Why can’t I give the orders instead of Moses? Why can’t I be the high priest instead of Aaron?

This week’s Torah portion, Korach (Numbers 16:1-18:32) patches together two tales of rebellion. In one tale, two chiefs from the tribe of Reuben rebel against Moses’ leadership, backed by 250 respected Israelite men. (See my post Korach: Buried Alive.) In the other tale Korach, a Levite who is a first cousin of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, rebels against Aaron and his sons, backed by 250 Levites.

And they congregated against Moses and against Aaron, and they said: “Too much is yours! Because the whole community, all of them, are kedoshim, and God is in their midst.  So why do you elevate yourselves above the congregation of God?”  (Numbers 16:3)

kedoshim (קְדֺשִׁים) = plural of kadosh (קָדוֹשׁ) = holy, consecrated, reserved for religious use, dedicated to God.

Moses falls on his face, prostrating himself to God. (See my post Korach; Face Down.)

Then he spoke to Korach and to all his company, saying: “In the morning God will make known who is His¹ and who is kadosh and whom He brings close to Himself; He will choose whom He brings close to Himself. Do this: Take for yourselves fire-pans, Korach and all his company, and place eish in them and put incense on them in front of God tomorrow.  And it will be the man whom God chooses, he is the kadosh one. Too much is yours, sons of Levi!” (Numbers 16:5-7)

eish (אֵשׁ) = fire, glowing embers.

In other words, God alone will decide which man is holy—set apart and dedicated to God. And it sounds as though God will choose only one.

Next Moses exposes the real motivation for Korach’s rebellion: not to give all Israelites equal status and opportunity, but only to elevate the Levites to the status and role of the priests. He says:

“Is it too little for you that the God of Israel has set you apart from the community of Israel to bring you close to [God] in the service of the sanctuary of God, and to stand before the community to minister to them? For [God] has brought you close, and all your kinsmen, the Levites, with you; yet you seek the priesthood too!” (Numbers 16:9-10)

After an inserted scene from the tale of the Reubenite rebellion, Moses rephrases his instructions to the Levites, specifying that his brother Aaron, the high priest, will also participate in the holiness contest.

And Moses said to Korach: “You and all your company, be in front of God tomorrow, you and they and Aaron. And each man, take his fire-pan. And you all will place incense on them, and bring them close in front of God, each man his fire-pan: the 250 and you and Aaron.” (Numbers 16:16-17)

By setting the contest for the next morning, Moses is giving the Levites time to have second thoughts and decide to stay home.²

A precedent and a warning

A wise Levite would indeed have stayed in his tent that morning. For one thing, Moses indicated that God would choose only one of the 252 men as the holy one. Furthermore, when Aaron and his four sons were first consecrated as priests, back at Mount Sinai, the two older sons overreached in the matter of bringing incense to God, and were killed by God’s fire.

And Aaron’s sons, Nadav and Avihu, each took his fire-pan and placed eish in it, and put incense on it; and they brought it close in front of God, an unauthorized eish that God had not commanded. And eish came forth from in front of God and it consumed them and they died in front of God. (Leviticus 10:1-2)

Both Aaron’s sons and the 250 Levites put incense on eish (glowing embers) and bring the aromatic smoke close to God. In both cases, God kills them with eish (divine fire).

Yet they all 250 Levites show up for the incense test. We do not learn what happens to them until after an exciting interruption from the tale about the rebellion of the Reubenites, in which God makes the ground open and swallow them up along with their households—and, inexplicably, Korach, who belongs with the 250 Levites burning incense. (See my post Korach: Quelling Rebellion, Part 1.)

Then eish went forth from God, and it consumed the 250 men bringing close the incense. (Numbers 16:35)

Where do they bring the incense?

In both passages, the overweening incense-bearers bring their smoking pans in front of God. And we know that when God is in residence in the sanctuary tent, God speaks to Moses from the empty space above the ark in the Holy of Holies, the back chamber;³ and that on Yom Kippur the high priest must generate enough smoking incense so he cannot see God appear above the ark.⁴ Both Moses and Aaron are authorized to enter the Holy of Holies at times, but nobody else is.

How close to the ark do the 250 Levites get before divine fire consumes them?

The portion Shemini in the book of Leviticus says that after Nadav and Avihu die, Moses calls in two of Aaron’s Levite cousins (Mishaeil and Elthzafan, not Korach) and orders them:

“Come close, carry your kinsmen away from the front of hakodesh, to outside the camp.” (Leviticus 10:4)

hakodesh (הַקֺּדֶשׁ) = the holy place. (From the same root as kadosh.)

Then Moses warns Aaron and his two younger sons not to leave the entrance of the tent-sanctuary while everyone else is mourning the deaths of Nadav and Avihu.⁵ This implies that all five priests were in the entrance when Nadav and Avihu went farther inside with their incense.

Aaron’s instructions for entering the Holy Holies on Yom Kippur specify that he should fill his fire-pan with embers from the altar outside the sanctuary tent, and then bring it along with two handfuls of ground incense behind the curtain separating the Holy of Holies from the main room of the sanctuary.⁶ So Aaron is inside the Holy of Holies when he puts the incense on the embers and the resulting cloud of smoke screens the ark from view.⁷

What about Aaron, Korach, and the 250 Levites in the Torah portion Korach in Numbers? Aaron, as the high priest, has the duty of burning incense every morning and evening on the gold incense altar in the main room of the tent-sanctuary, in front of the curtain separating the Holy of Holies.⁸ According to the Talmud, a priest in the temple in Jerusalem carried embers in a fire-pan from the outside altar to the gold incense altar inside the sanctuary, while another brought in a spoonful of incense.⁹

Levites guard the outside of the sanctuary, assist the priests at the altar, and transport the holy objects from inside the sanctuary after the priests have wrapped them, but they are not allowed to enter the sanctuary while it is set up. Korach and the 250 Levites want the right to go inside the sanctuary, as if they were priests—and to burn incense as if they were equal to the high priest, Aaron.

