Sermon - June 18, 2010

Speaking about “The little people” ● Sermon 6/18/2010 ● Korah

Rabbi Mark S. Kram, Temple Beth Or, Miami, FL

This has been a bad year for BP to say the least. It’s Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg's "small people" gaffe last month was only the latest in a running series of verbal missteps that have kept the company constantly trying to regain balance since the start of the Gulf oil spill. BP CEO Tony Hayward was lambasted in the U.S. after saying on May 30th, "I'm sorry. We're sorry for the massive disruption it's caused their lives. There's no one who wants this thing over more than I do. [He continued,] I'd like my life back."

“A drop in the bucket.” CEO Hayward said when the oil had just begun to flow out of the blowout. "The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean, [he stated]. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume," Hayward told the Guardian on May 14.

What happens when your own view of ourselves – our feelings of self importance or self aggrandizement – skews our view of the world? How do the BP Chairman or BP CEO really see themselves or their actions when compared with those directly affected by the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico?

A colleague and friend say that she cannot even begin to think about the impact on the environment. How many years will it take to clean the mess up (not even STOP the oil from continuing to flow uninterrupted)? How many people’s lives and livelihoods will be affected? How will this environmental and human disaster impact our earth?

The story of last weeks Torah portion may shed some light on an answer.

Steven Spielberg should have made the movie – Korah and his clan rebelling against Moses, bringing strange fire – an offering not asked for before God. Punishment was swift and unforgiving: the earth opened up and 250 people were completely swallowed up in one moment! It would have been great in 3-D!

When we look at the possible reasons as to why this happened, we might begin to understand what the Torah is teaching us about limits of our power or control or actions. The story becomes a story of individual accountability and responsibility within a community. It also speaks to our own self-perceptions. How we might view our ideas as distinct and different from those of our fellow travelers in this world.

Our Torah portion begins,

^“1Now Korah, son of Izhar son of Kohath son of Levi, along with Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth — descendants of Reuben took himself, — ²to rise up against Moses, together with two hundred and fifty Israelites, chieftains of the community, prominent ones in the assembly, people of repute (not slouches!). ³ They assembled against Moses and Aaron and said to them, "You have gone too far! For all the community are holy, all of them, and the Lord is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above the Lord's congregation?"

The rabbis in their interpretations of the Torah look microscopically at the exact language of the Torah. No word is superfluous; no punctuation is unessential in their eyes. So if we look particularly at the language of the Torah here, the translation is awkward, but says: "Korah took himself.” We don’t normally speak in that fashion – either in Hebrew or English. So what does the Torah intend to transmit to us? It says,

1. “Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi took himself along with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, descendants of Reuben.”

“Korah… took”:

Midrash of R. Tanchuma Korah 2: Korah… took: “He took himself to one side to dissociate himself from the congregation, to contest the [appointment of Aaron to the] kehunah. [Another commentator says], ‘and he separated himself.’ He separated himself from the congregation to persist in a dispute. Similarly, מה יקחך לבך, “Why does your heart take you away?” (Job 15:12) meaning, it removes you, to isolate you from."

The other interesting point is that when Korah’s lineage is reported, it is NOT in the usual way. Rather, Korah’s lineage describes son of this one, gave birth to that one, and on and on. But the most important person, the REASON to give a connection; his rightful ancestors, someone everyone would know, is not mentioned here in Numbers.

“…the son of Izhar the son of Kohath the son of Levi”:

“[The verse] does not mention, “the son of Jacob,” because [as the Midrash explains – remember Midrash fills in the “blanks” of the Torah stories/narratives] he [Jacob] prayed not to be mentioned in connection with their quarrel, as it is stated, “my honor, you shall not join their assembly” (Gen. 49:6).”

“And where is his name mentioned in connection with Korah? In (I) Chron. (6:22, 23), where their genealogy is traced for the service of the Levites on the platform [in the Temple], as it says, “the son of Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, the son of Israel.” - [Midrash Tanchuma Korach 4, Num. Rabbah 18:5]

Jacob himself prayed NOT to be mentioned – like having a child or parent you’re not proud of. Like being a German in Germany today, not wanting to link oneself to anyone of the Nazi era.

Friends, those times when we are faced with having to defend our words or our deeds, are challenging. When we forget ourselves and act as if the world owes US something. When we lose our humility, and/or our modesty, our self-effacing attitudes, well, it’s time to begin again. Rewind the tape BEFORE we get too far ahead of ourselves – like Korah – and do something we will have remorse about later.

That is the lesson of Korah and his clan. We cannot separate ourselves or our actions from those of the community. If we do, we even go as far as not being connected to our heritage, or our lineage – its just plain embarrassing.

On Passover, we spend a great deal of time ridding ourselves of chometz – the leavening in our homes and in our lives. We strive to leave the “puffed up” feelings we can normally fall into, behind – even if only for the week. We are “chometz-free.” And home-free.