Parashat Korah
June 12, 2021, 2 Tamuz 5781
Torah: Numbers 16:1-18:32; Triennial 16:20-17:24
Haftarah: I Samuel 11:14-12:22
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In this week's Torah Sparks, you'll find a D'var Torah on the Parashah by Ilana Kurshan called "Korah’s Take on Leadership". Vered Hollander-Goldfarb poses questions titled "Looking Up or Looking Down?" And Bex Stern Rosenblatt writes about "Leading by Leaving" in the Haftarah.
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Korah’s Take on Leadership
Ilana Kurshan
Our parashah features a serious and dangerous assault on Moshe’s leadership of the Jewish people. In the midst of the Israelites’ desert wanderings, a Levite named Korah rallies a group of two hundred and fifty rebels, who accuse Moshe and Aaron of assuming too much power for themselves: “All the community are holy. Why then do you raise yourself above the Lord’s congregation?” (16:3). Korah’s explicit demand is that leadership be distributed more equally, but Moshe’s response intimates that Korah and his followers have an ulterior motive. A close examination of the wilderness rebellion in our parashah points to a fundamental difference between Korah and Moshe’s models of leadership: One devalues the common good for selfish ends, thereby pandering to our basic instincts; the other elevates the common good to a central place in society, thereby upholding our aspirations.
Although Korah presents himself as a populist, Moshe understands that Korah and his followers are really intent on their own self-aggrandizement. Moshe realizes that the rebels were resentful that Aaron and his sons—a different branch of the Levite family—were chosen as priests instead of them. As Moshe tells the men who rose up against him and Aaron, “Is it not enough for you that the God of Israel has set you apart from the community of Israel and given you access to Him, to perform the duties of the Lord’s Tabernacle…Do you seek the priesthood too?” (16:9-10). In the midrash (Bemidbar Rabbah 18:4) Korah incites his followers to complain that, “Moshe is a king, Aaron and his brothers are high priests, their sons are deputy priests, the tithes go to the priests, twenty-four priestly gifts go to the priests.” They are angry at Moshe and Aaron for hoarding all the roles and the riches, and wish to assume these leadership positions themselves.
Another suggestion that Korah is in it for his own glory can be found in the opening words of the parashah, “Korah took” (16:1). The verb “took” never receives any direct object, leaving us to wonder what it is that Korah takes. But perhaps that is the point. Korah’s leadership is all about taking. He wants the power and the glory for himself. In this sense, his model of leadership could not be more antithetical to that of Moshe.
Moshe, unlike Korah, never wished to take the role of leader upon himself. “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and free the Israelites from Egypt?” he asks God, eager for God to choose anyone else in his stead (3:11). Later, following the incident with the golden calf, God offers to destroy the Jewish people and make Moshe into a great nation (32:10), but Moshe will have none of it. He knows that he is nothing if not for the Jewish people; his raison d’etre, at this point in his life, is to serve the people and bring them closer to God. If God will not forgive the people, Moshe cries, then “erase me from the book which You have written” (32:32). Moshe, the humblest man on earth (Number 12:3), recognizes that a leader is only a leader when leading his people; his leadership is not about himself, but about the people he leads.
Two of Korah’s fellow rebels, Datan and Aviram, have particular difficulty understanding Moshe’s attitude toward leadership. The Talmud (Nedarim 64b) identifies these two men as the two Israelite slaves whom Moshe saw fighting when he went out among his kinsmen in Egypt. “Why do you strike your fellow” (2:13) Moshe asked one of them, and he replied, “Who made you chief and ruler over us?” (2:14). As the rejoinder suggests, Datan and Aviram, like Korah, assume that Moshe is just trying to take power for himself. They do not realize that Moshe is motivated not by power but by justice; not by might but by right. They assume that his leadership is about his own authority and glory, but that is only because this is their own model of leadership, and they cannot imagine any other.
The Talmud teaches a valuable lesson on leadership in a story in tractate Horayot (10a) about Rabban Gamliel, the leader of the Jewish people in the land of Israel at the turn of the first century, who once decided to appoint two young scholars as the head of the academy. He summoned the scholars to inaugurate them in their new positions, but they did not come, presumably because they were reluctant to accept the honor. He sent another message, this time rebuking them: “Do you imagine that I am granting you authority? I am granting you servitude!” Korah seeks honor and authority. He is a reminder that those very leaders who masquerade as populists are often so focused on themselves that they have no space to consider the good of the people they purport to want to lead. Only a truly humble leader can dedicate his or her energies to doing what is best for others.
Perhaps it is fitting that Moshe dies high up on the summit of Pisgah, whereas Korah’s band is swallowed into the earth. As our parashah reminds us, great leaders like Moshe do not direct attention to themselves but focus our gaze upwards -- on values and ideals that lie far above the petty concerns of Korah and his followers.