But it seems impractical for 250 Levites to take turns entering the main room of the tent-sanctuary with their smoking incense pans. Perhaps they file past the screened entrance of the tent.

Holy pans, not so holy Levites

Only Aaron survives the incense test; God kills the 250 Levites. Aaron is the one whom God chooses as kadosh enough to be a priest.

Then God spoke to Moses, saying: “Say to Elazar, son of Aaron the Priest, that he must lift up the fire-pans from the burned remains … The fire-pans of those guilty ones who [lost] their lives, and make them flattened metal to plate the altar, because they were brought close in front of God, vayikdashu. And they will be a reminder for the Israelites.” (Numbers 17:1-3)

vayikdashu (וַיִּקְדָּשׁוּ) = and they have become holy. (From the same root as kadash.)

These copper fire-pans were not holy before, since they had never been used for a regular part of the priestly service. (One wonders where the Levites found 250 copper fire-pans in the first place. Were they used to light campfires in front of families’ tents?) Perhaps God now declares that the fire-pans holy now just so that they can be used to plate the outer altar, and serve as a warning to anyone in the future who is jealous of the priests.

Or perhaps, even though God rejected the holiness claim of the Levite men, their desire to bring the smell of incense to God is enough to make the fire-pans themselves holy.

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Why are all 250 Levites in this tale willing to die in order to bring incense to God?

Perhaps Korach convinced them that Moses and Aaron, not God, were responsible for assigning the priesthood to Aaron and his sons, and God would not act against them if they brought incense to God. Korach probably drafted the rebels’ opening claim that everyone in the community was equally holy. He might also have reminded the Levites that at Mount Sinai God said the Israelites would become “a kingdom of priests and a kadosh nation”¹⁰—while not mentioning God’s condition that this would happen only if the people obeyed God. If they were all holy, all priests, then God would welcome incense from all of them!

Or perhaps they were consumed with desire to come even closer to God, which might have been the motivation for Nadav and Avihu to bring incense into the sanctuary. (See my post Shemini: Fire Meets Fire.) They wanted it so much, they were willing to die for it.

Or perhaps it was peer pressure. Korach would have said whatever it took to get the Levites to show up in the morning and make an impressive display of support for his position. And it is human nature to be embarrassed to back out when everyone else is going ahead.

If the fiery deaths of Nadav and Avihu are not enough, let the fiery deaths of the 250 Levites be a lesson for all of us. The next time an eloquent power-hungry person tries to fool us, the next time we are consumed with irrational desire, the next time everyone else is doing something that seems like a bad idea—may each of us have the strength to admit we were wrong and choose common sense.

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1. Hebrew is a gendered language and usually uses the third person singular masculine pronoun for God. I try to avoid this in my English translations, but I retained those pronouns in my translation here for clarity.
2. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Covenant & Conversation, “Korach: Not Taking It Personally”, reprinted on www.sefaria.org, probably based on Bamidbar Rabbah 18:8.
3. Exodus 25:22.
4. Leviticus 16:2, 16:12-13. See my post Acharey Mot & Shemini: So He Will Not Die.
5. Leviticus 10:7.
6. Leviticus 16:12.
7. Leviticus 16: 13. See my post: Acharey Mot & Shemini: So He Will Not Die.
8. Exodus 30:6-8.
9. Talmud Bavli, Tamid 33a.
10. Leviticus 19:5-6.

The essay below continues my examination of rebellions in last week’s portion, Korach. If you would like to read about one of the rebellions this week’s Torah portion, Chukat, you might enjoy my 2017 post: Chukat: The Price of Silence.

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Miraculous mass killings fail to stamp out the first two rebellions in the portion Korach (one by the Reubenites Datan and Aviram, and one led by the Levite Korach). The three ringleaders and their families die when God splits the earth and the ground swallows them. The 250 Levites who supported Korach’s demand for equal privileges with the priests die when God sends forth a fire that incinerates them. (See my post Korach: Quelling Rebellion, Part 1.)

Moses expects these divine demonstrations will prove to all the surviving Israelites that he and his brother Aaron did not seize power, but were only appointed by God. Yet the Israelites do not learn the intended lesson. It does not occur to them that if they do not rebel against God and God’s appointees, they will not be swallowed by an earthquake.¹ And they blame Moses and Aaron, not God, for the death of the 250 Levites who supported Korach’s cause.

Vayilonu on the following day, all the community of the Israelites, against Moses and against Aaron, saying: “You had the people of God put to death!” (Numbers 17:6)

vayilonu (וַיִּלֺּנוּ) = and they muttered, and they grumbled. (A form of the verb lon, לוֹן = mutter, grumble, complain.)

Halting a plague

So the God-character reacts with a third deadly miracle, and starts a plague to wipe out everyone except Moses and Aaron.

I can hardly blame this anthropomorphic version of God for being fed up with the Israelites again. I get fed up myself when I try to work with people who refuse to accept reality, and  persist in doing things that only make the situation worse. Sometimes I throw up my hands and abandon the whole enterprise. In other words, I get these people out of my life by walking away from them.

But Moses and Aaron do not give up, walk away, and let God wipe out the Israelites.

And God spoke to Moses, saying: “Get up away from the midst of this community, and I will devour them in an instant !” But they [Moses and Aaron] fell on their faces. Then Moses said to Aaron: “Take the fire-pan and put fire from the altar on the incense, and go quickly into the community and make atonement over them! Because the rage has gone forth from God; the plague has begun!” (Numbers/Bemidbar 17:9-10)

This is not an action that God authorized. But it is enough to make the God-character stop short.

