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Parashat Korach: The Wrong Way to Challenge

(Last year's e-drash on Korach was pretty good, too.)

It's hard to argue with Korach's challenge to Moshe.  Moshe seems like the unelected leader-for-life, and Korach makes the case that all the people are holy.  Moshe is theocracy, Korach is for not quite democracy, but a wider shared leadership.

This is hard to rebut.  Just this week, in fact, I gave a lecture on "Jews, Utopia, and Civil Rights."  I opened by contrasting the Bible with ancient religions in Egypt and Mesopotamia.  It's a point I often make, and I owe it to one of my professors, Paul Hansen at Harvard.  The religions of the first settled civilizations linked the gods to the kings, to the powerful.  Pharaoh was a god; the Mesopotamian kings worked hand in hand with the gods.  For Israel, God was on the side of the slave, not the master.  For the Hebrew prophets, even in the Jews' own land, God was on the side of the oppressed, not the king who looked the other way.

So Korach should be right, or at least he shouldn't deserve to be swallowed up by the earth!

This bothers the midrash.  In order to make it right, the midrash imagines more of a story to the conflict between Korach and Moshe.  Korach is depicted as a student of Moshe's, who is very attentive to the teachings Moshe has been conveying hot off the press from his conversations with God.  Korach asks, "If it's a mitzvah to have a tallit with four threads of blue in the tzitzit, what about a garment that is entirely blue but has no tzitzit?"  Or, "What if a room in my house is full of scrolls of Torah -- do I need a mezuzah?"  (What's the connection?  Tzitzit is the law given right before Korach's parasha begins, and mezuzah is linked to tzitzit through the Shma.)

In these stories, Moshe answers by standing up for the laws as given.  Korach blows his top and complains that the laws are too irrational to follow, if they don't allow for his alternatives.

Again I think many Jews today nod their heads to the questions the midrash puts in Korach's mouth.  Okay, if you're not deliberating all the time about tallit and mezuzah, the questions might be about kashrut and its purposes, and whether all the details are important, and whether if kashrut is a path to ethics why not just have the ethics without the kashrut.  Or you could Korach-like questions about prayer and why it has to be a certain way.

I give credit to the rabbis of 1500-some years ago that they allowed themselves into the minds of those who asked questions about the mitzvot and challenged them.  In the midrash, Korach is not faulted for asking the questions.  He is faulted for not letting Moshe's answers sink in.  And he is faulted for accusing Moshe of being self-serving.  Korach thinks that having so many laws without good reason is how Moshe keeps control.  No one can argue with Moshe, no one can reason with him.  Korach gathers a mob, makes these accusations against Moshe, and Moshe has no choice but to stand up and defend himself, Aharon, and God's Torah as written down to the last detail.

When I read Parashat Korach, I'm less interested in vindicating Moshe than in understanding what Korach did wrong.  After all, never again do the Jews have a Moshe-like leader, who is both the religious and the national president.  We don't expect our rabbis or our Israeli prime ministers to be like Moshe.  So we can say that Korach's general point is good -- not just one person with a direct line to God, leading the rest of us.

But the Korach who cuts off discussion, who incites against a well-intentioned leader -- that doesn't work.  Korach isn't remembered for being a religious reformer or a religious philosopher.  He's remembered as a dangerous person.  

Later on, Pirkei Avot contrasts Korach's challenge with the debates of the sages.  Hillel and Shammai, who disagreed on all but a handful of matters, were peers with different personalities, but they hung in there with one another.  They left groups of students who continued to vie.  About their conflicts -- which were about everything! -- a heavenly voice once said, "Both these and these are the voice of the living God."  

Groups and philosophies, even religions, can welcome and grow from questions of the sort the commentaries attribute to Korach.  But we don't grow when we are tense, afraid, or threatened.  We freeze.  If Korach was trying to help the group grow, his manner ultimately was a setback for his own cause. 

Parashat Korach -- Docent, Cheerleader, Coach...Rabbi

Parashat Korach opens with a challenge to Moshe and Aharon, led by a Levite named Korach.  "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 congregation of Adonai?"

On the face of it, the argument is pure politics.  It's about power and access (to God).

