|
Please consider sponsoring a weekly Parasha and support Kolel ($72), click here.
When we say black is white and white is black, then we're in serious trouble.
Lessons for Today
"Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey? Numbers 16:13
|
BUT SOME MEN LEFT OF IT UNTIL MORNING (EX. 16:, 20) These were the people who lacked faith. Who were they? R. Simeon b. Lakish said: Datan and Aviram, for here the word ’men’ is used, and also [in Num. 16:, 26] it says, Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men; just as in the latter instance it refers to Datan and Aviram, so also in the former case it refers to Datan and Aviram.
Midrash Rabbah
|
|
AND HE WENT OUT THE SECOND DAY, AND BEHOLD, TWO MEN OF THE HEBREWS WERE STRIVING TOGETHER . This refers to Datan and Aviram, whom he calls ’striving’ on account of their subsequent record; for it was they who said this thing; it was they who left over of the Manna; they it was who said: Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt (Num. 14:4).
Midrash Rabbah
|
The challenge to Moses' leadership comes to a head this week with the story of Korah and his followers. Several previous years' divrei Torah have highlighted different lessons from the story about leadership and controversy. Korah, himself from the tribe of Levi, is introduced with his henchmen Datan and Aviram (I have an image of Draco Malfoy's thugs: Crabbe and Goyle from J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter). You might remember Datan, famously portrayed as smarmy informant and troublemaker by Edward G. Robinson in Cecil B. DeMille's classic film, The Ten Commandments. Korah is an instigator; he stirs up the pot, but then leaves to let others 'do the dirty work' and get the punishment. Interestingly, even though the parasha begins with Korah (one of the few Parashiyot to be given a character's name) he never speaks. Moses speaks to Korah, but we only hear from his bodyguards, Datan and Aviram. Like a typical bully, and unlike a true leader, Korah doesn't 'fight fair'; if he has a bone to pick with Moses, he should confront Moses (privately) and directly. Talking behind a person's back is not an effective strategy to solve problems.
In the Torah, Datan and Aviram are relatively minor characters; they aren't mentioned in any previous rebellious activities. In our parasha, there's actually a third ringleader named: On, son of Pelet, but we never hear of him again; (the Rabbis imagine him being convinced by his wife to not follow Korah, or sleeping in after his wife gets him drunk (Sanhedrin 109b)). Datan and Aviram only appear in this story (their names also appear in Deut. 11:6 and Psalm 106:17), but once these individuals are identified as wicked, it is not difficult to assign other misdeeds to them. The rabbis imagine any unnamed antagonists in Torah to be Datan and Aviram. Remember way back in Exodus, when Moses sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew? The text says, "Moses looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck the Egyptian" (Ex. 2:12). But in the very next verse, when he saw two Israelites fighting, and sought to intervene, one of the Israelites challenged Moses: "Are you going to kill us like you killed the Egyptian?" But, if there were no witnesses to the first act, how did the Israelite know? Unless he was the Israelite saved by Moses- and now he's in another altercation! Some people are just contentious, test the limits and keep getting into trouble- but talk about ungrateful! Rashi identifies the two Israelites fighting as none other than Datan and Aviram, who, by the way, were also the two who gathered more manna than they were supposed to (Ex. 16:20).
But what really hurts is when they hurl the accusation that Moses has led the people "out of a land flowing with milk and honey." They apply the very expression God uses to lovingly describe the land of Israel to mean Egypt, the house of bondage. Even the spies, who had a mixed report about the land acknowledged that it indeed 'flowed with milk and honey' (Num. 13:27). It's bad enough that the Israelites remember the 'fleshpots' of Egypt, or that they wax nostalgic about the free (?) food. But this is crazy! Calling the house of bondage a 'land flowing with milk and honey' is a complete reversal of values.
And here is the problem. Korah was not all bad. He came from a good family (the tribe of Levi), was wealthy (in Hebrew, the expression 'rich as Korah' is like 'If I were a Rothschild'). Eleven Psalms begin "For the/By the sons of Korah." Korah was ostensibly campaigning for an egalitarian, non-hierarchical society ("For all the congregatioin are holy") but his fatal error was not understanding that our holiness is a future goal, a potential to work for, not a present boast. Korah was also challenging authority, so it is therefore easy to read the story as a warning to anyone who opposes existing hierarchies. But the parasha of Korah is not about legitimate dissent. The rabbis understood that questioning and controversy are healthy. The rabbis call them "controversies that are in the name of heaven." So how do we know the difference?
We see from Datan and Aviram's accusation that they are not protesting the status quo, or asking 'what if.' Refusing to accept the present, they have chosen to romanticize the past instead of working for a better future. Instead of being a positive force for change, they have let jealousy blind them to reason. Parashat Korah reminds us of the danger of letting anger distort how we see the world.
Lessons for Today
When we see injustice, sometimes it is necessary and even good to get angry. We should be angry that children die of hunger. We should be upset that people are polluting our planet. We should be outraged that innocent people are being slaughtered in many parts of the world. But when our anger becomes so all-consuming that we say black is white and white is black, we're in serious trouble.
The rabbis saw a hint that while the Korah rebellion ended so tragically, it had the seeds of redemption. In our daily prayers we recite Psalm 92: Tzaddik katamar yifrach, the righteous will blossom like the palm (v. 13). The last letters of the Hebrew words spell Korah! Although blinded by anger and envy, Korah's egalitarian vision will indeed be established. Then the "righteous will flower like the palm, and thrive like a verdant cedar, planted in the house of Adonai."
Shabbat Shalom
|
