Shabbat Parashat Korach - 5784

Shabbat Parashat Korach - 5784

Rabbi Hal Miller

  Do this, take for yourselves fire pans, Korach and his entire assembly and put fire

  in them and place incense upon them before God tomorrow, then the man whom

  God will choose, he is the holy one. It is much for you, sons of Levi. [Bamidbar 16:6-7]

In Vayikra 10:1-2, Nadav and Avihu died for bringing a "strange fire" of incense as an

offering to God. Why did Moshe choose the same as the test for Korach and his people?

Why did he set up the duel for "tomorrow" instead of right away? How does the "it is

much for you, sons of Levi" fit in?

Beginning with timing, Moshe hoped that Korach and his followers would wake up to

what they were doing and back off. He hoped that by giving them some time to cool down

they might be able to better see things and back off. Since the confrontation began in the

afternoon, after the usual time for incense and after the main meal of the day at which

wine was customarily served, Moshe was able to point out that service as a Kohen was

forbidden after wine, and he wanted to give Korach all the good advantage he could. He

also hoped that the other 250 would realize that they were not just competing with Aharon

but with each other, that only one could win the contest and all the others would die. Each

one who dropped out would be saved.

All of these men knew that Aharon's sons Nadav and Avihu died while offering incense in

a way other than what Moshe directed. By choosing this for the test here, Moshe again

was trying to convince them of the hopelessness of their quest. He also wanted to point

out to the 250 the fallacy of following Korach. He reminded everyone that Korach was a

Levi, that Korach felt he should be the Kohen Gadol because any Levi would qualify, and

that given this argument, none of the other 250 would so qualify. Korach already had the

benefits of membership in the tribe of Levi, which he would lose should one of the other

250 win the contest and break the Levi requirement for leadership, thus "it is much for

you, sons of Levi", for no matter what, all but one man would lose, possibly the entire tribe.

With all these arguments, why were Korach and his people not convinced, but determined

to go ahead anyway? They were all firstborns, including Korach. Not long before, they had

all been doing the incense service for their families and saw no reason why they had to give

that up. They understood the argument about wine, having seen what happened to Nadav

and Avihu, so they agreed to put the test off until the next morning, but they saw nothing

else in Moshe's arguments. They saw no reason to think that only one man would win and

the others would die since all of them had been doing this servive before. Thus, the final

reason that Moshe chose incense was that the rebels were likely to think they would be

okay offering incense, and he wanted to prove to the entire nation that what was okay

before the giving of the commandment was no longer allowed, now that God had spoken.