But in the midrash, Korach's challenge is described differently.  Korach is identified as a great sage!  But he has an interesting relationship with his own "rabbi", namely Moshe.  So for instance, Moshe teaches the community the concept of tzitzit.  On the corners of each garment, the Jews are to put fringes, and one thread is to be a particular kind of blue.  The tzitzit, Torah explains, are supposed to serve as a reminder to follow God rather than the temptations of the eyes.  (The blue thread eventually went out of practice because the dye was too expensive and it would have been out of reach of the average Jew.)

Upon learning the concept, Korach comes to Moshe and asks:  How about a tallit that is already entirely blue?  Wouldn't that be exempt from the requirement of tzitzit?  How about four threads with the special blue somewhere in the tallit?  Would that be good enough?

This gets Korach thinking.  From the last paragraph of the Shma to the first -- mezuzah.   A couple short passages from Torah at the entrance of my house.  Korach asks Moshe:  Suppose I have a house full of sacred books.  Would I really need a mezuzah on my front door?  How about if I keep a whole Torah scroll in there?  Surely that's at least as good as a little box with two little sections of Torah crammed in.

This midrash recasts the argument that begins the Torah reading.  It's about who gets to say what Torah means, what God's instructions are all about.  Does the rabbi or the religious leadership have a monopoly on that?  Doesn't the student or community member have a voice in how to apply Torah in her life?

I've been thinking about this midrash this week in light of my first anniversary next week with Temple Beth Abraham.  How should Torah be shared between a rabbi and a congregation?

I give Korach his due.  He is enthusiastic and wants to be empowered.  He goes past the level of mere obedience, toward real understanding.  He relates to the commandments in depth, in terms of their concepts and reasons.  Those are what Korach finds meaningful.  When he finds that meaning, Korach wants to go the extra mile to apply the concepts in his life.  He's ready to adapt Jewish ritual creatively if the traditions don't do it for him as received.

From this rabbi's perspective, that sounds like an ideal Jew!

According to the Torah, Moshe doesn't reject Korach's approach right away.  He falls on his face -- in awe, I would say, of Korach's commitment and the sense of holiness that he expresses.

It's true that Moshe is about halacha, the standard way of translating Jewish values into life.  But he's thinking about how to respond.

Korach reads Moshe's momentary silence differently.  As a lack of responsiveness.  So he immediately makes Moshe (and Aharon) the issue and attacks them, and it ends up being about egos rather than Torah.  Instead of creative tension -- between halacha and personal expression -- there is personal tension and conflict.  Their relationship devolves and dissolves, tragically.  To say the least -- Korach gets swallowed up by the earth.

From my reflections on this episode, I take away a few things about my role as a rabbi.

• One is to value and cheer Jewish commitment on the part of others, in any form.  My own example and choices will be traditional.  Shabbat, prayer, kashrut, holidays (not to mention Torah study and acts of chesed).  But that doesn't prevent me from being responsive when someone comes, like Korach in the midrash, with a different Jewish take on an idea or a practice.  I'm far more worried about Jewish apathy.  If someone has a different idea about prayer or Shabbat, for instance, I'm excited that they want to share it.  I'm eager to talk about how you would integrate that into your life, or how we could explore it in the shul.

• One important role I have is to be a docent of Jewish experiences and teachings.  I heard this metaphor at a conference and I love it.  Judaism has always been a vast gallery (not a museum!).  A docent makes selections.  What to present from among the infinite beauties of the collection.  So through my sermons, the courses I choose to teach, the links I post, etc. I can point you where I think there is something particularly valuable for you to think about or do.  Korach could think his thoughts about mezuzah and tzitzit because Moshe pointed those areas out, showed him where to look and find riches.

• In educational work, the phrase is "be a guide on the side, not (only) a sage on the stage."  A guide or coach is accepting, supporting, encouraging, empowering.  Also challenging and questioning, in the context of a real relationship.  Korach came with ideas, but didn't let Moshe come back with questions.  "Life coach" sounds a bit grandiose.  "Personal Jewish trainer", some call it.  I hope my teaching, on the stage or in smaller settings, is not only informative but helps you grow.

• Finally, it's not about me, it's about Torah and mitzvot.  Korach and Moshe ended up locked in a battle of egos, and no good can come of that.  In the end what I do is measured entirely by the mitzvot we collectively perform as a community.  Whatever I contribute to that, however I can, that's what matters.

As I write, I see that I have defined some guidance not only for a rabbi, but a congregant as well.  For the readers in and around Temple Beth Abraham, thank you for a good year.  May we learn and do much together in the year that's beginning.