Torah Portion - June 20, 2009
D'var Torah - "How to Rebel" June 20, 2009
A movie should be made of this portion. Picture this: Korah and a band of 250 leaders of the community, swallowed up by the earth’s jaws and disappearing forever! Would have made a great Spielberg movie!
But if we examine the language of the rebellion closely we see a different picture from that which derives from the simple understanding. Korah arrogates himself (S.R. Hirsch) the right to question Moses and Aaron regarding the leadership position of the Israelites. Questioning is OK. But looking closer, we see that the verb used for Korah’s actions is vayikach – he took. What did Korah take?
NOT questioning the ability of Moses’ leadership, but the leadership itself. Korah “took” for himself. (Hebrew word for “take” is used here.) Not for the community. But rather he was hiding his true motives from the community and placing the community out before him in a hoax in order to elevate himself, not them.
His was for selfish reasons. He thought, “Why shouldn’t I have been appointed among the priesthood? Why didn’t I get the job?” So he brought his case to the people, NOT to question something for the benefit of the nation, but rather as a move to elevate himself.
As Hirsch said, “[Korah] he did it for his own advantage…the form in which he posed the questions, as a spokesman for the interests of the community, was nothing but sham and pretense.”
A lesson of Korah is that we should take pains always to examine the reasons for our actions before we act upon our feelings. Not that we may be swallowed up by the earth, but motives which contain within them a greater good are the ones which will be sustained.
Shabbat Shalom!
MARK