Korach
This piece is my adaptation of Rabbi Abraham Twerski's thoughts on Korach
from Living Each Day (1988).
What was wrong with Korach's argument? It sounds sensible that all the people were holy and that leadership should not belong only to certain elite people. The answer to a second question may help answer the first: Why did Korach agree to Moshe's condition of offering incensence on the alter? He knew that doing this without being assigned to by G-d was punishable by death.
Korach became delusional due to envy. He convinced himself that he was fighting for G-d while really it was about other family members having more honor than him. The rabbis teach that jealousy, along with lust and honor remove a person from this world. While this is often understood as a list of three traits, I think it's actually a unit of three closely related phenomenon. It is true psychologically, and ultimately it is true physically that this three headed monster will take a person out of this world.
It is not uncommon for rebellions to be presented as ideologies when that is not truly the case. Long ago, the first organizational break from tradition was the Saducees. While this was presented as a philosophy that accepted the written law while rejecting the oral, it actually stemmed from somewhere else. Tzadok, the father of the Saducees, was a student of Antignos of Socho and he seriously misunderstood something that his master taught. He concluded that there was no reward from G-d for all our efforts in this world. Rather than say what he really believed and break from Judaism outright he claimed to create a new ideology, which was really a cover for his true agenda.
Many people break from institutions on principles that are really covers jealousy and desire. Many new schools and shuls have been started over issues that poorly masked personal gripes.
from Living Each Day (1988).
What was wrong with Korach's argument? It sounds sensible that all the people were holy and that leadership should not belong only to certain elite people. The answer to a second question may help answer the first: Why did Korach agree to Moshe's condition of offering incensence on the alter? He knew that doing this without being assigned to by G-d was punishable by death.
Korach became delusional due to envy. He convinced himself that he was fighting for G-d while really it was about other family members having more honor than him. The rabbis teach that jealousy, along with lust and honor remove a person from this world. While this is often understood as a list of three traits, I think it's actually a unit of three closely related phenomenon. It is true psychologically, and ultimately it is true physically that this three headed monster will take a person out of this world.
It is not uncommon for rebellions to be presented as ideologies when that is not truly the case. Long ago, the first organizational break from tradition was the Saducees. While this was presented as a philosophy that accepted the written law while rejecting the oral, it actually stemmed from somewhere else. Tzadok, the father of the Saducees, was a student of Antignos of Socho and he seriously misunderstood something that his master taught. He concluded that there was no reward from G-d for all our efforts in this world. Rather than say what he really believed and break from Judaism outright he claimed to create a new ideology, which was really a cover for his true agenda.
Many people break from institutions on principles that are really covers jealousy and desire. Many new schools and shuls have been started over issues that poorly masked personal gripes.
Rabbi Twerski writes: "The folly of Korach was costly. Unfortunately, this same mistake has been repeated many times throughout Jewish history, each time with dire consequences. Is it not high time that we learn the lesson?"
posted by rabbi neil fleischmann @ 11:17 AM
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