The Unbroken Chain
The Messianic Age is when the experience of Sinai will become a permanent aspect of our lives. It will ensure a world of peace and heightened spiritual awareness by all. However all the intervening links are crucial for creating the connection between Sinai and the Age of Redemption. Each and every link of our history is indispensable for the unfolding of the Age of Moshiach.
How could he be so Foolish?
Korach started a rebellion against his cousin Moses and his brother Aaron, as recounted in this week’s parsha. The immediate question that arises here is how could Korach not have learned a lesson from the earlier misadventures of some in the desert?
First, there were those who worshipped the golden calf. Then there were those who demanded meat. Subsequent to that there were the ten evil spies—and those who accepted their slanderous reports against the Land of Israel. In all of these situations, the instigators were punished harshly and decisively. G-d’s quick reaction should have left no doubt in the minds of even the most daring rebel that to start up with G-d’s chosen representative, Moses, was playing with fire.
Even the righteous Miriam, Moses sister, was punished with Tzara’as (a skin diseases that requires the afflicted to be quarantined) because she said something only mildly disparaging about her brother.
How then does Korach—whom our Sages assert was a brilliant man—do such a foolhardy thing; to start a major rebellion against Moses?
Directed Against Moses
One approach to answer this question is to find the distinction between this and all of the other sins. In earlier “escapades,” Moses was not the object of their rebellion; G-d was. The golden calf was fashioned because Moses was absent and thought to have disappeared and was not likely to ever return.
The demand for meat was made to Moses because they thought Moses could get them anything. It was therefore not intended as an affront to Moses, but rather an affirmation of Moses’ role as a benevolent leader who would take care of all their needs.
Even the ill-fated mission to the Promised Land was not directed against Moses, but rather against the Land of Israel and G-d’s ability to conquer it for them. All of these examples of rebellion were thus directed against G-d and not against Moses.
The first time anyone stood up against Moses personally was Korach. Korach contested the fact that G-d had chosen Moses. He therefore reasoned that he would not be punished because his was not a revolt against G-d, but one directed against an individual who, in Korach’s mind, purported to speak in the name of G-d, but was not truly commissioned to do so.
Even Miriam’s mild slander of Moses did not sway Korach to desist from his rebellion, because there it was a personal criticism of Moses for which Miriam was punished. In this situation, however, Korach was not belittling Moses, he merely claimed that he was not representing G-d, just himself.
The Worst Rebellion
In truth. Korach’s rebellion was in one important way worse than all the other forms of rebellion. To go against G-d, although a heinous crime, is not likely to be emulated by others. To claim—with self-righteous indignation, as Korach did—that Moses was making it all up, can easily be employed by anyone who wants to flout the law but does not want to be viewed as revolting against G-d. All that person has to do is claim that G-d never said this or that. With this approach, the entire notion of authority falls to the wayside, because if Moses, or any subsequent teacher of Torah, made it up, no one will ever have any credibility.
Indeed, according to Maimonides, Moses’ position is qualitatively different from all other prophets. All of the Jewish people witnessed how G-d had summoned Moses to receive the balance of the Torah directly from G-d. Moses’ role as the ultimate spokesman for G-d was clearly established for all times at Sinai.
Korach’s rebellion thus was in one significant way worse than any of the earlier rebellions. His insurrection threatened the very future of Judaism because Judaism’s survival hinges on the maintenance of an unbroken chain of tradition from Sinai through Moses to subsequent generations. Anytime one repudiates one link in the chain of tradition, Judaism cannot survive.
The Bald Spot
The name Korach has been translated as “a bald spot,” i.e., an open space or separation. Korach thus represents the attempt to create a separation between G-d and the Jewish people by removing Moses—and his successors, the Torah teachers and leaders of future generations—as those who faithfully communicate G-d’s teachings to the people. Without these Divinely chosen “communicators” Judaism cannot continue.
In every period of history, there have been attempts at creating this “Korach-bald spot” between that generation and the generation before. The farther away we get from Sinai, the more likely it is that some will attempt to distance themselves from the original communication of Sinai.
In Jewish mystical sources we are taught that Korach— contrary to conventional thought—was a visionary. He saw into the future and witnessed a glorious Messianic age. In light of our analysis of Korach, as the desire to create a separation between G-d, Moses and subsequent generations, we can characterize Korach’s vision as one that linked Sinai with the future Messianic Age without the intervening generations of Jewish endeavor.
Links are Important
Korach was partially correct. The Messianic Age is the time when the experience of Sinai will become a permanent aspect of our lives and will ensure a world of peace and heightened spiritual awareness by all.
Korach was wrong, however, in thinking that the intervening links are not crucial for creating the connection between Sinai and the Age of Redemption. Each and every link of our history is indispensable for the unfolding of the Age of Moshiach.
Indeed, each and every person plays a crucial role in linking Sinai to the present and paving the way for the future. There is no place for Korach’s desire to create breaks in that chain that leads us inexorably from Sinai to Moshiach.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Korach by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
