Korach

Numbers 16:1−18:32

“He Stood between the Dead and the Living”

By: Lisa Edwards

In the middle of Parashat Korach comes a short story that I find to be one of the most moving in all of Torah. It arrives unexpectedly in the midst of yet another chilling story of rebellion. The parashah begins with more than 250 "Israelites, chieftains of the community, chosen in the assembly, men of repute," who, under the leadership of Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and On turn against Moses and Aaron, saying: "You have gone too far! For all the community are holy, all of them, and the Eternal is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above the Eternal's congregation?" (Numbers 16:1-3).

In their accusation, the leaders of the rebellion might seem to echo God's own language at Mount Sinai, calling the Israelites "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (goy kadosh)" (Exodus 19:6). Their logic, that when all are holy, none is above another, sounds right. But if the "rebels" merely echo God's earlier sentiment, why does their rebellion anger God so much that the earth opens up and swallows them?

Twentieth-century Jewish theologian Martin Buber1 explains God's remarks at Mount Sinai by calling our attention to the "if" clause: " If you will obey Me faithfully and keep My covenant, you shall be My treasured possession . . . you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation," (Exodus 19:5-6). Korah's error, teaches Buber, is in thinking that holiness is a given rather than a state that each of us must strive toward, working in partnership with God.

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