Korah
Numbers 6:1-18:32
I Samuel 11:14-12:22
“Sense and regret come too late,” said Sholem Aleichem, the noted 20th century Yiddish writer. Korah, this week’s Torah portion, affirms the importance of this aphorism.
Korah, second cousin of Moses, Aaron and Miriam, challenged Moses’ leadership, saying: “You have gone too far! For all the community are holy, all of them, and the Lord is in their midst. Rav lachem — Why do you set yourself above the people?” (Numbers 16:3).
In spite of Moses’ previous complaint about the difficulty of leading the people alone, there is no evidence that he ever utilized the services of the 70 elders chosen to help him rule. Thus, Korah’s attempt to democratize the leadership was not welcome. In response to this confrontation to his authority, Moses proposed a contest:
“Come morning, the Lord will make known who is His and who is holy, and will grant him access to Himself; He will grant access to the one He has chosen. Do this: You, Korah and all your band, take fire pans, and tomorrow put fire in them and lay incense on them before the Lord. Then the man whom the Lord chooses, he shall be the holy one. You have gone too far, sons of Levi!” (Numbers 16: 5-7).
At the appointed time, Moses warned everyone to stand back. Then the earth opened and swallowed Korah, his followers, households and possessions.
Rabbinic commentators utilized the portion’s opening words Vayeekach Korah — “And Korah took” (Numbers 16:1), as a platform from which to ridicule Korah. While the text never revealed what Korah took, the rabbis argued that he attempted to seize the reins of leadership. The rabbis did not appreciate challenges to leadership — be it that of Moses or their own. Thus, they magnified the wrongdoing of Korah to protect the prerogative of power.
The statement “Korah took,” stands in contrast to a comment of Moses: “I have not taken the ass of any one of them, nor have I wronged any one of them” (Numbers 16:15). The accompanying haftarah in I Samuel contains a similar entreaty. Moses and Samuel took nothing, but the biblical author thought differently of Korah.
Nevertheless, in spite of Korah’s reputation, sense and regret can be found in this narrative, which records Moses’ order following Korah’s death:
“…let [the fire pans] be made into hammered sheets of plating for the altar — for once they have been used for offering to the Lord, they have become sacred — and let them serve as a warning to the People of Israel” (Numbers 17:3).
Instead of eliminating the fire pans, they were utilized to embellish the altar as an inadequate way of compensating Korah for the harsh judgment he suffered.
Furthermore, evidence of sense and regret is found in 11 psalms authored by Korah or his descendants (Psalms 42-49, 84, 85, 87, 88), included perhaps, to make up for the harsh judgment of Korah. These psalms express a fervent devotion to God. Psalm 84, subtitled “Of the Korahites,” includes the often-recited words “Better one day in Your courts than a thousand [anywhere else].”
A man who would write such sublime, heartfelt prose could not have been all bad. With the benefit of some time and distance, Moses, the elders and others may have thought better of what had happened. With the benefit of sense and regret they tried to make amends for hasty action.
In so doing, a time-honored tradition began that flowered in the rabbinic period, namely the custom of fastidiously preserving minority opinions. The Talmud, for example, often preserves minority opinions before presenting the majority opinion. This format is also followed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
While leaders of Jewish life did not necessarily like confrontation and threats to their leadership, nevertheless, they came to believe that all individuals in a community have the right to state their opinions, thus fostering honesty in discussion and compassion in leadership. In any rush to judgment, the story of Korah and the actions taken in its aftermath should provide an opportunity to stop, step back and consider precipitous action before, and not after, one is filled with sense and regret.