Demagogues in the Bible // Korah

(1) Now Korah, son of Izhar son of Kohath son of Levi, betook himself, along with Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—descendants of Reuben— (2) to rise up against Moses, together with two hundred and fifty Israelites, chieftains of the community, chosen in the assembly, men of repute. (3) They combined against Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! For all the community are holy, all of them, and the LORD is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above the LORD’s congregation?” (4) When Moses heard this, he fell on his face. (5) Then he spoke to Korah and all his company, saying, “Come morning, the LORD will make known who is His and who is holy, and will grant him access to Himself; He will grant access to the one He has chosen. (6) Do this: You, Korah and all your band, (7) take fire pans, and tomorrow put fire in them and lay incense on them before the LORD. Then the man whom the LORD chooses, he shall be the holy one. You have gone too far, sons of Levi!” (8) Moses said further to Korah: “Hear me, sons of Levi. (9) Is it not enough for you that the God of Israel has set you apart from the community of Israel and given you access to Him, to perform the duties of the LORD’s Tabernacle and to minister to the community and serve them? (10) Now that He has advanced you and all your fellow Levites with you, do you seek the priesthood too? (11) Truly, it is against the LORD that you and all your company have banded together. For who is Aaron that you should rail against him?” (12) Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab; but they said, “We will not come! (13) Is it not enough that you brought us from a land flowing with milk and honey to have us die in the wilderness, that you would also lord it over us? (14) Even if you had brought us to a land flowing with milk and honey, and given us possession of fields and vineyards, should you gouge out those men’s eyes? We will not come!”

(Numb. 16:1:) “Now Korah […] took” What is written above the matter (in Numb. 15:38) “Speak unto the Children of Israel and tell them to make tassels (zizit) for themselves.’” Korah quickly said to Moses, “In the case of a prayer shawl (tallit) which is all blue, what is the rule about it being exempt from [having] the tassel?” Moses said to him, “[Such a prayer shawl] is required to have the tassels.” Korah said to him, “Would not a prayer shawl which is all blue exempt itself, when four [blue] threads exempt it? In the case of a house which is full of [scriptural] books, what is the rule about it being exempt it from [having] the mezuzah (which contains only two passages of scripture)?” [Moses] said to him, “[Such a house] is required to have the mezuzah.” [Korah] said to him, “Since the whole Torah has two hundred and seventy-five parashiot in it and they do not exempt the house [from having the mezuzah], would the two parashiot which are in the mezuzah exempt the house?” [He also] said to him, “These are things about which you have not been commanded, rather you are inventing them.

Rabbi Isaiah Horowitz

Prague (1555-1630)

Jealousy caused Korach to "robe himself" in haughtiness, caused him to aspire to greatness. This is why the expression ויקח קרח, should be understood as "he took the fact that he was the son of Yitzhar into consideration, and decided he was entitled to higher rank than had been accorded him so far. We know that Bamidbar Rabbah quotes Rabbi Levi as saying that Korach considered the fact that he was the son of יצהר, [another name for oil], and that oil always floats on top. Furthermore, he considered the fact that he was also the grandson of Kehat who had been found worthy to found the family that would carry the Holy Ark. By dwelling on these points he convinced himself that the position of leadership of the Kehatites should have belonged to him, and not to Elitzafan who was only fourth in line. These were the considerations which resulted in his being deprived of his life and his future.

R. Ovadia Sforno

Rome/Bologna (1468-1550?)

ויקהלו על משה ועל אהרן

Korach, Datan and Aviram, assembled in order to incite against Moses and Aaron in the presence of 250 dignitaries of the people who had allowed themselves to be incited. This incident occurred at a time when a number of Israelites had assembled in the vicinity of Moses waiting to have their respective complaints adjudged. The 250 men mentioned walked around as if minding their own business, wanting to consult Moses about some harmless matter. It was their intention to arouse the crowd in order to provide support for Korach’s and his henchmen’s insurrection as soon as the latter would show up and begin asking hostile questions of Moses and Aaron. They selected an hour of day when there was a sizable crowd in Moses’ vicinity in order to reap the maximum benefit from that, and so that all those who were convinced of the validity of Korach’s complaints would spread the word and bring reinforcements from the plain people in the camp.

The wife of Korah said to him: 'See what Moses did. He proclaimed himself as a king, his brother he made highpriest, the sons of his brother for adjuncts of the high-priests. Heave-offering he commanded to give to the priests, and even from tithes, which are for the Levites, he commands to give again one-tenth to the priest. And not only this, he made of you fools by commanding all the Levites to shave off all their hair, so that you should look like prisoners.' And to his answer: 'He himself also did so,' she said, 'Since all the glory belongs to him, he does not care, etc.'