He [Aaron] stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was brought to a standstill. (Numbers 17:13)

Perhaps when the Israelites who are sick, but not yet dead, see Aaron standing between the dead and the living with a pan of smoking incense, they realize that Moses and Aaron want them to live, and they drop their notion that these two leaders are the problem rather than the solution. Once they have this change of heart, God stops the plague, and the people stop their plague of false accusations.

Blooming

As soon as Aaron returns to Moses at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, a calmer God-character tells Moses to take a staff from the chieftain of each tribe.

… twelve staffs. You will write each man’s name on his staff. And the name of Aaron you will write on the staff of Levi, because [there will be] one staff for the head of each of their ancestral houses. Then leave them in the Tent of Meeting, in front of the Reminder [the ark] where I meet with you. And it will happen: the man whom I choose, his staff will sprout. And [thus] I will damp down from opposing me the telunot of the Israelites who are malinim against you.” (Numbers 17:17-20)

telunot (תְּלֻנּוֹת) = complaining, grumblings. (Also from the root lon.)

malinim (מַלִּנִם) = muttering, grumbling. (Another form of the verb lon.)

The next day, Moses brings all the staffs out of the sanctuary tent. Aaron’s staff has sprouted, flowered, and borne ripe almonds.

Nobody is killed or punished in this divine demonstration. But everyone sees that God has chosen the Levites to handle holy matters, and has chosen Aaron as the head of the Levites.

Then God said to Moses: “Put Aaron’s staff back in front of the Reminder, to be preserved as a sign for the recalcitrant, and it will end their telunot opposing me, and they will not die.” (Numbers 17:25)

Does this benign approach to ending rebellion work?

Response to Despair

Then the Israelites spoke to Moses, saying: “Hey! We perish! We are lost, all of us are lost. Anyone who comes close to God’s sanctuary will die. Will we ever be done with perishing?” (17:27-28)

This time the Israelites begin with an statement of despair. This might be another complaint, or it might be merely an expression of their anxiety. Then they ask Moses a question. They are no longer rebelling against his leadership, but asking him, as their leader, for information.

If only the Torah had recorded Moses’s response! I can imagine him either reassuring his people or telling them what hard truths they must face—and perhaps even adding how he, Aaron, and/or God will help them. But instead, the Torah records what God says.

Then God said to Aaron: “You and your sons and your ancestral house along with you, you [all] shall bear [any] punishment for wrongdoing [regarding] the holy place, and you and your sons along with you shall bear [any] punishment for wrongdoing [regarding] your priesthood.” (Numbers 18:1)

Next God reaffirms the role of the rest of the tribe of Levi: they must assist the priests and do their duties regarding the Tent of Meeting, but they may not touch the altar or any of the holy items inside the sanctuary-tent.³

And an unauthorized person must not come near you as you observe your custody of the holy place and custody of the altar; then there will not be rage again against the Israelites. (18:5)

The information God gives to Aaron answers the Israelites’ question. The Levites are “done with perishing” as long as they do not dispute God’s appointment of Aaron and his descendants as priests, and the Levites as the priests’ assistants. The rest of the Israelites are “done with perishing” as long as they let God’s appointees do their jobs, and do not try to touch the altar or the tent-sanctuary.

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The Levites do not rebel again. The rest of the Israelites respect God, Moses, Aaron, and the holy sanctuary–for a while.

But after Miriam dies and they run out of water in this week’s portion, Chukat, they assemble against Moses and Aaron, and Moses loses his temper.⁴ Later in Chukat they speak against God and Moses because they are tired of eating manna, and the God-character starts killing people.⁵

It is human nature to resent and blame whoever is in charge—even when the leaders (or administrators or parents or heads of state) are reasonable, and even when the rules are benign and easy to follow, and even when the current misfortune is the fault of a previous administration.

May we be blessed with reasonable leaders. But may we also learn how to become reasonable followers.

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My thanks to Lawrence Feinberg, who found many of the illustrations for these two posts on Korach.

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1. Numbers 16:34. See my post Korach: Quelling Rebellion, Part 1.
2. Numbers 17:6. Also see my post Korach: Quelling Rebellion, Part 1.
3. See my post Bemidbar & Naso: Dangerous Duty.
4. Numbers 20:2-5.
5. Numbers 21:4-6.

For thousands of years people have rebelled against their rulers and leaders. Some uprisings are justified, some are not.

For thousands of years rulers have used various strategies to suppress revolts. Several different strategies appear in this week’s portion, Korach.

In this post we will consider two heavy-handed responses to revolt. In Part 2 next week we will look at two benign responses by the “rulers” in Korach (Moses, Aaron, and God). Which strategies are the most effective at snuffing out rebellions?

Two rebellions

The first half of the portion Korach conflates the stories of two uprisings, one against Moses and one against Aaron.¹ Both men are divinely appointed; in the book of Exodus, God recruits Moses to serve as the prophet and leader of the Israelites, and his brother Aaron to serve as the high priest of the new religion. In Korach, some of the Israelites object to the privileged status of the two brothers.

Datan and Aviram, chieftains in the tribe of Reuben, dispute Moses’ right to lead the Israelites through the wilderness.² In the book of Genesis, Reuben was the firstborn son of Jacob, a.k.a. Israel. These Reubenites may think that since a firstborn son traditionally rules his clan, the tribe of Reuben should rule all the  Israelites.

Korach, a leader in the tribe of Levi, disputes the right of his cousin³ Aaron and Aaron’s sons to serve as the people’s only priests. He thinks that the Levites should have equal status with Aaron and perform the same holy tasks.

All the Levites are ordained in the portion Naso to assist the priests and guard the sanctuary. The Levite clan of Kehat, to which Korach belongs, is also responsible for carrying the most holy items from the tent-sanctuary when the Israelites travel.⁴ But this is not enough for Korach. He probably wants to officiate at sacrifices, be allowed to enter the tent-sanctuary, and, perhaps, wear the same gorgeous vestments as the priests. (He is probably less interested in the priestly duty of diagnosing skin disease.)

