Friday, June 30, 2006

Shlomos Drash Korach 5766 - The Good Sanitarian

Numbers 16:1-18:32

This week we have the story of the Korach rebellion and its aftermath. Korach, Dathan and Abiram, along with 250 of the leading figures in the community rise up 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. Korach Dathan and Abiram are swallowed up by the earth, literally going straight to hell, and the 250 men are burned alive by a fire from God. After this, the people begin to call Moses a murderer, and God gets angry and a plague ensues. Aaron lights more incense, and the plague stops. There is another contest where each of the chiefs of the tribes places their staffs in the Mishkan overnight. In the morning, Aaron's staff grows almonds. God reiterates the role of the priests and the Levites.

There is a lot of internal fighting in this portion, all of it based on whether Moses and Aaron are valid in their claim of leadership. Every time I get to Korach’s story, I wonder about leadership and identity. For the last two years it seems my professional meetings for the National Environmental Health Association Annual Educational Conference were the same week I wrote my Drash on Korach, and I ponder.

What I ponder is the very beginning of the portion

1. Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men; 2. And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the people of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, regularly summoned to the congregation, men of renown; 3. And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, You take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you lift up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord? 4. And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face; [Numbers 16:1-4]

In modern society, particularly an American society which has raised democracy to an evangelical fervor Korach’s argument seems a rather reasonable, indeed patriotic request. To say that all the people are equal and all should rule and not only a few is at the basis of American and democratic thought. But, if that is so, then why does Korach Dathan, Abiram and the 250 die? Does Torah tell us that oligarchy is the holy form of government?

It is here at this meeting, the professional meeting of those of us called by the public “health inspectors” and often called by us old-timers "sanitarians," that I ponder this, while listening to various sessions and networking. As I wrote last week, I was afraid I wouldn’t network well, but fortunately the fear disappeared. Yet, there were a bit of networking that I was not able to do. Usually this meeting is full of military uniforms from all five branches of the military, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and the Public Health service. (Yes, the surgeon general really is a general) But this year, budget restrictions and a military version of our meeting made the flood of uniforms to be a slow trickle of public health service, and Navy. So the military Public Health people, those defending our troops from pathogens, did not get to interact and learn along with their civilian colleagues. More budget restrictions kept some of the best people from FDA at home too. During some of the conference meals, and posted on the walls of the hotel there was a political announcement for us to contact our senators regarding the proposed budget cut to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) of 10 million dollars. Among many of their duties, the CDC is the primary civilian detection and response agency to bioterrorism, and prevention of disease after natural disasters like hurricane Katrina. The agency most likely to shield us from the threat of an epidemic like avian flu is not being bolstered up, but having its budget cut.

As we continue to read the Torah portion, we find that what these 253 people want is to be able to make their own sacrifices at the temple, to offer directly to God in front of the ark. Moses when he hears this falls on his face, he prostrates himself. Moses takes the posture of a servant, not a leader. He then proposes the contest of the fire pans.

Now it is important to realize that fire pans, the incense offering has it hazards. In Leviticus 10, we read:
1. And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took each of them his censer, and put fire in it, and put incense on it, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. 2. And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. [Lev. 10:1-2]

As a friend of mine, a trainer for the Nuclear Regulatory Agency once commented this was the first industrial accident. Moses’ nephews died only months before this contest with Korach. And of course we read further into our Torah portion that history repeats itself, with even more tragic events.

35. And there came out a fire from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who offered incense. [Numbers 16:35]

The next day, the people claim that Moses and Aaron murdered “the people of the Lord”. God starts a plague and Aaron, once again with an incense offering, stops the plague. Aaron “stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stopped” [Numbers 17:13]

It was Aaron’s actions that saved the people, although he did not act fast enough to prevent the death of 14,000 people according to the text. But he did save the rest. Coming home from the NEHA meetings I thought a lot about how Aaron represents of all of us in public health, and those of us in environmental health, dedicating our lives to preventing disease by making sure the conditions are never there for it to happen. If a disease outbreak does happen, we are there to do what is necessary to find the cause and end the outbreak.

But if Aaron used incense offering successfully and the 250 leaders lost their lives doing the same thing, what was the difference that let Aaron be successful? The obvious answer is that Aaron was picked to do the job. Yet, that does not describe two others who were also picked to do the job, Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu. Something else must be involved. I believe that extra element was what I saw at the standing room only presentation I gave, and indeed at all of the over-packed presentations I saw at NEHA. The people there had a thirst for knowledge and skill, to know what we don’t, to constantly perfect our craft of protecting the public. From the keynote on readiness for a pandemic to lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina to outbreaks of E.coli at petting zoos to my own Session on Faith based foods, these were people coming together to see presentations and to talk among themselves about the issues that makes us better Environmental Heath practioners. We were there to learn.

It is skill that Aaron had; it was gained through learning, not just some natural attribute. Not everyone can give an offering -- it requires hard won skills and knowledge. Not everyone can just investigate an outbreak or find what could cause one in a restaurant. Not everyone has the ability to change the behavior so people do not hurt themselves or others. It needs skill. To think that anybody could do this is a big, if not fatal, mistake. Such is true of any profession or skill. To just let anyone do brain surgery, or offer an incense offering, is a recipe for disaster. Even what looks simple can be very complicated. Even those of us in the profession for decades are still swapping ideas and techniques every time we get together.

This portion talks about something that we all can take to heart, not just environmental health professionals. The part of democracy we do not often honor very well is how those who work hard for their skills do not get the rewards or recognition they deserve. We’re too busy saying anybody can do anything, reducing the value of many contributors of our society. Teachers, most healthcare workers, social workers, or public health are the ones who get the low salaries and smaller budgets. Aaron and the priesthood was an inherited position, yet it also was one of intense skill and danger, when procedures were not followed precisely. By not honoring these people and acknowledging their skills we only reduce their desire to keep their skills. Indeed we often trivialize their skills and believe anyone can do it - and get the quality of practioner who knows little of their skill set.

But here are phrases and words spoken at the last five of these conferences that shows the danger of doing that.

9/11. Bioterrorism. SARS. Avian flu. Katrina.

Remember all the people of skill this week, and every week. Sometimes those skills don’t show themselves until we need them. Let’s make sure we support these people so they are there when they are needed. They might, like Aaron, stand between Life and Death.

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