Sermon: Shabbat Korach

Written by Rabbi Colin Eimer — 14 June 2021

A yeshiva outgrows its premises in Stamford Hill and moves to the site of a former school near Cambridge, on the banks of a small river. Finding a boathouse on the property, with a boat, the Rosh Yeshiva tells his deputy to organise a rowing team.

“But Rebbe,” he says, “what do we know from rowing?”

“If we can master Talmud,” replies the rebbe, “we can figure out rowing.”

So they put a team together, start practising, and soon feel good enough to challenge and, surprisingly, beat some of the local schools. After several victories, the Rosh Yeshiva summons his deputy again.

“Now we’ll challenge Cambridge!”

“Cambridge!? Rebbe! We’ve been rowing for just a few months. They’ve been at it for 300 years!”

But the Rebbe insists, the challenge goes out, a date is set, the race takes place – and. Cambridge wins by 48 lengths.

The Rosh Yeshiva summons his deputy.

“Nu?” he asks, “so how come they beat us so badly?”

“Rebbe. Cambridge has a secret. They have eight men rowing and one man shouting.”

 

There’s lots of shouting in Bemidbar – about food and water and last Shabbat, the shouting followed the report of the spies on their mission to Canaan – the people clamour to go back to Egypt. And today we read about Korach and his buddies arguing for more of a share in the leadership. All in all, Moses, the appointed leader, must feel like he’s that cox in the yeshiva rowing team.

But spare a thought for Korach. He certainly gets a bad press in Jewish teaching. He’s been demonised, made into the exemplar of the ambitious, self-seeker after power. He challenges the authority and leadership of Moses and Aaron on spurious grounds. Finally he and his followers are swallowed up when the ground opens under them. And yet, later on, apparently, some of his family have survived (Numbers 26:11); indeed some of them have a number of Psalms ascribed to them.(eg Psalm 42)

The fact that a trace, as it were, of Korach survives leaves us with the suspicion that maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t entirely wrong in his claim. When the people demanded to go back to Egypt, they called into question the whole Exodus venture. That was bad enough. But this time it’s more dangerous. Korach is Moses’ cousin, he’s mishpocheh – this is a palace coup. It’s all very close to home and maybe the reaction to Korach is as it is because he’s challenging the establishment and establishments are sensitive to questioning and criticism.

Our sidra begins with Hebrew which is dense and cryptic. Vayikach Korach “and Korach too.” We have a verb “took”; we have a subject “Korach.” We would then expect an object: what it was that he took? Instead we’re told about his fellow conspirators and then his complaint: “Rav lachem,” he tells Moses, “you have gone too far. All the congregation are holy and God is in their midst. Why, then, do you raise yourself above God’s community?” (Numbers 16:3.)

In its usual marvellously-imaginative way, midrash elaborates on the terseness of the Torah account, indeed it has a theological field-day with it. One midrash has Korach saying to Moses: “These aren’t things about which you’ve been commanded. You’ve concocted them out of your own  head.” (Numbers Rabbah 18:3)

Another midrash connects Korach’s rebellion with the final verses of last Shabbat’s sidra. We know this as the 3rd paragraph of the Shema, about putting tsitsit, fringes on the corners of our garments, with a thread of blue among them. So Korach challenges Moses: “You say a tallit has to have a thread of blue. OK. So what if I have a completely blue tallit, do I still need that special blue thread? A Torah scroll contains the text we have in the mezuzah. So if I have a Torah scroll in my house,” he asks, “do I still need a mezuzah on the door?” Moses tells him that he does still need that thread of blue in a blue tallit; and a mezuzah on a house with a Torah in it. By the way, please don’t bother me with minor questions like how did Korach or Moses know anything about tallitot, mezzuzot, or Torah scrolls? (Tanchuma, Korach 4; Numbers Rabbah 18:3)

So the midrash is trying to figure out what is it that Korach did wrong and has him raising apparent contradictions to see if Moses can answer them, presumably to cast doubts on Moses’s religious credentials for leading the people. And with his claim that all the community are holy, he’s accusing Moses of going too far in the exercise of his authority. Rav lachem “you’ve exceeded the limits.” If we are, indeed, all holy, why should you have particular authority over us?

Moses’s response is to throw down the gauntlet to Korach with a test for him and his supporters. He accuses them of doing just what Korach has accused him of. Indeed he throws Korach’s exact words back in his face: “Rav lachem,” he says, “you take too much on yourself.” (Numbers 16:7) “You’re the one who’s exceeded the limits, Korach, not me.” And of course, in good Biblical fashion, the ground opens and swallows up Korah and his 250 followers. (Numbers 16:32)

Conclusive proof, then, that Korach was wrong – or is it?

Prima facie, he wanted to democratise religious leadership, arguing that Moses doesn’t have a monopoly on holiness. His branch of the family haven’t been chosen to be priests. He feels slighted and angry; he wants power for himself. But it would be too crude to put it like that. So he dresses up his claim, presenting himself as the champion of the people against an entrenched establishment. Korach’s misdemeanour, then, was self-interest masquerading as concern for the people. He didn’t act, l’shem shamayim, out of purity of motive – though with a post-Freudian understanding of the working of the subconscious, we might ask if there can ever be anything like a totally pure motive, devoid of any trace of self-interest?

Is that why Korach’s name isn’t completely lost, survives into subsequent generations? And even if the manner of his complaint is motivated by self-interest, the content of what he says might still have validity.

If we are all holy, then where does religious authority lie? Maybe Korach’s nonsensical questions about tsitsit and mezuzah are not to mock Moses’ authority but to remind him, Moses, not to lose sight of the broader vision.

At one level, Korach was almost right. Not long after the people have left Egypt, God tells them, “you shall be a mamlechet cohanim v’goy kadosh, ‘a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’” (Exodus 19:6) Korach’s misdemeanour was not rebellion, per se: we’ve seen rebellion several times since the people left Egypt.

But it was, rather, his verbal sleight of hand, the claim that future potential was actually current reality. It was a sort of religious complacency – and that is dangerous. If we are indeed holy, then we’ve arrived. There’s no need for continued striving to reach some degree of holiness. But can holiness ever be anything other than a potential, always beckoning us on but ever remaining just beyond our reach.

Korach’s duplicity, then, was to present that future possibility as if it were current reality. Because there’s a problem when somebody believes they have achieved holiness: “I’ve got it,” they say, “but you haven’t. However, you might achieve it if you do what I tell you.” That way lies religious coercion.

Holiness doesn’t come easily, We will, hopefully, be a holy nation – but not today, maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after; just not today, we’re not there yet!