The rebel leaders are backed by 250 men. Since this week’s Torah portion conflates two stories, the 250 men are tribal chieftains in the section about Datan and Aviram’s rebellion, but they are Levites in the sections about Korach’s rebellion.⁵

We do not know which rebel delivers the opening salvo, which accuses Moses and Aaron of seizing power and claims that all the Israelites are equally close to God. But since it refers to holiness rather than the decision-making authority, it is probably Korach.

And they assembled against Moses and against Aaron, and they said: “You have too much! For all the congregation, all of them, are holy, and God is in their midst. So then why do you raise yourselves up over the assembly of God?” (Numbers/Bemidbar 16:3)

Moses addresses Korach and the rebel Levites first, saying:

“In the morning God will make known who belongs to him and who is holy and who may approach him … Is it too little for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel to bring you close to him? … you and all your congregation are [actually] congregated against God! Because what is Aaron, that talinu against him?” (Numbers 16:5, 16:9, 16:10-11)

talinu (תַלִּינוּ) = you mutter, you grumble. (In some manuscripts, talonu, תָּלּוֹנוּ. Both variants are second person plural forms of the verb lon, לון.)

Moses is reminding the Levites that God, not Aaron, is responsible for the organization chart. God appointed Aaron and his sons as the priests, and assigned the subsidiary jobs to the Levites. But this reminder leaves the rebel Levites unmoved.

Then Moses sent and summoned Datan and Aviram, sons of Elyav. But they said: “We will not come up! Is it too little that you brought us up from Egypt, [a land] flowing with milk and honey, to have us die in the wilderness? Because you [also] definitely lord it over us!” (Numbers 16:13)

Moses responds by asking God to ignore the grain-offering of the Reubenites, and adds indignantly that he never oppresses anyone:

“Not one donkey of theirs have I carried off, nor have I wronged [even] one of them!” (Numbers 16:15)

Moses is protesting that Datan and Aviram have no legitimate complaints against him. The Reubenites are really rebelling against God, who appointed Moses.

Then Moses refers both rebellions to God for judgment. First he tells Aaron, Korach, and the 250 Levites to bring fire pans with incense to the entrance of God’s Tent of Meeting, where they will learn who God chooses: Aaron, or the Levites. Next comes a short passage in which the two rebellion stories are patched together without distinguishing between the congregation of Levites and the congregation of Israelites.⁶ After that Moses tells the Israelites to stand back from the tents of Korach, Datan, and Aviram.

The first deadly miracle

Moses still believes that the rebellions will dissolve if everyone realizes that the real ruler is God, and he and Aaron are merely God’s delegates. He tells the Israelites:

“If these die like all humans die, and the destiny of all humans is destined for them, God did not send me.  But if God creates a [new] creation and opens up a mouth in the ground, and it swallows them and everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you will know that these men scorned God.” (Numbers 16:29-30)

And it happened as he finished all these words: the ground that was under them split, and the earth opened its mouth, and it swallowed them and their households, and all the humans who belonged to Korach, and all the property. (Numbers 16:31-32)

Even the innocent children in the three ringleaders’ families are swallowed alive.⁷ The Torah does not address this moral issue. Instead, the point of the story is that Korach, Datan, Aviram, and all their possessions (human or not) are killed through obvious divine intervention.

But the miracle does not have the desired effect. The people watching it are too terrified to understand what happened.

Then all the Israelites that were around them raised their voices [in panic], for they said: “What if [the ground] swallows us!” (Numbers 16:34)

After witnessing that horror, the Israelites are incapable of figuring out that as long as they do not rebel against God and God’s appointed representatives, they will not be swallowed.

The second deadly miracle

Next the Torah jumps back to the story about the Levite rebellion.

And a fire went forth from God and devoured the 250 men who were offering the incense. (Numbers 16:35)

The remaining Levites might learn from this that if you revolt against one of God’s appointees, the heavy hand of God will fall on you. So might the Israelites in other tribes. But they do not.

Vayilonu on the following day, all the congregation of the Israelites, against Moses and against Aaron, saying: “You had the people of God put to death!” (Numbers 17:6)

vayilonu (וַיִּלֺּנוּ) = and they muttered, and they grumbled. (Another form of the verb lon.)

All the Israelites blame Moses and Aaron for the death of the 250 Levites. They see the two brothers as their rulers, and believe that God does whatever Moses says. Thus neither of God’s dramatic killings quashes the spirit of rebellion in the portion Korach.

Nevertheless, the people’s resentment fades for a while instead of flaring into a full-fledged revolt, thanks to a more generous approach on the part of all three rulers—Moses, Aaron, and God. I will discuss this approach next week in my post Korach: Quelling Rebellion, Part 2.

Unjustified rebellion

When God is on the side of the human rulers, a rebellion will not succeed. Datan, Aviram, Korach, and the 250 Levites are easily killed by God’s heavy hand.

The same truth applies when people rebel against a human tyrant who controls an effective military force, and is not subject to interference from other nations. The best that rebels can hope for in this case is to shift public opinion so that someday, when the despot loses his grip or the military wavers, the masses can rise up together and change the government.

The anthropomorphic God-character depicted in the Torah occasionally seems like a human tyrant. But today we assume that God is neither despotic nor a supporter of despots.

The portion Korach, while depicting a heavy-handed God, supports the assumption that God is not on the side of tyrants. After all, God appointed Moses and Aaron. Far from being tyrants, these two leaders do not even lord it over anyone. They honestly do their best for the people, and even plead with God in order to prevent more deaths.⁸

Despite the egalitarian language of the rebels’ opening statement, the first two rebellions in Korach are not justified. Datan and Aviram want to take over as the leaders of the Israelites, but they have no particular agenda; they just want more status. Korach and his Levite supporters want to be priests, but only because of envy.

