Shabbat Parashat Korach - 5781

Shabbat Parashat Korach - 5781

Rabbi Hal Miller

Do this: Take for yourselves fire-pans, Korach and his entire assembly, and

place incense upon them before God tomorrow. Then the man whom God will

choose, he is the holy one. There is much to you, sons of Levi. [Bamidbar 16:6]

Korach approached Moshe and Aharon with a handful of close associates plus

250 well-known and respected leaders. Who were these leaders and why did they

pursue this risk?

Korach was a Levi. Specifically, he was the firstborn of Yitzhar. Yitzhar was the

second son of Kehat. Moshe and Aharon were sons of Amram, who was the first

son of Kehat. Amram and Yitzhar had two younger brothers. When Moshe became

the leader of the nation and then appointed Aharon to the priesthood, and further

appointed the son of Amram's youngest brother as the head of the tribe of Levi,

Korach felt slighted. His claim was that one of Amram's sons should get the role

of king, he should get the priesthood, and the firstborn son of the third brother,

Chevron, would then be the leader of Levi, or at least something similar. As a Levi,

Korach at least had some arguable claim for that priesthood.

But what about Datan and Aviram? They were from the tribe of Reuven, so they

claimed, as sons of the firstborn of Yaakov, they should be the national king. And

how about the rest of the 250? Most of them had no such claims at all.

Moshe proposed a test. Each of the 250-plus, and Aharon, would perform the

service of the Kohen Gadol. Since only one person could do that without being

killed, this test doomed to death all but one of the participants. With no claim to

possibly being Kohen Gadol, why did they participate? They were definitely going

to die.

Malbim points out that Korach made the case that any Jew could be the Kohen

Gadol, that they were all equal in God's eyes, and it did not have to be a Levi. But if

so, what claim does Korach have? Certainly, the people would not honor him if they

thought his rebellion was only for his personal gain instead of the nation as a whole,

as Korach claimed. Had he 'won' the contest, he would had to have immediately

stepped aside anyway.

Datan and Aviram only wanted to return to Egypt. If one of them 'won', the other

would be dead, and the people wouldn't need a Kohen at all, so they would not

have gained anything.

The 250, mostly from Reuven, some being firstborn themselves but not all, were

claiming that the removal of the priesthood from the firstborn was wrong. If one of

them 'won', not only would all the others die, but that one would be the Kohen

Gadol for a religion whose God he just rejected.

Moshe gave them every chance to wake up and repent, yet they went forward,

knowing all but one of them (including Aharon) was about to die. They saw Nadav

and Avihu die under similar circumstances. This event is a clear demonstration of

the power of a manipulator, the power of the Satan. They were willing to follow

Korach to almost certain death, for no reason other than that he convinced them

to come along. We must be aware at all times that there are people who are

trying to bully us into doing something foolish, and stand strong.