The Torah records several widespread sins that the Children of Israel committed during our 40-year desert sojourn.
Among the first was the sin of the golden calf as recorded in Parashat Ki Tissa (Exodus Chapters 32-33). And this week, Parashat Korach records four separate rebellions against Moshe:
-The rebellion of Korach and his band, of the Tribe of Levi (Numbers 16:1);
-The rebellion of Datan and Aviram of the Tribe of Reuven, and their followers (ibid.);
-The rebellion of 250 men of renown of the Children of Israel, Princes of the Congregation (16:2);
-The rebellion among the masses of the Children of Israel the following day (Numbers 17).
Though these four rebellions all had different causes and different impetuses, the Torah makes it clear that they were all instigated and inspired by Korach of the Tribe of Levi. It was Korach and his band who stirred up the general malcontent against Moshe and Aaron; without Korach and his populist agitation, none of the subsequent rebellions could have happened.
And this raises a huge puzzlement. Please bear with me for three paragraphs, patient reader, because a little background is essential:
As we noted above, the golden calf is recorded in Parashat Ki Tissa, which consists of 139 verses (Exodus 30:11-34:35). The first two Aliyot (Kohen and Levi) cover more than half the Parashah: Kohen reads the first 45 verses, and Levi reads the next 47 verses, for a total of 92. The next five Aliyot between them cover just 47 verses.
The reason for this differential is for us to avoid embarrassing any Israelite. The only Tribe from which not one single person worshipped the golden calf was Levi, so we have a Kohen and a Levi read from the beginning of the Parashah to the end of the sorry incident of the golden calf.
Thus we spare every Israelite the potential embarrassment of publicly proclaiming his own ancestors’ sin.
So when our Sages divided the Torah into the 54 Parashot with which we are so familiar today, why did they divide it up such that a Kohen and a Levi publicly proclaim their own ancestors’ sin, that of Korach and his Levite followers?
Would it not have been more tactful to have an Israelite tell of the sins of the Levites?
I have not found anyone else who even noted this seeming discrepancy, much less explained it. And so I tentatively offer my own explanation:
Last Shabbat, Parashat Shlach Lecha recorded the disastrous episode of the spies and its aftermath: G-d’s decree that the generation had proven itself unworthy of entering the Land of Israel - indeed psychologically unable to meet the challenges of conquering the Land.
Part of the consequences of G-d’s decree is the succession of rebellions in Parashat Korach. Korach’s rebellion was undoubtedly egregious, with disastrous consequences: more than 14,950 Jews died as a result.
Korach with his followers, Datan and Aviram with their followers, and the 250 Israelite malcontents were swallowed up when the earth opened its mouth (16:32), and another 14,700 died in the plague (17:14).
It is very obvious what caused this such widespread rebelliousness: the sin of the spies, and the national demoralisation it caused, doomed the Children of Israel to spend forty years in the Sinai Desert.
Just as the nation was poised to enter the Land of Israel and to begin their next phase of national life - the prize was snatched from them, only those below the age of 20 would ever live to see the good Land that G-d had promised them.
Little wonder that they were distraught. Of course demagogues like Korach, Datan, and Aviram found it easy to prey on their frustrations and to challenge Moshe’s leadership.
Only under these circumstances could Datan and Aviram dare to proclaim the blasphemy that Egypt, the land of slavery and oppression, was “the land flowing with milk and honey" (Numbers 16:13).
And yet…
…and yet this shows the greatness of Korach, Datan, Aviram, and the 250 malcontents. Of course their sin was terrible - yet it is a backhanded compliment to them. They only committed these sins because they were so completely demoralised at not being allowed to enter the good Land that G-d had promised them. Obviously the Land of Israel was vital to them: they couldn’t bear the thought of never seeing it.
The Jews in the desert weren’t suffering. They lived very comfortably, both physically and spiritually. They had the Manna to eat, and the water from Miriam’s miraculous Well to drink. They had the Clouds of Glory to protect them from the fierce desert heat by day, and the Pillar of Fire to give them warmth against the biting desert cold by night.
They were learning Torah from no less than Moshe Rabbeinu (“our Master") himself - better and more impressive learning than even the most prestigious Yeshivah in the world today.
They had no parnassah (income) and needed none, because G-d Himself provided them directly with all that they needed.
They had everything, they lacked nothing. When they were deprived of the Land of Israel they lost nothing. Yet they were plunged into such utter despair that they fell into heresy. They felt they had nothing left to live for.
Only true Tzaddikim could have responded with such despair to G-d’s decree.
Today?
We can but look in despair at Jewish communities throughout the world, and ask: Is there a single Rabbi, a single Jewish leader, who reaches the level of Korach, Datan, and Aviram, the Tzaddikim of the Sinai Desert, who were plunged into such despair at being deprived of the Land of Israel that they lost all faith?
Of all those Jews who believe (for whatever peculiar reason) that they are forbidden to make Aliyah, is there a single one who mourns for the Holy Land that he or she has been deprived of?
It is infinitely more embarrassing and humiliating for a Jew to be associated with Jews who are so utterly detached from the nation that they don’t even care about the Land of Israel, than it is to be associated with Tzaddikim who loved the Land of Israel so passionately and intimately that they fell into despair and heresy when they were deprived of it.
And this, I tentatively suggest, is the reason that we guarantee that a Kohen and Levi read the section of the Torah which throws the prime responsibility for this débâcle on their fellow-Levites.
Because unlike the sin of the golden calf, no one of the Tribe of Levi has to feel embarrassed when reading of the sin of his fellow-Levite. It is a sin that could solely have been committed by a Tzaddik.
So go ahead, Kohen and Levi: read this section with pride!