I pray for all tyrants to fall. But I also pray for all people to gain insight about what is worth fighting for, and who is the real enemy.

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1. According to the Documentary Hypothesis (that the text of the Torah was assembled from multiple sources), this inconsistency is due to bad editing.
2. The portion Korach begins with a third rebel leader from the tribe of Reuben, On son of Pelet, but he never appears again in the story. (Numbers 16:1)
3. Korach is introduced as “son of Yitzhar son of Kehat son of Levi” in Numbers 16:1. Moses and Aaron are sons of Amram son of Kehat son of Levi in Exodus 6:18-20. Korach is therefore closely related to them. He may or may not be their first cousin; the Hebrew word “son of” (ben, בֶּן) sometimes means a grandson or descendant—as in Numbers 16:1, when Datan, Aviram, and On are all called “sons of Reuben”.
4. See my post Bemidbar & Naso: Dangerous Duty.
5. The 250 men are chieftains supporting Datan and Aviram in Numbers 16:2-3. They are Levites supporting Korach in Numbers 16:6-11, 16:16-18, 16:35-17:5.
6. Numbers 16:19-24.
7. See Numbers 16:27.
8. Numbers 16:20-26, 17:7-11, 21:7-9.

Two rebellions against the status quo coincide in this week’s Torah portion, Korach.  Korach leads 250 fellow Levites in a rebellion against the authority of the high priest, Aaron—Korach’s first cousin.  Apparently simultaneously, two Reubenite chieftains, Datan and Aviram, revolt against the leadership of Moses.¹

They assembled against Moses and against Aaron, and they said: “[You take] too much upon yourselves!  For the whole community is holy and God is in their midst.  So why do you raise yourselves over the community of God?” (Numbers/Bemidbar 16:3)

It sounds like an argument for equal rights, but it turns out that Korach and his 250 men only want the Levites to have equal rights with Aaron, the high priest.  Datan and Aviram want to replace Moses as the political leader of the Israelites, not join him in a government by consensus or democracy.

Moses addresses Korach and the Levites first, telling them to test their argument by bringing incense to the tent-sanctuary in the morning.  Aaron will do the same, and God will reveal who is holy enough to serve as a priest.  Moses adds:

“Is it too little for you that the God of Israel distinguishes you from the community of Israel to let you come close to [God], to serve the service of the mishkan of God, and to stand before the community as [its] attendants?  [God] brought you close, and all your Levite brothers with you.  And now you seek the priesthood as well?”  (Numbers 16:9-10)

mishkan (מִשְׁכָּן) = dwelling-place; current abode or residence.  (From the root verb shakhan, שָׁכַן = dwell, inhabit, settle in, stay.)

Next the story switches briefly to the rebellion of Datan and Aviram against Moses.  Moses sends for the two Reuvenite chieftains, but they refuse to come at his summons.

We return to the Levite rebellion the next morning, when everyone comes to God’s mishkan, the Tent of Meeting, to watch the contest between the high priest Aaron and the 250 Levites.   No sooner have they gathered than the Torah portion puts the Levites on hold and returns to the revolt of Datan and Aviram.  And where is Korach, the spokesman and leader for the Levites?  This time the redactor who assembled the story lumps Korach together with the two chieftains from the tribe of Reuven.

And God spoke to Moses, saying: “Speak to the community, saying: Go up away from around the mishkan of Korach, Datan, and Aviram!”  (Numbers 16:23-24)

Until this point the Torah has only used the word mishkan for the tent-sanctuary that the Israelites construct as a dwelling-place for God.  But now God is referring to a mishkan of three human beings.

The three men and their families do not live together; they camp in separate spots to the south of God’s mishkan, which is always erected in the center of the Israelite camp.  So why does God speak of “the mishkan of Korach, Datan, and Aviram” instead of using the word mishkanot (מִשְׁכָּנוֹת), the plural for mishkan?

Perhaps the implication is that even though the rebels have two different goals (Korach argues that all Levites should be priests, while Datan and Aviram argue that someone from the tribe of Reuven should lead the Israelites instead of Moses), they are metaphorically under the same tent.  They are all rebelling against the leadership structure that God decreed at Mount Sinai.²

The three rebel leaders refuse to accept that structure any longer.  God refuses to change it.  So Moses warns the Israelites to stand back and keep their distance, because God is about to take action.

And they went up from around the mishkan of Korach, Data, and Aviram, from all around it.  And Datan and Aviram went out and stationed themselves at the entrance of their tents, along with their wives and the children and the little ones.  And Moses said: “By this you will know that God sent me to do all these deeds, that it was not in my mind.”  (Numbers 16:27)

In other words, it was all God’s idea to make Aaron the high priest and Moses the prophet and chief administrator of the Israelites.  The rebels are actually revolting against God, and they will be destroyed by a divine miracle.

Then the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households and all the humans who belonged to Korach [and Datan and Aviram] and all their possessions.  And they and all who were theirs went down alive to Sheol, and the earth closed over them and they were lost from the assembly.  Then all the Israelites surrounding them fled at the sound of them, for they thought: “Lest the earth swallow us!”  And fire went out from God and consumed the 250 men who had approached with the incense.  (Numbers 16:32-35)

The Israelites survive because they obey the order to stand back from the physical area south of God’s tent-sanctuary.  But they do not grasp the idea that standing back from the homes of the three rebel leaders might also mean standing back from their beliefs—especially their belief that their own desires for more power were more important than preserving the government God had set up.

The people do not understand that if they follow God’s rules, they have nothing to fear.  So they foolishly side with the rebels that God has just wiped out.

