spirituality >> Torah portion

Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit
and the Community Foundation for

The Worst
Rebellion

Southeast Michigan Present

Free Health
& Fitness Fair!

Parshat Korach:
Numbers 16:1-18:32;
Samuel 11:14-12:22.

T

Sunday, June 28, 2015

he rebellion of Korach in
this week's Torah portion
is neither the first nor the
last expression of discontent hurled at
Moses in the desert.
Yet, this particular act stands apart
from the rest in the singularly draconi-
an response it elicited from Moses and,
subsequently, the singular condemna-
tion it elicited from rabbinic tradition.
Hitherto, Moses
responded to complaints
and challenges typically
by intervening against
Divine retribution. In this
case, however, Moses does
the opposite. He threatens
Divine retribution as a
way of belying the claims
of the rebellious, saying,
"But if the Lord creates
something new, and the
Earth opens its mouth
and swallows them and
all that is theirs, and they
descend alive into the grave, you will
know that these men have provoked the
Lord:'
No less harsh was the way that the
rabbis condemned Korach, singling out
his rebellion for infamy as the quint-
essential "dispute not for the sake of
Heaven:' But why was Korach's rebellion
deemed so much worse than others?
The answer lies in the nature of his
rebellion and the status and aims of
Korach, a Levite, and his co-conspira-
tors. This was not a populist uprising,
but rather more akin to a palace revolu-
tion led by an individual of high status.
Korach acted far more out of personal
frustration and familial insult than
national dissent. The Midrash explains
that Korach's defiance resulted from his
father, Yizhar, an elder sibling, being
passed over as prince of the clan of
Kehat in favor of Korach's uncle. Korach's
two sidekicks, Datan and Aviram, like
other members of the tribe of Reuben,
rankled under the lesser status of their
tribe compared with the tribe of Judah,
ancestrally a younger brother.
The dramatic irony here perhaps is
that we, the readers, know that eldest
siblings such as Reuben rarely win out
in biblical narrative, generally bested
by the younger kin. The lesser status
of Korach and the Reubenites vis-a-vis
other Levites and tribes is no exception.
That he was an insider and part of
the elite, moreover, aggravated his chal-

11 a.m.-2 p.m. • OAK PARK JCC

♦ Free adult fitness classes

♦ Vendors, acupuncture, audiology,
AARP, the Oakland County
Health Department and more

♦ Healthy food snacks

♦ Raffle and giveaways

♦ Bounce houses, arts
activities and face
painting for the kids

Ask about our NEW
LIFE PLUS program
that lets you develop
body, mind and soul!

Life Plus

For information, contact Marc Front at

248.967.4030 or mfront@jccdet.org .

Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit

Jimmy Prentis Morris Building
A. Alfred Taubman Jewish Community Campus
15110 W. Ten Mile Road, Oak Park, MI 48237

www.jccdet.org

THE CENTER

Community Foundatioq

FOR SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN

Supported by

The Jewish Federation

OF METROPOLITAN DETROIT

2013210

26 June 18 • 2015

lenge in the eyes of Moses. Korach, after
all, was not only a fellow member of
the same tribe and clan, but also Moses'
first cousin.
Previously, the Levites had distin-
guished themselves not only as the
most loyal adherents to God but also
as the most loyal followers of Moses.
During the travail of the Golden Calf,
when Moses called on those loyal to
him to step forward, the Levites
joined him. A Levite-led rebel-
lion, therefore, is not only more
troubling to Moses person-
ally, but a greater threat to the
integrity of the whole system.
The upshot is that personal
gain and familial and tribal
effrontery are deemed at once
as less-than-worthy causes for
an act of defiance and posing a
greater threat to the integrity of
the people Korach alleged to be
championing.
A more serious aspect of
Korach's challenge, perhaps, is the fact
that Korach challenges Moses as God's
legitimate spokesman by twisting the
very divine instruction that God issued
to Moses. Immediately preceding
the rebellion (at the very end of last
week's Torah portion) God enjoins the
Children of Israel: "And you shall be
holy to your God:'
It its original context, this injunction
underscores the centrality of divine
revelation and commandments, at
the heart of which is the legitimacy
of Moses as leader and Aaron as high
priest. Korach wrests this key phrase
from its context and twists it into a
means of undermining the very legiti-
macy of Moses and Aaron that God
instructed.
What emerges from this story is
Korach as a negative mirror image of
Moses. Moses, ever humble, acted con-
sistently with the best interests of the
people at heart, often willing to sacrifice
his own standing in exchange for divine
forgiveness for the failings of his people.
Korach, self-centered and never con-
tent even with his high standing, chal-
lenged Moses' legitimacy to further his
aims only — never the sort of challenge
that can be treated lightly.

❑

Dr. Howard N. Lupovitch is an associ-

ate professor of history at Wayne State

University and director of WSU's Cohn-

Haddow Center for Judaic Studies.

