Thoughts on Parashat Korach 5785
The name of our parshah refers to a man whose name was Korach, who headed the rebellion against Moses and Aaron. Korach incited a mutiny challenging Moses’ leadership and the granting of the kehunah (priesthood) to Aaron. He was accompanied by Moses’ inveterate foes, Dathan and Abiram and was joined by 250 distinguished members of the community, who offered the sacrosanct ketoret (incense) to prove their worthiness for the priesthood. At the end of this story the earth opens up and swallows the mutineers, and a fire consumes the ketoret-offerers.
What was Korach’s argument against Moses? His primary argument was that Moses was unfairly elevating his own family, specifically Aaron and his sons, to positions of leadership and authority, while excluding others from similar opportunities. Korach, a Levite and a cousin of Moses, felt entitled to a priestly role, arguing that all Israelites were holy and therefore should have equal access to religious leadership. According to our Rabbis – as I have already explained in my previous drashot – this equality ceased to exist with the Golden Calf incident, after which God decided to introduce spiritual hierarchy in the Jewish nation, dividing them into Israelites, Levites and Kohanim. The Kohanim were distinguished from the Levites on the basis of birth i.e. only the descendants of Aaron could hold priestly duties. In some way, Korach and his comrades demanded that the status and honor they had enjoyed before the episode of the Golden Calf be restored to them:
They combined against Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! For all the community are holy, all of them, and יהוה is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above יהוה’s congregation?” (Numbers 16:3)
But if “all the community are holy” why did Korach not demand equal access to priestly functions for all Israelites (or, alternatively, a complete abolition of the priestly institution), but, instead, priesthood for himself and his descendants? Yes, this is where we encounter the weakness of his argument and just plain hypocrisy. Indeed, his entire pursuit for equality is nothing but self-serving. His message is merely a nice facade, covering a deeper motivation of personal ambition and a desire for prestige, particularly the role of High Priest. He was resentful about his position as a Levite and coveted the exclusive role of the priests. To implement his personal agenda he needed a stronger leverage and found one that would again cover up his real aspirations – he built a coalition with all kinds of complainers, malcontents and nay-sayers: Datan and Abiram. It was, indeed, a politically smart move, something we know so well from contemporary politics.
His entire ‘political program’ was completely fake and deeply hypocritical. To use contemporary language – he accused Moses and Aaron of nepotism only to promote and elevate his own cronies. The only thing he was in fact interested in was a ‘shortcut to power’ based solely on his high birth. He just demanded privilege without any real contribution, expecting everything to be handed to him on a silver plate.
Essentially, Korach’s vision was a distorted interpretation of the Israelites’ holiness used instrumentally as a justification for his own desire for prominence and power. He used the idea of communal holiness to undermine the established order and gain personal authority, ultimately demonstrating a rejection of God’s appointed leadership and Divine truth. This instrumental treatment of the Divine gift offered to the Israelites was Korach’s greatest sin against God himself. That would explain the severity of the punishment, in terms of the divine reward/punishment logic of the Torah and the Hebrew Bible.
There are no perfect leaders. All leaders are human and therefore have their flaws and shortcomings. But the most fundamental feature of true leaders is that they DO things – not only talk, discuss, debate and end up doing nothing. True, effective leaders are capable of doing an extraordinary amount of things in a relatively short time. People who are lazy, entitled, who expect or demand an easy access to success or power should not hold any leadership positions, ever. And just as our Rabbis compared Korach’s and his comrades’ mouths running wild and lawless to the earth’s opened mouth that supernaturally swallowed them, this devouring mouth of the earth can be also seen as a symbol of an irreparably broken community, something that is typically the ultimate outcome of entitled and simply bad community, political or religious leadership. Let us therefore try to always keep all this in mind whenever we have any influence on who will be our leader.
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Mirski
Leave a Reply