
Parashat Korach records three rebellions against Moshe and Aaron:
One rebellion was led by Korach, of the Tribe of Levi, who demagogically challenged Moshe’s leadership. Proclaiming himself the champion of the people, ostensibly arguing for absolute egalitarianism and against any structured rulership, Korach really wanted the power-structure to remain in place, just with himself as leader instead of Moshe.
The second rebellion was led by the long-time malcontents and trouble-makers Datan and Aviram of the Tribe of Reuben, who chafed at their Tribe, the Tribe of the firstborn, having lost its birth-right, and who wanted Reuben to replace Levi as the leaders.
These two met different ends: Korach and his followers were swallowed up into the ground (Numbers 16:32), while Datan and Aviram and their followers were destroyed by fire from G-d (v. 35).
And the next day, a third rebellion arose among the masses who were distraught at what they perceived to be Moshe and Aaron’s killing of G-d’s people (17:6). This mass rebellion ended with a plague in which some 14,700 Jews died (v. 14).
How did Korach manage to galvanise so many people to rebel against Moshe and Aaron? Why did he begin his insurrection at this time? Indeed, why did he rebel at all?
The answer to these questions are obvious: Korach’s rebellion came immediately after the débâcle of the spies in last week’s Parashah, Shelach Lecha, when the entire nation was demoralised and plunged into despair by G-d’s decree that they would not enter the Land of Israel. They felt that they nothing to lose, so these demagogues could exploit the situation.
Nevertheless, the question remains: Who was Korach? How come he had such a powerful influence?
The only possible answer is that Korach, demagogue though he appears, had a lot more than mere rhetoric. Indeed the Midrash testifies about him that he had achieved great honour and prestige (Bamidbar Rabbah 18:1, Tanchuma Korach1 et al.); he was a great sage, one of the bearers of the Holy Ark (Bamidbar Rabbah 18:3, Tanchuma Korach 5 et al.).
Add to this the fact that his 250 followers were all the great Torah-leaders of Israel, including the Sanhedrin no less (Bamidbar Rabbah 18:2, Tanchuma Korach 1 et al.), and a very puzzling picture emerges. Korach wasn’t some rabble-rouser who appealed to the dregs of society: his teachings received the approval of the greatest rabbis of the generation.
He was a veritable Talmid Chacham, wearing the blackest of hats and sporting the longest of beards, whose divrei Torah were given a haskamah (approbation) by the Gedolei ha-Dor.
He didn’t go “off the derech”, he didn’t “frei out”, to employ contemporary colloquialisms. He remained as frum (religious) as ever.
And yet somehow, this great Torah-scholar and leader went desperately wrong, misleading hundreds of the Torah-leaders, and thousands of ordinary Jews, in the process.
The context is everything: only a Torah-leader infused with such love of the Land of Israel, only a generation infused with this passionate, even desperate, love of the Land of Israel could have been so devastated at G-d’s decree that they could have fallen so abjectly.
Korach must have done something right, before being spiritually destroyed by G-d’s decree banning him and his generation from ever entering the Land of Israel. Otherwise, he could never have achieved such devastating and deadly success.
And thus, Korach condemns so many of today’s Torah-leaders. Torah-leaders who look with equanimity at the exile, Torah-leaders who are perfectly content remaining in exile, Torah-leaders who admonish their followers to remain in exile, even Torah-leaders in Israel who threaten to leave Israel with all their followers if the current Government doesn’t kowtow to their demands.
These are Torah-leaders who do not even feel the pain of exile, Torah-leaders who look at the Land of Israel as an optional extra – and not even a very desirable one, at that.
If Eisav was willing to sell his birthright for a bowl of stew, what can we say about Torah-leaders who are willing to sell our national birthright, the Land of Israel, for a high salary?!
The last time the Torah will mention Korach will be in Parashat Pinchas, and will tell us that “the sons of Korach didn’t die” (Numbers 26:11).
Again, the context is everything: This apparently-redundant throwaway line is in the census of the Children of Israel, before going to war against Midian, the introduction to dividing up the Land of Israel among the Tribes. “The sons of Korach didn’t die”, they have their share in the Land of Israel. Their father’s legacy – the positive part of it – will live on.
The sons of Korach composed eleven of the Psalms (42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 84, 85, 87, and 88); two of these have been incorporated into our liturgy.
Psalm 48 is the Psalm which the Levites used to sing in Holy Temple on the second day of the week, Monday (Rosh Hashanah 31a, Tamid 7:4). This Psalm is a pæan of praise and love the city of Jerusalem:
“A Song, a Psalm by the sons of Korach: Great is Hashem and greatly extolled in the City of G-d, the Mountain of His sanctuary. Beautiful of scenery, Mount Zion is the joy of all the earth, on the furthest north of the City of the great King…”
Why was this Psalm chosen as the Psalm for the second day of the week?
— Because on the second day of creation, G-d created the firmament which separated the waters beneath the firmament from the waters above the firmament (Genesis 1:7), and He ascended to dwell in the highest; this is alluded to by G-d’s dwelling in His City and in the Mountain of His Sanctuary (Rashi to Rosh Hashanah 31a, s.v. שחילק מעשיו).
Psalm 48 concludes with the words:
כִּי זֶה אֱלֹקִים אֱלֹקֵינוּ עוֹלָם וָעֶד הוּא יְנַהֲגֵנוּ עַל־מוּת:
“For this is G-d, our G-d forever and ever; He will guide us above death”.
(The final word עַל־מוּת is ambiguous. Targum, Rashi, and others read עַל־מוּת as one word, עַלְמוּת, meaning “like children”. Radak offers both this explanation, and also “until death”. Our translation “above death” is the literal translation, and is consistent with several Talmudic and Midrashic sources: vide Yerushalmi Megillah 2:4, Yerushalmi Mo’ed Katan 3:7, Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah 1:3, et al.)
This is especially appropriate for the sons of Korach: they followed their father into the very edge of Gehinnom – and at the last moment they repented: G-d indeed led them “above death”.
The other Psalm by the sons of Korach which has been incorporated into our liturgy is Psalm 47, which we recite seven times before blowing the Shofar on Rosh Hashanah:
“For the Chief Musician, by the sons of Korach, a Psalm: O all nations, join hands calling out to G-d with the voice of joyous song”.
The obvious reason for reciting this Psalm on Rosh Hashanah is its message of repentance: Korach’s sons could repent even at the very gates of Gehinnom, so of course we, safely in this world, can repent.
“The sons of Korach didn’t die”, because even Korach’s sin of rebellion was a consequence of his sensitivity to the Land of Israel.