Not one of shows gratitude for all that he has done. And Moshe is angry. Then next week when Moshe encounters the rock, his misplaced anger comes out. The rock becomes the Jewish people, stiff-necked, hard and implacable. And he strikes it.
Rabbi Riskin concludes that to be a leader of the Jewish people, one must not lose patience, must be forgiving and love us passionately despite our failings.
Korach failed in his rebellion, but in doing so he may have condemned Moshe not to enter Israel.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Punishment of Korah (detail from the fresco Punishment of the Rebels by Sandro Botticelli (1480–1482) in the Sistine Chapel)
In a previous Parshah, Behaalotecha, Eldad and Medad were prophesying. Joshua becomes outraged. Moses calms him down, gracefully saying, “If only all of G-d’s people would be prophets!” Yet in Parshat Korach, when Korach challenges Moses’ authority saying, “The whole community is holy, and the Lord is with them, why then do you exalt yourself over the community of G-d?”
And in this instance Moses uses his power to call upon a miracle to eliminate his opposition.
What’s going on here? How are the two instances reconciled?
--------------------------------------------------
An opinion of Rav Kook:
This is the argument that Korach put forth — “All of the congregation is holy, and God is in their midst” (Num. 16:3) — does not seem silly at all. Is not Korach simply restating what God told the entire nation, “You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Lev. 19:2)? What was so wrong with his claim? Why did Moses insist that only Aaron and his descendants could serve as Priests?
In the test of Korach and the 250 followers, Moses suggested that they offer incense and not burnt offerings.. This is a hint that Korach’s vision reflected an underlying truth, but one for the distant future, when sin-offerings will no longer be needed to atone for our wrongdoing.
Looking ahead: The Jewish people will always exist, the distinction of Aaron’s descendants as Kohanim is not permanent. In the future, all of Israel will be elevated to the level of Priests. God’s declaration to Israel, “You will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation to Me” (Ex. 19:6), refers to this future era.
Adapted from Chanan Morrison’s “Gold from the Land of Israel”, pp. 252-255;
--------------------------------------------------------------
MOTHER EARTH
The Land of Israel is held to be a special place within the
world, within the planet Earth. The Land of Israel may be viewed as being
part of a living organism (the Earth) with self-regulatory functions. This view
seems similar to those who adhere to the Gaia-Mother Earth theory where
the Earth itself is deemed to be organic and alive.
Is the Earth and/or the Land of Israel alive and do they exhibit self-
regulatory functions?
Consider the Torah reading at 18:25 and18:27-28:
וַתִּטְמָא הָאָרֶץ, וָאֶפְקֹד עֲוֺנָהּ עָלֶיהָ; וַתָּקִא הָאָרֶץ, אֶת-יֹשְׁבֶיהָ.
“And the land became defiled, and I visited its sin upon it, and theland vomited out its inhabitants”
כִּי אֶת-כָּל-הַתּוֹעֵבֹת הָאֵל, עָשׂוּ אַנְשֵׁי-הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר לִפְנֵיכֶם;
וַתִּטְמָא, הָאָרֶץ
וְלֹא-תָקִיא הָאָרֶץ אֶתְכֶם, בְּטַמַּאֲכֶם אֹתָהּ, כַּאֲשֶׁר קָאָה אֶת-הַגּוֹי,
אֲשֶׁר לִפְנֵיכֶם.
“For the people of the land who preceded you, did all of these abominations, and the land became defiled. And let the land not vomit you out for having defiled it. as it vomited out the nation that preceded you”.
Consider the Earth opening up and swallowing Korach and his followers or the Earth crying out regarding the blood of the murdered Abel.
A rhetorical question, an answer is not expected:
If the Earth is an entity that embodies the properties of life, where then
would you place Israel? Zionist that I am, without missing a beat, I would
exclaim: the heart, the seat of wisdom and emotions!
For a better answer, at least to me, consider Israel to be part of a cell, one
of the trillions of cells that you and I have and which together comprise our
body, our universe so to speak. If Israel is a distinct part of a cell, I would
place it within the cell’s nucleus where it has its own special DNA as does
us Jews. For me, Israel is the equivalent of a cell’s mitochondria, where
the energy needed for the cell’s function is produced. What do you think?
---------------------------------------------------------------
The Haftarah portion is from Samuel I, 11:14 - 12:22.
About 400 years before, Joshua, starting out from Gilgal, had conquered the Land. It had taken him 14 years. Then for a period of more than 300 years, from time to time when we were beset by enemies, we were led by Prophets and Judges. Our enemies were the Ammonites or the Moabites or the Philistines and even some remaining Canaanites.
Now we requested a different kind of leadership; we wanted a King. Hashem listened and although not entirely pleased, granted the request. Saul, the Benjaminite was anointed King of Israel. Samuel, who unselfishly administered to us for 40 years, traveling from village to village on his own dime, begrudgingly went with the program. Listening to his words I hear some regret and remorse.
"YOU CAN'T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT"
-----------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment