Korah 5770: The Inner Korah

I'm writing this late once again, and I keep wondering, "Why am I late?" I vowed a few weeks ago not to stop writing and not to skip a piece, but here I am again, in the same situation. Why? Parshat Korah may have an answer.

This week we have the story of the Korah rebellion and its aftermath. Korah, Dathan and Abiram, along with 250 of the leading figures in the community rebel against Moses and Aaron, and want to be included as priests. Moses tries to dissuade them, but is unsuccessful. In a contest the next morning, the rebels light incense in their censers, to determine who is chosen by God. Korah, Dathan and Abiram and their families are swallowed up by the earth, literally going straight to hell, and the 250 men are burned alive by a fire from God. The people murmur against this and a plague ensues. To settle the matter of leadership once and for all, another contest is performed. This time the leaders of each tribe place their staff in the Mishkan and leave them overnight. In the morning, Aaron’s staff buds and blooms with almonds. Yet, there are still murmurs.

I went to a D'var Torah last Shabbat where parshat Korah was discussed. Very unlike my usual participation in discussion, I kept silent. There was a mistake in her speech, and noting the mistake would have damaged her whole speech. So I kept silent as a matter of respect. In the questions she asked as part of her discussion, another thing I kept silent about was the question of why did the households of Korah, Dathan and Abiram have to die so quickly. Most thought it a little heartless. We know that the Talmud teaches that in capital crimes to be slow to justice while in monetary crimes to be quick. Why was judgment so quick here?

The book of Bamidbar has many of these dilemmas, and a lot of people die. Indeed, as a consequence of last weeks portion, all 600,000 Israelites but Joshua and Caleb die. Two years ago I wrote a series of these where I came up with an idea bout that. Eretz Yisroel, the Promised Land is who we can be in all of our potential, and Egypt is who we were, constrained and enslaved by many things inside ourselves. Bamidbar is a struggle inside of us, not just of a people. This week we hit one of the biggest hurdles in getting to the Promised Land, the internal rebellion. In the Torah this is represented by Korah and the related rebellions. We’re all familiar with the concept in our own lives, a sense of self destruction of the path to success. One day you are on the top of the word, successful and ready to have your dream come true. The next you do one very stupid thing and the world come crashing down. One feels like Korah’s final fate. The ground under your feet opens ups and you fall straight to Sheol. We’ve seen it happen all too often to people in view of the media both in the political and entertainment realms. Then there are the times it has happened to us as well. It’s happened to me numerous times to be sure, I'm pretty certain it happens to us all.

Korah personifies the self destructive element within us. Korah and his allies are deluded into believing how we existed in the past is better than the present. Dathan and Abiram for example ask:

13. Is it a small thing that you have brought us out of a land that flows with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, that you also make yourself a prince over us?[Numbers 16]

Egypt, the place of oppression, has become the promised land here. Who we were at the beginning of our quest seems to be what we are striving for. Of course to reach the true Promised Land, this is nonsense. It is merely the comfort of the familiar, the road ahead is very scary, though it will bring great success. We want to go back to slavery to our bad habits rather than change and become something more, and fully realize our potential. The Inner Korah is there to sabotage that effort, in any way possible. He is based in fear, but uses rhetoric to confuse us. Our Inner Korah, if let alone for any amount of time, will restrain us from our goals. To answer that bat mitzvah question, Korah needs to die and die quickly. He is a threat to all and can ultimately make us slaves once again. That assumes the Egyptians, that which enslaves us are merciful. More likely they would slaughter the people as punishment, like many self destructive behaviors lead ultimately to an untimely demise.

Like the last time I addressed this, I am fighting another battle with the Inner Korah, one that keeps this column from getting done. While it is best for him to be swallowed up by the earth, we are not as fortunate as Moses was. It is a great battle to defeat self destructive behaviors, one that needs to happen every day. The mistake in the D'var I heard was from a later part of Bamidbar when we find the "The sons of Korah did not die"[Numbers 26:11] While everyone else perished, they were saved. According to the Rabbis because they sang psalms of praise and repentance. Ironically their descendant was the Prophet Samuel, who is mentioned in the traditional Haftarah for this portion. One way to defeat Korah, the lesson seems to be, is to transform him into something constructive.