Shabbat Parashat Korach - 5786

Shabbat Parashat Korach - 5786

Rabbi Hal Miller

  The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households and all the

  people who were with Korach, and all their possessions. [Bamidbar 16:32]

  They and all that was theirs descended alive to the pit, the earth covered them over

  and they were lost from among the congregation. [Bamidbar 16:33]

Who actually died in this episode, and how? Who did not die?

Beginning with 16:21, God tells Moshe that He is about to destroy the entire congregation, meaning those who followed Korach in his challenge for the leadership. In 16:26 Moshe relays God's words to the rest of the people to separate from Korach's group. At that point, all of those following Korach were about to die. Certainly Datan and Aviram made a show in verse 27 about thumbing their noses at Moshe and God. In 16:31-33, the actual miracle occurred. But not everyone died.

We understand that at the beginning of the revolt, Datan, Aviram and On ben Peles joined Korach, but we do not hear of On ben Peles again. There is a midrash saying that his wife talked him into leaving the revolt and he was thus saved. Or he could have listened when Moshe in verse 26 warned people to get away from Korach. In either event, On ben Peles apparently did not die.

In 16:33 we read "they and all that was theirs descended alive to the pit". In verse 27, Datan and Aviram and their families stood together. It would seem that the families of Korach and the others would have also stood by their familly chiefs, or perhaps they would be included in "all that was theirs", but the Book of Tehillim contains a number of psalms, written years later, authored by "the sons of Korach". At least some of Korach's family did not die. We might ask why the sins of the fathers would be visited upon the children, which is a large topic for another time, but here we can answer simply that Moshe's warning in verse 26, which was heeded by at least some folks, should have been enough for the children to get out of the way. The fact that they did not listen to Moshe constituted their own sin.

Our verses specify that "the earth opened its mouth" and "they and all that was theirs descended alive to the pit". Before the "earth covered them over and they were lost" it is possible that some of these sinners repented and returned to belief in God. If so, they would have been saved before "they were lost from among the congregation" and spit back out from the ground. None of the leaders of the rebellion would have qualified, but some of their family members, whose sin was not listening to Moshe, might have been saved, although we have no strong evidence that this occurred. It would explain how "all that was theirs descended" yet the sons of Korach could have lived in a later time, as noted in Bamidbar 26:11, "but the sons of Korach did not die".

The result is that Korach and his rebels denied Moshe and God, and they were liable to death for it. But God leaves open a door. If someone does something wrong, but takes proper action to correct for their mistake, there is an opportunity to reduce or avoid their punishment.