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✡︎ Shalom and Good Shabbos, Friends ✡︎
Our Torah portion this week, Parshas Korach, Bamidbar (Numbers) 16:1–18:32, again puts a spotlight on rogue leadership within biblical Jewish culture. Korach, an ambitious Levite, incites a rebellion to usurp the power and position given to Moses and Aaron. Moses, highly respected and trusted as God’s agent, holds the top leadership spot in the newly emancipated society. Aaron, high priest in charge of ritual sacrifices in the Sanctuary, holds the top religious spot.
Korach believes his birthright and his desire for spiritual fulfillment entitle him to occupy the high priest position. He promotes overturning the new nation’s social and religious hierarchy, convincing his family, neighbors, and 250 distinguished judges and highly respected men from the Tribe of Reuben to join in the rebellion against God's appointed authorities. Korach promises to elevate his followers to priestly status, and vows to create a just and equitable society without class distinctions. Discontents who resent the effort of daily mitzvot and troublemakers hoping to cash in on the chaos, tag along.
God tells Moses of the fatal consequences awaiting Korach and his rebel friends should they go through with their plan. Moses pleads with Korach to stand down, but Korach ignores his pleas. He and his 250 aspiring priests gather in front of the Tabernacle holding pans of burning incense, an action reserved for the high priest, Aaron. A crowd of conspirators looks on until a catastrophic earthquake swallows all of them, their families, their houses and their material possessions. Fire consumes the group that covets the priesthood.
Many more deaths occur when a plague descends upon the community after they blame Moses and Aaron for causing these tragedies. Aaron offers atonement sacrifices to God for the rebels and the plague stops. The portion ends as God mandates that only Aaron’s dynasty is tasked to perform the priestly duties. The Levites are assigned to help them.
Our Haftorah portion this week is I Shmuel (Samuel) 11:14-12:22. Samuel is a descendant of Korach and the spiritual leader of the Jews at this time. When the people demand that Samuel install the first King of Israel, Samuel's family history makes him reluctant to do so. He warns of problems ahead for his people, who want to rely on an earthly king who demands imperial obedience instead of relying on the King of Heaven who demands moral obedience. The people ignore Samuel and his warnings until a severe thunderstorm scares them into asking the prophet to stop the storm. This portion ends with the clarifying reminder that God's way is the only way to peace and prosperity.
Samuel's foreboding about Saul eventually comes true. Saul's reign begins successfully but he soon usurps Samuel's role as priest when he offers sacrifices to the Lord for success in battle. In a military campaign against the Amalekites, God tells Saul to kill King Agog and destroy the spoils of war. However, Saul assumes his own power. He spares King Agog's life to pander to his supporters and he keeps the spoils of war for his own benefit. He offers Samuel an insincere apology meant only to regain his standing and his crown. He loses both.
Our current Jewish leaders are worrying about Jewish safety in the Big Apple after the NYC mayoral primary race results. In his Friday essay, All Far Too Quiet on the Western Front, Mark Steyn quotes Commentary's John Podhoretz in The Threat of Zohran Mamdani.
So a Muslim supporter of jihad is likely to be the next mayor of a city that was once 31 percent Jewish (in 1950) and is now 12 percent Jewish.
This is where Jewish leadership in New York, the majority of whom have opposed sensible immigration and pro-life legislation, has brought us. Not all of these missing Jews got to Palm Beach. Many of them never got out of the womb alive.
Mark Steyn mentions Baghdad and Kabul, where thousands of years of thriving Jewish communities disappeared in the 20th century because of Jew hatred and genocide. As Jew haters in NYC increase in number, we would do well to follow God's instruction given to us in Jeremiah 29:6. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease.
A blog post of this commentary is available at
https://jewishprolifefoundation.org/pro-life-blog/parshas-korach-resistance-is-futile
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Cecily
May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and good life upon us and upon all Israel. Amen.
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