Korach: Extenuating Grief

(26) יהוה spoke further to Moses and Aaron, (27) “How much longer shall that wicked community keep muttering against Me? Very well, I have heeded the incessant muttering of the Israelites against Me. (28) Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says יהוה, ‘I will do to you just as you have urged Me. (29) In this very wilderness shall your carcasses drop. Of all of you [men] who were recorded in your various lists from the age of twenty years up, you who have muttered against Me, (30) not one shall enter the land in which I swore to settle you—save Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. (31) Your children who, you said, would be carried off—these will I allow to enter; they shall know the land that you have rejected. (32) But your carcasses shall drop in this wilderness, (33) while your children roam the wilderness for forty years, suffering for your faithlessness, until the last of your carcasses is down in the wilderness. (34) You shall bear your punishment for forty years, corresponding to the number of days—forty days—that you scouted the land: a year for each day. Thus you shall know what it means to thwart Me. (35) I יהוה have spoken: Thus will I do to all that wicked band that has banded together against Me: in this very wilderness they shall die and so be finished off.’” (36) As for the agents whom Moses sent to scout the land, those who came back and caused the whole community to mutter against him by spreading calumnies about the land— (37) those who spread such calumnies about the land died of plague, by the will of יהוה. (38) Of those involved in going to scout the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived. (39) When Moses repeated these words to all the Israelites, the people grieved exceedingly.

(1) Now Korah, son of Izhar son of Kohath son of Levi, took; 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 יהוה is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above יהוה’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, יהוה will make known who is [God’s] and who is holy by granting direct access; the one whom [God] has chosen will be granted access. (6) Do this: You, Korah and all your band, take fire pans,

(2) ויקח קרח lit., AND KORAH TOOK — He betook himself on one side with the view of separating himself from out of the community so that he might raise a protest regarding the priesthood to which Moses had appointed his brother. This is what Onkelos means when he renders it by ואתפלג — “he separated himself” from the rest of the community in order to maintain dissension. Similar is, (Job 15:12) “Why doth thy heart take thee aside (יקחך)”, meaning, it takes you aside to separate you from other people (Midrash Tanchuma, Korach 2).

(2) “Took [vayikaḥ]” ......
“Koraḥ…took” – what led him to enter into a dispute? It was by means of Elitzafan, son of his father’s brother, who became the prince over his family, “the prince of the patrilineal house of the families of the Kehatites was Elitzafan son of Uziel” (Numbers 3:30). Koraḥ said: ‘My father and his brothers were four brothers – “the sons of Kehat: Amram and Yitzhar and Hevron and Uziel” (Exodus 6:18). Amram, the firstborn, his son Aaron merited the High Priesthood, and Moses, kingdom. Who is worthy of taking the second position? Is it not the second, as it is stated: “The sons of Kehat: Amram and Yitzhar”? I am the son of Yitzhar, I was worthy of becoming prince of my family, but he arranged that the son of Uziel, the youngest of my father’s brothers, will be greater than I.3Uziel was the prince of the Kehat family. I will enter into a dispute with him and void everything that he has accomplished.’ That is why, “Koraḥ took.”

Reish Lakish said to Rabbi Yoḥanan: I should read here the verse: “You shall not cut yourselves [titgodedu]” (Deuteronomy 14:1), which is interpreted as meaning: Do not become numerous factions [agudot]. In other words, the Jewish people should be united, rather than divided into disparate groups that act in different ways.

(1) Now the Human knew*knew Heb. yada‘, often in a sexual sense. his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gained a person with the help of יהוה.” (2) She then bore his brother Abel. Abel became a keeper of sheep, and Cain became a tiller of the soil. (3) In the course of time, Cain brought an offering to יהוה from the fruit of the soil; (4) and Abel, for his part, brought the choicest of the firstlings of his flock. יהוה paid heed to Abel and his offering, (5) but to Cain and his offering [God] paid no heed. Cain was much distressed and his face fell.

(11) Therefore, you shall be more cursed than the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.

(30) But if יהוה brings about something unheard-of, so that the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, you shall know that those involved have spurned יהוה.”

(5) Then he spoke to Korah and all his company, saying, “Come morning, יהוה will make known who is [God’s] and who is holy by granting direct access; the one whom [God] has chosen will be granted access. (6) Do this: You, Korah and all your band, take fire pans, (7) and tomorrow put fire in them and lay incense on them before יהוה. Then the candidate whom יהוה 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 direct access, to perform the duties of יהוה’s Tabernacle and to minister to the community and serve them? (10) Now that [God] has advanced you and all your fellow Levites with you, do you seek the priesthood too? (11) Truly, it is against יהוה 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 the eyes of those involved? We will not come!”

(16) The Eternal spoke to Moses, saying: (17) Speak to the Israelite people and take from them—from the chieftains of their ancestral houses—one staff for each chieftain of an ancestral house: twelve staffs in all. Inscribe each man’s name on his staff, (18) there being one staff for each head of an ancestral house; also inscribe Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi. (19) Deposit them in the Tent of Meeting before the Pact, where I meet with you. (20) The staff of the man whom I choose shall sprout, and I will rid Myself of the incessant mutterings of the Israelites against you. (21) Moses spoke thus to the Israelites. Their chieftains gave him a staff for each chieftain of an ancestral house, twelve staffs in all; among these staffs was that of Aaron. (22) Moses deposited the staffs before the Eternal, in the Tent of the Pact. (23) The next day Moses entered the Tent of the Pact, and there the staff of Aaron of the house of Levi had sprouted: it had brought forth sprouts, produced blossoms, and borne almonds. (24) Moses then brought out all the staffs from before the Eternal to all the Israelites; each identified and recovered his staff.