And the whole community of Israel grumbled the next day against Moses and against Aaron, saying: “You yourselves brought death on God’s people!”  (Numbers 17:6)

The whole community still believes what the three rebel leaders claimed before the earth swallowed them: that Moses and Aaron are hogging all the power and running the show—even instigating God’s miracles.  This is an insult God will not tolerate.  God tells Moses and Aaron to go stand at a distance from all the other Israelites so God can annihilate everyone except his two favorites.

They disobey God instead.

Then Moses said to Aaron: “Take the censer and place fire from the altar on it, and put on incense, and walk over in a hurry to the community and atone for them!  Because fury has gone forth from God’s presence; the plague has begun!”  Aaron took it, as Moses had spoken, and he ran into the midst of the assembly … and he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was checked.  (Numbers 17:11-13)

By that time it should be obvious to the surviving Israelites that God has the ultimate power, that Moses and Aaron are bravely defending the Israelites, and that the only reasonable course of action is to unite behind them.

But the Israelites said to Moses, saying: “We perish, we are lost, all of us are lost!  Everyone who comes close, who comes close to the sanctuary of God dies!  Will we ever be done with perishing?”  (Numbers 17:27-28)

They are panicking, too terrified by God’s power to learn the lesson.

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In this first year of the Covid pandemic, we have seen both sheer panic and calls for a paradigm shift in how we operate as a community, both globally and in each country.  We cannot stop all the deaths from the virus, but we could check the “plague” if we all abandon the tents of rebel leaders who are more interested in personal power than in saving lives.  We could recognize that we humans are, indeed, all vulnerable—and decide that all lives matter, whether the danger comes from disease, pollution, or prejudice.  Just as Moses and Aaron work to save lives, we could choose the good side in every conflict: the side that cares about the health and well-being of every human being, rather than the side that only considers their own power or wealth.

Today we cannot stand aside from other people’s disasters and hope to survive intact.  Because today the whole planet is one mishkan, our only one.

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1. The opening of the Torah portion is confusing, with all three rebel leaders appearing at once before Moses and Aaron (along with a third Reuvenite, On, who is never mentioned again), along with 250 men who are described for the only time in the story as tribal chieftains rather than Levites. Modern biblical scholars explain that one or more redactors of the Torah stitched two different rebellion stories into one another, and the seams show.
2. When the Israelites leave Mount Sinai, they are well-organized for their next task, occupying the land of Canaan. They march and camp in formation, like an army (Numbers 10:11-28). They conduct formal religious rituals at a tent-sanctuary guarded and transported by Levites under the supervision the priests, Aaron and his sons (Numbers 8:5-22).  And they have an administrative system consisting of 70 elders under the supervision of one head of government, Moses (Numbers 11:13-25).

But in last week’s Torah portion, Shelach-Lekha, the men refuse to cross the border, and God decrees that nobody of them will enter Canaan until 40 years have passed (Numbers 14:20-35).  The people spend most of those years living in safety at the oasis of Kadesh-Barnea in the wilderness south of Canaan.  Yet they camp in the same military formation, practice the same religion, and are governed by the same administration as when they set out to conquer Canaan.

Two rebellions against Moses and Aaron are featured in this week’s Torah portion, Korach: one by leaders from the tribe of Reuven,¹ and one by 250 Levites and their leader, Korach.  The Torah introduces him as:

Korach, son of Yitzhar son of Kehat son of Levi …  (Numbers/ Bemidbar 16:1)

Korach (קֺרַח) = shaven bald; icy.  (Korach may be derived from the verb karach, קָרַח = shave oneself bald, or from the noun kerach, קֶרַח = ice, frost.)

After introducing both factions that are jealous of Moses’ authority, the Torah turns first to the Levites.

They gathered against Moses and against Aaron, and they said to them: “Too much is yours!  Because all the assembly, all of them, are holy, and God is in their midst; so why do you elevate yourselves over the congregation of God?”  (Numbers 16:3)

Korach is arguing that all the Israelites are holy, i.e. set aside for God.  So why should they take orders from Moses and Aaron?  He sees holiness as a legal right which God conferred on the children of Israel back at Mount Sinai.  But here is what God actually said:

“You will be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation …” (Exodus 19:6)

“You will be holy because I am holy …”  (Leviticus 19:2)

God did not say that the people were already holy; God predicted that they would someday become holy.  And both predictions were accompanied by rules for behavior to achieve holiness. Holiness is a calling and a goal in the bible, not an entitlement.

Furthermore, Moses has already delegated many of his leadership roles.  He turned over administration and justice to 70 elders.²  He turned over religious rituals and offerings to the priests (Aaron and his sons).³  And he delegated most of the disassembly and reassembly of the portable sanctuary to the tribe of Levi.⁴   Moses’ only remaining job is to serve as God’s mouthpiece, passing on all the rules for behavior that will bring the people closer to holiness.  This is a duty he cannot delegate, since God continues to choose Moses as the only spokesperson.

But Korach and the Levites he represents want to be priests like Aaron and his sons.  They may also want to be prophets like Moses.

And Moses listened, and he fell on his face.  (Numbers 16:4)

God speaks to him while he is prostrate.⁵  Then Moses says to Korach:

“In the morning God will make known who is his, and who is the holy one, and who he will draw near to him.  And [God] will choose for himself the one he will draw near to him.  Do this: Take fire-pans for yourselves, Korach and all his assembly, and place fire in them and put incense on them in front of God tomorrow.  And the man whom God chooses will be the holy one.  [You want] too much for yourselves, sons of Levi!  …  [Already God] has drawn you close, and all your brother sons of Levi with you; so do you also seek the priesthood?”  (Numbers 16:5-7, 16:10)⁶

Moses discerns that Korach and the 250 Levites are really asking for priesthood for themselves, not power-sharing for everyone.  He also points out that he cannot make a decision for or against Korach and his men.  The decision is up to God.

