Korach

Chabad.org's Korach in a Nutshell

Korach incites a mutiny challenging Moses’ leadership and the granting of the kehunah (priesthood) to Aaron. He is accompanied by Moses’ inveterate foes, Dathan and Abiram. Joining them are 250 distinguished members of the community, who offer the sacrosanct ketoret (incense) to prove their worthiness for the priesthood. The earth opens up and swallows the mutineers, and a fire consumes the ketoret-offerers.

A subsequent plague is stopped by Aaron’s offering of ketoret. Aaron’s staff miraculously blossoms and brings forth almonds, to prove that his designation as high priest is divinely ordained.

G‑d commands that a terumah (“uplifting”) from each crop of grain, wine and oil, as well as all firstborn sheep and cattle, and other specified gifts, be given to the kohanim (priests).

I wanted to use a translation I had never read or heard of before, so I went onto Sefaria.org and used the "Torah Yesharah, translated and edited by Chas. Kahane. New York, 1963"

A question that kept coming up for me was why was Moses keep repeating "sons of Levi" and it had me question if there was any difference between Korach, Moses, and Aaron. They are all Levites, so why the beef between Korach that would start this "mutiny" between him, Dathan, Abiram (Reubenites), and 250 other influential men? Moses in Numbers 16:9-10 says the following to Korach:

It is interesting that Rashi here emphasizes the fact that Korach and his clan have been elevated and the rest of the congregation has been excluded. Yet when Moses calls upon Dathan and Abiram they refuse and interestingly enough say the following to Moses.

How in the world do Dathan and Abiram think that Egypt is the land of milk and honey? It seems that the Stone Edition had the same problem with this that I had as it's commentary is "13-14 Brazenly, Dathan and Abiram castigated Moses as a failed leader who had taken the nation from the prosperity and luxury of Egypt to a lingering death in the Wilderness. And if so, he had no right either to lead the nation or to summon its leaders to come to him. Such is the way of the wicked. After all the oppression and suffering of Egypt they had the gall to describe the land of their servitude with the same words G-d had used to praise the Promised Land!"

I have known loss and have had my own issues with Hashem with all the "testing" I've felt I've been put through. I really believe that it is each man for himself and not that one is above the other. I'm conflicted in my feelings when I read verse 15 as to Moses' prayer to Hashem.

In the commentary section of "Finding ourselves through others" https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/finding-ourselves-through-others/

Judaism teaches that we are responsible for the choices we make and therefore are the leaders of our own lives. Our children — the next generation — will take the words and the teachings we bequeath to them and will experience them in their own time, in a world and culture that we cannot imagine. In that world our children will take the responsibility for leading their own lives and, if they are blessed, will establish effective partnerships and families.

The challenges of taking leadership in our own lives are demonstrated in the rabbinic understanding of the struggles between Moses and Aaron on the one side and Korach on the other. Considering this Torah portion, our Rabbis ask, “What is the meaning of the words ‘Korach betook?'” They answer, “He betook himself.” That’s what we all do. We take ourselves through our daily lives.

Yet our rabbinic tradition implies that Korach’s taking of himself reached a new level. In challenging Moses and Aaron, he raised himself above his followers while accusing Moses and Aaron of that very same offense. In reaction to Korach’s revolt, perhaps Moses fell on his face to emphasize his recognition that, despite his exalted status, we are all equal, with none either superior of inferior to another.

Like Moses, we realize that we can’t easily separate ourselves from those who are part of our lives. For example, we cannot separate ourselves from our families: We are both dependent on them and interdependent with them. While it is our responsibility to teach our children, we also need to learn from them. Perhaps on Shabbat, sitting there among the knives and the forks, the food and the candlesticks, we can learn to enrich and enhance one another. We can learn all the elements of charity, devotion, trust, patience, bravery, kindness, generosity, admiration, enthusiasm, loyalty, joy, love, and hope. In doing so, we become dependent on those around us even when we seek to lead them.

Now as Hashem has done in the past, instead of just picking who is the Chosen One as Moses had indicated would happen. Hashem tells Moses and Aaron to separate themselves from the whole community so He can annihilate them all at once. And instead of doing so, what do Moses and Aaron do?

This just makes me wonder if it was because of Moses' prayer in verse 15 that G-d tells Moses and Aaron to separate themselves from the community. Did Moses not think of the consequences of what his prayer might bring upon the rebels?

I wonder if Moses felt guilty which is why when G-d said to him and Aaron, separate yourselves so I may annihilate these people, they fell to their faces and prayed to G-d to restrain Himself and not destroy a community for the faults of a man or in this case it would be a few men.

Do we think of this as Moses speaking about his own sin for praying that G-d not accept the offering of Korach, Dathan, Abiram, and the 250 other men? Or is he speaking about their sin? Did G-d respond to both prayers when He didn't accept their offerings but also didn't annihilate the entire community? Was G-d taking note of how to prove that Moses is not the man in charge but it is in fact G-d by doing as Moses said G-d would do or is G-d Moses' puppet? Now before today, I would NEVER have thought of G-d being someone's puppet but no where before the following versus have I read with such specification as to how G-d would destroy a people, He just does.

When I first read verse 32 I thought it meant Korach, Dathan, Abiram, and the 250 men but these was just those who lived with Korach. Now I know, because I met a descendent, that not all of Korach's family died. In the Stone Edition, the commentary says that Rambam says "Scripture declares explicitly, however, that his own children were not consumed (26:11), because they were great and righteous people who deserved to be saved. All of his children must have been grown, for the Torah makes no mention of small children. According to Ibn Ezra and Chizkuni, however, the households of this verse included wives and children. Korach's 250 leading followers were not included in this catastrophe, since they were consumed separately (v. 35).

As in everything I have heard my entire life... Remember, Remember so that history doesn't repeat itself. We don't seem to really know how to do that. Chapter 17 begins with the commandment to flatten the copper pans and turn them as a reminder of Korach but even that didn't work as the very next day as typical Children of Israel, they all complained. This seems like a never-ending battle of belief and disbelief, of seeing miracles and catastrophic events and still rebelling, or were they really correct in accusing Moses of killing Hashem's people?

If we remember verse 15, Moses prays to G-d to not pay attention to Korach and his followers' offerings. Is Moses' speech so powerful that it caused G-d to do as Moses was saying?

In https://www.partnersintorah.org/parsha-partner/korach/ under the article of "Power of Speech"

By RABBI OZER ALPORT

The very last paragraph stood out to me.

In a society where people are often admired for their sharp tongues, we would do well to consider the Torah’s perspective that speech may be more damaging than it seems. One of the 613 commandments is a prohibition against saying something which hurts another person’s feelings (Vayikra 19:33). The Talmud (Bava Metzia 58b) teaches that publicly embarrassing another person is comparable to killing him. The next time we are tempted to roll a sharp line off our tongues as we convince ourselves that it’s only words, we should remember the lesson taught by Rabbi Salanter.

Who is at fault with their speech in this Parsha? Korach, Dathan, Abiram, Moses, or the remaining living Israelites?

For me, and I may get grief for this, I think the person at fault really, in the end, is Moses. Moses prays to G-d so that only Aaron's offering is accepted and is the one who specifies how Korach and his immediate family and those living in his tent die.

G-d, unfortunately, decides to send in a plague where over 14,000 die from the plague, and then gives another test, the rod that blossoms.