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Looking Up or Looking Down?
Vered Hollander-Goldfarb
Text: Bamidbar 16:1-4
(1)And Korah son of Izhar…son of Levi and Dathan and Abiram… (3)assembled against Moshe and Aaron and said to them, “you have too much! For all the community, they are all holy, and in their midst is the LORD, and why should you raise yourself up over the LORD’s assembly?” (4)And Moshe heard and he fell on his face.
- Why do you think that Moshe fell on his face?
- What affect do you think it had on those who were present?
Commentary: Rashi Bamidbar 16:4
And he fell on his face - because of the rebellion, for this was already the fourth offence on their part: when they sinned by worshipping the Golden Calf, it states, (Exodus 32:11) "And Moshe besought [the Lord]"; in the case of the "people who complained", (Numbers 11:1) it states: "and Moshe prayed"; at the incident of the "spies", (Numbers 14:13) "And Moshe said to the LORD, 'When the Egyptians shall hear it”; but now at the rebellion of Korah, his hands became slack.
- According to Rashi, why does Moshe fall on his face?
- Prof. Yair Zakovitch points out a common pattern of 3-4 in Tanakh: An event occurs 3 times, creating a pattern; but the fourth time breaks the pattern and stands out as a game changer. How is this event, which Rashi counts as a fourth offense, a game changer compared with the previous three?
- Compare Rashi with the next two commentaries. Consider in each one whether Moshe is focused upward or down. Who is at the center of his attention? What does each reading say about Moshe?
Commentary: Rashbam Bamidbar 16:4
And [he] fell on his face: to pray. There he received instructions [to say] the things that he later said to Korah.
- Rashbam solves a difficulty in the continuation of the story (especially considering the death of the people who bring the incense.) What is the difficulty and how does he solve it?
- What is the problem with his solution?
Commentary: R. Joseph Bechor Shor Bamidbar 16:4
And Moshe heard – that they suspected him of acting to place his brother in a position of authority. And he fell on his face – hid his face towards the ground in shame.
- How is Moshe’s behavior understood here?
- Which of these commentaries seems closest to the text? Consider both the immediate story in these verses and the greater story circles: how this story develops in the chapter, and the background baggage that is brought into this story.
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Leading by Leaving
Bex Stern Rosenblatt
The Tanakh tells the story of the relationship between two entities: God and the people of Israel. The part of God is played, unsurprisingly, by God, starting at creation and continuing through the return to the land after the Babylonian exile, from Genesis through Ezra-Nehemiah. The part of the people of Israel is less consistent. It is played by generation after generation of Israelites. In the words of Kohelet, “a generation comes and a generation goes, and the earth endures forever.” Moreover, often we meet the people of Israel through their leader. Someone among the Israelites rises up to mediate the relationship with God, to be the representative in the story. We know their names; we tell their stories. They are Moses, Miriam, Aaron, and Deborah, Gideon, Samson. They are the kings, the priests, and the prophets. And their stories are fascinating and beguiling. Their characters are well-developed and it is easy to see ourselves in them. In fact, it is so tempting to identify fully with these characters and their stories that we often lose sight of the larger story to which they belong. We forget to read them as representatives of the people of Israel in a particular instance, as part of the unbroken chain of the eternal people of Israel in relationship with God.
Samuel, the main character of this week’s haftarah, understands this danger. We have been reading the story of Samuel already for eleven chapters by the time we get to this haftarah. We feel Hannah’s need for and devotion to him as she prays for his conception and birth. We tremble with him when he first hears the voice of God speaking to him and thinks it’s just a priest calling to him. We understand his heartbreak when the nation forces him to recognize his beloved sons as failures. And it is natural for us to rage his rage when the people demand that he step down as leader to appoint a king for them. Not only are we convinced by his warnings of all the awful things that a king will do to us, we also hate that after he has literally dedicated his entire life to serving God and the people, the people choose to reject him. Caught in the story, we are rooting for Samuel.
Samuel, however, is rooting for something greater than himself. He understands that his dedication to public service is for the sake of the public and not for his own sake. Samuel, as reminded by God, knows that there is a greater story being told, the story of the relationship between God and the people of Israel. He sees his story as part of this, and his life as a good example of how to be in this relationship. But he is willing to let go. In our haftarah passage, Samuel inaugurates Saul as king, as new representative of the people of Israel. In his farewell speech to the people, Samuel chooses to tell the story of the leaders who have come before him. He locates himself in a chain of leaders, stretching from Moses and Aaron, through the judges including him as the last judge, and then he sets forth the kings as leaders after him. He tells the story of the Israelite people rather than his own. He makes room for the people of Israel to tell their story once he is gone. Sometimes, the best thing a leader can do for their people is to know when it’s time to leave and let the story continue without them.
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