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Korach’s name reveals several motivations for demanding “too much”.

Lineage

Instead of last names, biblical characters identify themselves by their lineage.  Korach is “son of Yitzhar son of Kehat son of Levi”.  Yitzhar (יִצְהָר) might mean “he is overhead”, which happens to be the position Korach desires.  His grandfather is Kehat, who is also the grandfather of Moses and Aaron.⁷

Korach may well envy his first cousin Aaron.  The descendants of Kehat are responsible for transporting the holiest objects in the sanctuary, even the ark itself—but only after the priests, Aaron and his sons, have covered them with multiple wrappings.  Only Aaron and his sons are allowed to see them uncovered.⁸

An ordinary Israelite might prefer not to risk death by looking at the most dangerous objects in the sanctuary.  But Korach is already carrying them, and he believes he is as holy as Aaron.  Why should he be denied a glimpse of the ark?

Baldness

We can find more clues in Korach’s first name.  Korach means either the one who has shaven himself bald, or the icy one.

Shaving part of the head was a mourning ritual in Canaan,⁹ although the Torah forbids it.¹⁰  Israelites are supposed to shave their heads in the Torah only as part of a purification ritual, done for one of three reasons:

1)  To re-enter the community and its religious life after recovery from a skin disease called tzara-at.¹¹   According to the Talmud, the first reason why God struck people with tzara-at was to punish them for evil speech.¹²  Perhaps Korach had whispered against Moses and Aaron earlier, and only recently recovered and shaved his head.

2) To officially end a man or woman’s term as a nazir.¹³  A nazir vows to let their hair grow wild and abstain from all wine and grapes for a certain period.  Korach might have taken the vow of a nazir to prove his own holiness, then found that being a nazir was not enough for him.

3)  As part of the ritual of consecration for both priests and Levites, when they commence their service in the sanctuary.   All the adult Levite men were shaven and consecrated in the wilderness of Sinai so their service could begin.¹⁴  At the time of Korach’s revolt, the people have moved to the wilderness of Paran, and the Levites’ hair has had time to grow out.  Maybe Korach shaved a second time to demonstrate that he expects to be consecrated as a priest!

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Korach’s delusions of equality with Moses and Aaron are expressed by his name.  He shares their lineage, and his given name implies that he shaves his head to achieve extra holiness.

If the Israelites had a different mission, if all they needed to do was settle down and accumulate material wealth, Korach’s demands would be more reasonable.  Why not give every Levite—or even every Israelite—an equal role in the rituals that bind the community together?

But the Israelites have a higher calling; they are supposed to dedicate their whole selves to doing what God expects.  This mission requires leaders who are willing to fall on their faces to hear God’s voice; leaders who become more holy by following God’s rules; leaders who know that only God has real power.  Leaders with humility.

I believe the whole world needs humble leaders, now more than ever.

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1. See my post Korach: Buried Alive.
2. Exodus 18:13-26 and Numbers 11:14.
3. Leviticus 8:1-9:24.
4. Numbers 3:5-36, 4:1-49.
5. See my post Korach: Face Down.
6. My translation of Numbers 16:5-7 and 16:10 uses third person masculine pronouns for God, following the original Hebrew, because a gender-neutral translation would be complicated.
7. The father of Moses and Aaron is Amram, who is listed as a son of Kehat in Exodus 6:18-20.
8. See my post Bemidbar: Don’t Look.
9. See Isaiah 3:24, 15:2, and 22:12; Jeremiah 16:6, 47:5, and 48:37; and Ezekiel 7:18 and 27:31.
10. Shaving for mourning is forbidden in Leviticus 21:5 and Deuteronomy 14:1, but God seems to encourage it in Amos 8:10 and Micah 1:16.
11. Leviticus 14:8-9.
12. Talmud Bavli, Arachin 16a.
13. Numbers 6:18.
14. Numbers 8:7.

The Israelites set off from Mount Sinai in formation, ready to march into Canaan.¹ Yet when their “promised land” is just over the next ridge, the men become so terrified by reports of giants that they refuse to cross the border.²  Fed up with Moses’ insistence on obeying God, they say: “Let’s pick a leader and go back to Egypt!”  (Numbers 14:4)

The people do not doubt that Moses is God’s chosen prophet and leader.  The problem is that they no longer believe God will help them take the land.³

The reverse is true in this week’s Torah portion, Korach.  Korach and his 250 rebels want to continue serving God, but they reject Moses and Aaron as leaders.⁴

They gathered against Moses and against Aaron, and they said to them: “Too much is yours!  Because all the assembly, all of them, are kedoshim, and God is in their midst.  So why do you elevate yourselves above the congregation of God?”  (Numbers 16:3)

kedoshim (קְדֺשִׁים) = holy (plural), consecrated; segregated for religious use only; personally dedicated to obeying God’s moral and religious rules.  (Singular: kadosh, קָדוֹשׁ.  From the root verb kadash, קָדַשׁ = be holy, be reserved for sacred rather than common use.)

After checking with God by falling on his face,⁵ Moses tells Korach and the Levites:

“In the morning God will make known who is his and who is kadosh and who he brings close to himself; [God] will choose who he brings close to himself.  Do this:  Korach and all [your] assembly, take for yourselves fire-pans, and place embers in them and put incense on them in front of God tomorrow.  And it will be the man whom God will choose, he is the kadosh one.  You have plenty, sons of Levi!” (Numbers 16:5-7)

Is Korach’s opening speech true?  Are all the Israelites holy?  Did Moses and Aaron elevate themselves?

Are all the Israelites holy?

In the strict sense of the word kadosh, it is impossible for everyone in a community to be holy, just as it is impossible for every bowl or basin to be consecrated.  The copper basin a priest uses to catch and splash the blood from an animal sacrifice is kadosh because it is reserved for religious rituals.  A copper basin used to make dinner is not kadosh.

