Korach: intimacy

Korach: intimacy

What did Korach want? The coda to this parsha, which describes the “gifts” that are to be given to the Kohanim ( the priests, the lineage designated as fit to perform the temple service) are enumerated. Kohanim could live off the taxes and levies that were to become their due ( income).  If Korach could join this favored group, he could assure his descendants an income for the foreseeable future. [ This is no longer true. Kohanim  no longer receive trumah and there are no sacrifices from which to apportion sections to the kohein).

Korach, based upon midrash [traditions that surround the text] was extremely wealthy, perhaps the richest man in the world. Reich vie Korach is the Yiddish idiom for an extremely wealthy person ( usually in the context of stinginess]. Affluent people seem to often want yet more, and it is possible that Korach was chasing the money. But that trivializes the struggle. Perhaps it deflects attention from issues that are harder to deal with.

The common reading of the story emphasizes the rebellion. All rebellions are about the transfer of power from the current leader to the insurgent(s). Read in the context of the preceding chapters, there is a political aspect that might separate the motives of Korach – a Levite with priestly aspirations – from his Reubenite followers ( Dathan and Aviram).  The followers of Korach simply wanted  a change of administration. Moshe had taken them out of a place of comfort, Egypt, which they describe as

הַמְעַ֗ט כִּ֤י הֶֽעֱלִיתָ֙נוּ֙ מֵאֶ֨רֶץ זָבַ֤ת חָלָב֙ וּדְבַ֔שׁ לַהֲמִיתֵ֖נוּ בַּמִּדְבָּ֑ר כִּֽי־תִשְׂתָּרֵ֥ר עָלֵ֖ינוּ גַּם־הִשְׂתָּרֵֽר׃

is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, and dost thou also make thyself a prince over us?

They had witnessed the debacle of the first tablets at Sinai. Moses, personally appalled at the bacchanal that resulted from his prolonged absence, decided to break the tablets. There was an ensuing purifying civil war and plague. More recently, there had been the mannah fatigue which  was  chastised with the sickening slav birds.  This culminated in the edict of 40 years of wandering, not entering the Promised Land, in reaction to the scout induced cowardice. This Moshe administration clearly sacrificed the comfort and security of the people for some set of hard-to-understand higher values. The structure needed change. Selfish values could not be put aside. A change of leadership was needed: Vote Korach!

Korach aspired to the priesthood, or at least a democratization  of the service:

כִּ֤י כׇל־הָֽעֵדָה֙ כֻּלָּ֣ם קְדֹשִׁ֔ים

For all the community are holy, all of them

He wanted access to this exclusive experience.  His demand was answered by demonstrating the danger of the kodesh ( usually translated as holy).  Moshe invited those seeking change to try their hand at the incense service (which had killed Nadav and Avihu, the sons of Aaron, when they performed an unauthorized rite).  As expected, it was lethal for the pretenders.

Korah, Nadav and Avihu were not part of that group.  A special punishment, being swallowed by the earth, was reserved for them.  It came with a warning for others, presumably former followers, to separate from the leaders of the rebellion. This was a punishment that had been reserved from the last day of Creation.  Pirkei Avoth  5;6

עֲשָׂרָה דְבָרִים נִבְרְאוּ בְּעֶרֶב שַׁבָּת בֵּין הַשְּׁמָשׁוֹת, וְאֵלּוּ הֵן, פִּי הָאָרֶץ

Ten things were created on the eve of the Sabbath at twilight, and these are they: [1] the mouth of the earth…,

פִּי הָאָרֶץ. לִבְלֹעַ קֹרַח וַעֲדָתוֹ:

The mouth of the earth: to swallow Korach and his congregation.

Bartenura

 

This event could be predicted by calculation.

Kodesh is prominent in this week’s parsha. Kodesh is desirable and dangerous and exclusive. The firepans of the rebels, that cost them their lives, are kodesh.  They become part of the altar.

The  people complain to Moshe  about his handling of the rebellion:

יִּלֹּ֜נוּ כׇּל־עֲדַ֤ת בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ מִֽמׇּחֳרָ֔ת עַל־מֹשֶׁ֥ה וְעַֽל־אַהֲרֹ֖ן לֵאמֹ֑ר אַתֶּ֥ם הֲמִתֶּ֖ם אֶת־עַ֥ם יְ

But on the morrow all the congregation of the children of Yisra᾽el murmured against Moshe and against Aharon, saying, You have killed the people of the Lrd.

It is difficult to accept the limitations of access to the Divine.

Is there an aspect of intimacy in the kodesh? The sacred rite is not just a magic, it is a kind of love, reserved for the partners that are chosen .  The choice may seem arbitrary to the outsider, but that does not change the fact.  I think that Korach wanted this special relationship. He was asking for infidelity and he could not have it. He manipulated the people by stoking their anger and appealing to democratic values. It was a ruse – one that works again and again; one that is popular in our times.