黑料社

Parashat Korah can be challenging for a modern Jew. There is a good guy in this parashah鈥攊t鈥檚 Moses鈥攁nd there is a bad guy鈥擪orah. Modern readers, however, often find themselves sympathizing with the bad guy. In the opening verses of the parashah (Num. 16:1鈥�3), Korah stands up against the leadership of Moses and Aaron, saying, 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got too much! The whole congregation, all of them, are holy, and Hashem is in their very midst. So why do you act like princes, raising yourselves over Hashem鈥檚 congregation?鈥� Korah鈥檚 speech appeals to a modern reader: he鈥檚 the democrat who takes the aristocrat to task for acting so much better than everyone else. It can seem disturbing that Moses enjoys a monopoly on holiness, doling out a healthy serving of the sacred to his brother, the high priest Aaron (nepotism!), while leaving everyone else outside the priesthood. Aren鈥檛 we all holy? Doesn鈥檛 God belong to all of us equally?

Korah seems to have scripture on his side. According to the Torah, God doesn鈥檛 dwell in Moses鈥檚 tent, or in Aaron鈥檚; the deity dwells at the center of the camp that belongs to the whole nation. The books of Exodus and Numbers take pains to provide us with a detailed map of the Israelite camp, and the Tabernacle (Mishkan) is at its midpoint. Within that Tabernacle, these books make clear, is the very presence of God. Further, what Korah says about the nation Israel is quite reminiscent of verses throughout the Torah. God sanctifies the nation Israel in Exodus 31:13, not just Moses. We learn in Exodus 19:5 that the whole nation鈥攏ot just Moses鈥檚 family鈥攚ill be God鈥檚 special treasure, a holy kingdom. Verses that speak of the Israelite nation鈥檚 holiness occur throughout the Torah: Exodus 22:30; Leviticus 11:44鈥�45, 19:2, 20:7鈥�8; Numbers 15:39鈥�40; and Deuteronomy 7:5鈥�10, 14:2, and 28:9. Korah seems to have not only Thomas Jefferson and Woodie Guthrie on his side in his proposal for letting the common man share some power; he seems to have the Torah on his side, too. No wonder he garnered significant support, His program was popular, and it seemed kosher.

But the Torah is quite clear about who did not side with Korah: God. After hearing Korah鈥檚 complaint, Moses proposes a test: Korah and his followers should come to the Tabernacle with an incense-filled fire pan of the sort used in sacrificial worship; Aaron will do the same. God鈥檚 reaction, Moses implies, will show who鈥檚 right. When, on the following day, the test takes place, a fire bursts forth from the Holy of Holies where God dwells, and kills Korah and his followers. Some of Korah鈥檚 followers avoid being killed by the fire鈥攂ut only because the earth opens up and swallows them, an event that tends to reinforce the basic message God is sending about Korah鈥檚 proposal.

The Torah makes Korah into a symbol of exactly the wrong sort of belief, even though his proposals seem to hew fairly closely to a large number of verses from elsewhere in the Torah. What is so wrong with what he says?

The answer becomes clear when we read more closely the verses about Israel鈥檚 holiness elsewhere in the Torah. These verses never simply tell us, as Korah does, that all Israelites are inherently holy. Rather, they command Israelites to become holy by observing the mitzvot that the Torah commands. Compare Korah鈥檚 statement quoted above with the words God speaks just before God gives the Torah at Sinai (Exod. 19.5鈥�6):

So now–
if you all truly obey Me
and adhere to My covenant,
you will be My personal treasure from among all nations.
Indeed, all the world is Mine,
but you will become My kingdom of priests,
My holy people.

Korah鈥檚 statement, 鈥淭he whole congregation, all of them, are holy,鈥� seems on the surface to resemble these verses, but it leaves out the crucial word that appears at the very beginning of God鈥檚 statement: if. The Israelites become holy only when they truly obey God and adhere to the Covenant. The same is true of the other verses about Israel鈥檚 holiness I cited earlier. To take just a few examples:

• In Leviticus 19:2, God says, 鈥淵ou should be holy, for I, Hashem your God, am holy. Every person should respect his mother and father. Observe My Sabbaths鈥擨 am Hashem your God. Never turn to any false gods, and make yourselves no idols.鈥�

• In Numbers 15:40, God commands the Israelites to wear tzitziyot, fringes on their garments, so that, when they see the tzitziyot, they will remember God鈥檚 commands. 鈥淭hen,鈥� God says, 鈥測ou will carry out all My commands, and you will be holy to your God.鈥�

• In Deuteronomy 13:9 to 14:2, Moses tells the Israelites, 鈥淚f you obey Hashem your God by carrying out all His commandments that I command you today and by doing what is right in the sight of the Hashem your God, you will be children of Hashem your God. Do not gash yourselves or make a bald spot above your forehead because of the dead [as a sign of mourning]! For you are a holy people belonging to Hashem your God! Hashem your God chose you from among all the nations on earth to be His personal treasure. Do not eat anything that is improper!鈥� (The laws of kashrut follow.)      

All these passages mention Israel鈥檚 holiness alongside demands for Israel鈥檚 observance of the mitzvot. The consistent message is not that the nation Israel is automatically holy, as if holiness were in some special 黑料社 gene each of us received when we were conceived. Rather, holiness is something the Torah requires us to foster in our communities and in ourselves. There is nothing special about being 黑料社; there is something sacred in observing the Torah. Without the commandments, it means nothing to be a Jew. (And if there were some 黑料社 gene that made us special, should we conclude that converts to Judaism lack it? Such a conclusion is ridiculous鈥攁nd offensive from the point of view of 黑料社 law, according to which all Jews are equally 黑料社, regardless of whether one becomes 黑料社 by choice or by birth.)

Here the danger of Korah鈥檚 words becomes clear. Korah is less a liberal democrat than a certain kind of nationalist. He regards holiness not as an achievement but as a right. He remembers the verses that speak of Israel鈥檚 status without paying attention to what all those verses say we have to do to earn that status. By recalling the Torah selectively, he converts an ethical demand into a sense of entitlement.

Korah鈥檚 revolt, in the short term, achieved nothing. And yet Korahite thinking never fully disappeared. It endures to the present day. There are some Jews who want to take pride in being 黑料社 without doing anything to deserve that pride. These Jews have a racial or genetic idea of our specialness. Elements of Korahite thinking appear even among 黑料社 texts and thinkers that have managed to be within the mainstream. Yehudah Halevi was one of the greatest Hebrew poets; in fact some of his poems appear in our liturgy. But at times he expressed the view that there is something automatically special about Jews simply by virtue of their being born as Jews (and for this reason his acceptance of converts as fully Jews was less than complete, in contradiction to 黑料社 law). The Tanya, a work of popular mysticism by the founder of the Lubavitch movement, holds a similar view of 黑料社 specialness via birth. Occasional thinking along these lines appears also in the Zohar (e.g., 3:81a). Thinking of this sort can easily devolve into nationalistic, chauvinistic, and even bigoted attitudes. God鈥檚 response to Korah provides a definitive rejection of the idea that Jews are automatically special鈥攁nd a reminder that it is performing the Torah鈥檚 commands that allows us to strive for holiness.