Similarly, not all members of a community can spend most of their time as religious functionaries.  The community cannot survive unless most of its people are shepherds, farmers, craftsmen, millers, bakers, weavers, etc.  Only a minority of the Israelites can be segregated and reserved for protecting and transporting the sanctuary (the job of the Levites) and conducting religious rituals (the job of the priests).

Yet elsewhere in the Torah, God says:

“And now, if you really listen to my voice and you keep my covenant, then you will be my treasured possession among all the peoples.  For all the earth is mine; but you, you will be to me a kingdom of priests and a kadosh nation …” (Exodus/Shemot 19:5-6)

“You shall be kedoshim because I am kadosh …”  (Leviticus/Vayikra 19:2)

While God may be distinguishing the possible holiness of the Israelites from the ordinariness of the other peoples of the world, it is more likely that God uses the word kadosh in these statements to mean “virtuous and obedient to God”.  The statement in Exodus is followed by the revelation and the “Ten Commandments”.  The statement in Leviticus is immediately followed by 17 principles for moral and religious behavior, from respecting your parents to loving your neighbor as yourself.

God did not say that the people were already holy in the sense of being good to other people and obedient to God.  God asked them to work on becoming holy in that way.

But Korach says everyone in the assembly of Israel is kadosh.  Even if he uses the word kadosh to mean “virtuous and obedient to God”, he is wrong.  Throughout the Israelites’ wandering in the wilderness they rebel and complain about God and God’s arrangements, and periodically someone violates one of God’s rules.  They are still a long way from being a holy nation.

When Korach alludes to God’s phrase “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”, he is really more interested in the “kingdom of priests” part.  In fact, he and the 250 other rebellious Levites are more interested in priesthood for themselves than in universal priesthood.⁶

Moses hears this subtext.  After announcing the incense-pan test,

Moses said to Korach: “Listen, please, sons of Levi.  Is it too little for you that the God of Israel separated you, out of all the assembly of Israel, to bring close to him, to serve the service of the sanctuary of God and to stand before the assembly to minister to them?  [God] brought you close, and all your brother Levites with you; now do you seek the priesthood too?”  (Numbers 16:8-10)

Korach does not reply.  But he and his 250 Levites return the next morning with their fire-pans and incense, hoping to pass the test.  They are consumed by divine fire.

Did Moses and Aaron elevate themselves?

The rebel Levites resent their positions as assistants to the priests, doing less glamorous jobs.⁶  Korach argues that leadership should be shared, either by all Israelites or at least by all Levites.

Yet God chose Moses to transmit God’s commands and instructions—probably because Moses did not want to elevate himself.  When God was recruiting him at the burning bush, Moses kept finding excuses to get out of the job.⁷

Aaron did not elevate himself, either.  God picked him to assist his brother Moses in negotiations with the pharaoh of Egypt.⁸  Then when God gave instructions for the sanctuary and its rituals, God told Moses to consecrate Aaron and his sons as the priests.⁹

Who should lead?

Who are the proper leaders, civil and religious, for a large community?  The Torah answers that the top leaders should be chosen by God, or descended from those chosen by God.

God chooses Moses, and then Joshua, to govern the Israelites.  After a period with no central authority, God tells the prophet Samuel to anoint Saul as king, and then to replace him with David.  The descendants of King David rule Judah for centuries.

God chooses Aaron and his sons as the community’s priests.  Later God declares a covenant with Pinchas, one of Aaron’s grandsons, making him and all his descendants priests.¹⁰  Yet the first book of Samuel acknowledges that sometimes the sons of a good priest are worthless.¹¹

Today, we had better not count on God to appoint our leaders.  Those who claim divine appointment probably suffer from inflated egos and skewed thinking.  There are no definitive miracles to prove God’s choices today, and those who deduce God’s will from omens and mysterious coincidences are like idol-worshippers in the Torah.¹²

So when we have a chance to vote for leaders in government, or to choose our own religious leaders, who should we pick?

One answer is to find out who is kadosh in the sense of being virtuous (acting for the benefit of others) and obedient to God (to the still, small inner voice of God, not to the rules of a particular religious sect).  We can judge potential leaders by their actions, not by genealogy or by claims of greatness.

And whatever jobs we end up with, we are all called upon to become kinder, more honest, more respectful, more insightful, and more aware of the divine in everything.  In other words, more holy.

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1. Numbers 10:11-28. See my post Bemidbar & Naso: Four Directions of Service.
2. Numbers 13:25-33. See last week’s post, Shelach-Lekha: Caleb Waiting.
3. See my post Shelach-Lekha: Mutual Distrust.
4. The Torah portion interweaves two stories of rebellion: one featuring Korach and 250 fellow Levites, and one featuring chieftains from the tribe of Reuven. Modern critical scholarship assigns the two stories to different sources, combined awkwardly by a later redactor.  The Levite rebellion is usually identified as a P text, while the Reuvenite rebellion is attributed to the J source.  The story of their rebellion and punishment appears in Numbers 16:12-14 and 16:25-34.  See my post Korach: Buried Alive.
5. See my post Korach: Face Down.
6. Korach is a Levite in the Kehat clan (Numbers 16:1), which transports the most holy objects in the sanctuary (Numbers 4:15). Moses and Aaron are also descendants of Kehat (Exodus 6:18-21), and are Korach’s first cousins.  The Torah does not specify the clans of the other 250 Levite rebels, but all the Levites are relatives of the priests, Aaron and his sons, and all of them have duties regarding the sanctuary.
7. Exodus 3:1-4:17.
8. Exodus 4:14-16, 4:27.
9. Exodus 28:1, Exodus 28:36-38, Leviticus 8:1-36.
10. Numbers 25:11-13.
11. Numbers 16:23-35.
12. Deuteronomy 18:9-10.