7 (Numb. 16:5) “In the morning [the Lord will make known those who belong to him]”: What reason did he have for saying, “In the morning He will make known” Moses said, “Perhaps they said this thing because they had been excessively eating and drinking.” He therefore said, “In the morning.” Perhaps between now and then they will repent [...] Another interpretation (of Numb. 16:5): Moses said, “The Holy One, blessed be He, has distinguished boundaries in His world. Can you confuse morning with evening? [...] If you can confuse this distinction in which he made a separation between the day and the night, you may be able to nullify this.”

R. Shmuel Bornsztain
Kotsk (1856-1926)

“In the morning [the Lord will make known those who belong to him]”

By delaying them until morning and not carrying out the test immediately, he managed to prevent all the tribes following [Korach] as it is written "Korah gathered the whole community against them" (Numbers 16:19). And Rashi explains that all night he went to the different tribes and enticed them until he won them all over."

ויאמר משה אל קרח שמעו נא בני לוי AND MOSES SAID UNTO KORAH, HEAR, I PRAY YOU, YE SONS OF LEVI — He began to speak to him with gentle words; when, however, he saw that he was stubborn, he said to himself: Before the other tribes join him and perish together with him, I will speak to them all!” He thereupon began to admonish them: “Hear ye, ye sons of Levi!” (Midrash Tanchuma, Korach 6).

ויקהל עליהם קרח AND KORAH CONVENED [ALL THE CONGREGATION] AGAINST THEM, by means of scoffing language: that whole night he went round to all the tribes and tried to win them over: “Do you really think that I care for myself alone? It is only for all of you that I have a care! These men come and occupy every high office: royal rank for himself, for his brother the priesthood!” — until in the end all of them submitted to his persuasion (Midrash Tanchuma, Korach 7).

"Therefore you and all your company have come together against the Lord.” With all these words Moses [tried to] appease Korah, but you do not find that he gave him any answer. Because he was clever in his wickedness, he said [to himself], “If I answer him, I know that, since he has great wisdom, he will now overwhelm me with his words and seduce me into being reconciled with him against my will. It is [hence] better that I not respond to him.” When Moses saw that there was nothing to be gained with him, he withdrew from him. (Numb. 16:12:) Then Moses sent to summon Dathan and Abiram.³¹Numb. R. 18:10. They also persisted in their wickedness and did not care to answer him (ibid., cont.), “and they said, ‘We will not come up.’” Their [very] mouths tripped up [these] wicked men, for a covenant is made with the lips. So they went down to Sheol, as stated (in Numb. 16:33), “So they and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol.” After they had gone down alive to Sheol, they died. (Numb. 16:13:) “Is it so small a matter that you have brought us up from a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the desert, [that you must also lord it over us]?” They said to him, “On what basis do you assume superiority over us? What good have you done with us? You brought us out of the land of Egypt, which was (according to Gen. 13:10) “like the garden of the Lord”; but you have not brought us into the land of Canaan. Rather here we are dying in the desert, where the plague is sent among us every day; (according to Numb. 16:14) ‘would you put out the eyes of these people….’” (Numb. 16:15:) “Now Moses was very angry.” He was very anguished. To what is this comparable? To a man who argues with his companion and reasons with him. When he answers him, he has peace of mind; but if he does not answer him, then this involves great anguish.

R. Hezekiah b. Manoah

France (circa 1250-1310)

העיני האנשים ההם תנקר, “will you gouge out the eyes of these men?”

The verse is to be understood as a question, not as a statement, the authors expressing their astonishment that Moses hoped to get away with misleading the people with such trick. They themselves could certainly not be fooled by him, someone who had so utterly failed in his socalled mission up to now. They expressed wonder that the eyes of the Jewish people should have been fooled thus far, it looked to them as if these people had been blind all the time. [They were clearly the greatest demagogues up to that time! Ed.] Now, instead of making good on their promises, they had decreed that a whole generation of Israelites were to perish in this desert! They would not appear in front of him to be judged by him, he had lost all credence as a leader.

Every argument that is for [the sake of] heaven's name, it is destined (literally, its end is) to endure: [...] An argument which is not for the sake of Heaven, its desired purpose is to achieve power and the love of contention, and its end will not endure; as we found in the argument of Korah and his congregation - that their aim and ultimate intent was to achieve honor and power, and the opposite [was achieved].