Welcome back! With the end of the school year and changes in our work routines, we decided to take a little break! We’re glad to be back with you!
This week’s Torah portion is Korach (which was Marissa’s Bat Mitzvah portion). In this portion, we see Korach, Dathan, Abiram, and On challenge Moses and Aaron’s authority. They question why Moses and Aaron were chosen to lead the Israelites and especially question why Aaron was chosen as High Priest. They also accuse Moses of abusing his power saying, “’The entire congregation is holy, and the L-rd is in their midst. So why do you raise yourselves above the L-rd’s assembly?'” Korach convinces 250 other Israelites to join his side. They stage a mutiny trying to overthrow Moses. Moses tells Korach that they will test who is worthy of being the priest by making an incense offering. Then, “Moses was much aggrieved and he said to the LORD, ‘Pay no regard to their oblation. I have not taken the ass of any one of them, nor have I wronged any one of them.’”
After the offerings are made, G-d tells Moses to have the people get away from Korach and Co. and their families. “He addressed the community, saying, ‘Move away from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing that belongs to them, lest you be wiped out for all their sins.’ So they withdrew from about the abodes of Korach, Dathan, and Abiram. Now Dathan and Abiram had come out and they stood at the entrance of their tents, with their wives, their children, and their little ones.” You might be wondering what happened to the 250 followers. Well, they were set on fire.
While the portion goes on to talk about what happens after this, we’re going to stop here and focus on this part (which is arguably the main and most important part of the portion…it is called Korach after all).
When we wrote about this portion a few years ago for Hillel International’s Two-Line Torah, we discussed not blindly following the leader. This is still relevant today! We need to do our best to not blindly follow what people in power say. People in power are capable of spewing blatant lies to the public, knowing that their position will make it more likely for people to believe them. This is especially true if people don’t educate themselves. You need to do your research before you support an argument or a view. This goes for everyone. Before you decide to wholeheartedly support a view or stick to an opinion, you need to make sure that your opinion is supported by research.
The same goes for “cancel culture”. Cancel culture is the idea that we should absolutely stop supporting a specific person and revoke a person’s power because of something they’ve done or said. This also requires people to do their research. If you find that someone has done or said something egregious time and time again, by all means, stop supporting them and rid them of their power. However, we need to make sure we aren’t assuming someone’s guilt because of one accusation. Many innocent people have been imprisoned because they have been assumed guilty and no one was willing to see it otherwise. Don’t hop on the cancel culture train because it is trendy, do your research, and make sure people deserve your rebuke.
We need to listen to one another. We need to understand one another. When we understand what someone else needs, we understand why they act the way they do and why they say the things they say. Those who are oppressed will resent those who aren’t. Those who are powerless will resent those with power. Instead of getting angry about others being angry, educate yourselves on why they are angry. Try to understand the views of others.
It’s so important to not jump on a bandwagon and blindly support someone because, “Everybody makes mistakes, everybody has those days.” Like Hannah Montana told us back in 2007, nobody’s perfect. This goes for celebrities, fictional characters, biblical figures, political figures, friends, family…well you get the point. In Judaism, we are taught not to worship idols (see golden calf story for details) and we idolize others. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I know I just contradicted myself, but bear with me for a sec. It becomes bad when we completely idolize someone and act as if they are this perfect being when in fact they are not. They are not perfect and it’s an unhealthy mentality to believe that they are. It’s okay to love/adore/be a fan/supporter of someone but you must acknowledge their flaws and faults. Feel free to (respectfully) critique them, criticize them, call them out.
While on the topic of calling out people’s mistakes and that nobody is perfect, we’d like to bring your attention back to the “characters” of the portion. They aren’t all totally innocent and it is important and healthy for us to acknowledge that, learn from it, and grow.
Let’s start with the obvious and ease on into things. Korach, Dathan, Abiram, and On are portrayed as the villains of this portion. They challenged Moses and accused him and Aaron of abusing their power and essentially thinking they were holier than everyone else. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ d’var of Korach talks about how you can learn a lot from what someone accuses someone of. He says, “As a general rule: if you want to understand resentments, listen to what people accuse others of, and you will then know what they themselves want.“ If we apply this to Korach, one could argue that Korach and Co are accusing Moses and Aaron of abusing their power and thinking they’re all that and a slice of challah because they want to have more power.
So Korach and Co’s imperfections are that they are power-hungry. Not that they tried to stage a mutiny (though some may argue this). If you look more into Korach’s background, you will see that he is a part of the tribe of Levi. The Levites already had a fair bit of power and were fairly important. But, Korach wanted more. As for the others, they didn’t have as much power as Korach. On, Dathan, and Abiram were in the tribe of Reuben which received no special status. Whether they already had power or not, they seemed to want the power for the wrong reasons. They didn’t want the power to be good leaders and help their fellow Israelites. They wanted more power just to be powerful. This is their flaw.
Korach then goes and makes a speech or two and convinces 250 people to join his side. These 250 people kinda blindly played follow the leader. They didn’t question Korach or his motives. He said some things they liked and were like, “you got my vote pal”. The flaw of these people was the fact that they didn’t do their research. They could have been upset with Moses and Aaron and how things were being run (which is valid) but they didn’t take into consideration that Korach’s main motive wasn’t to help them but to help himself. Don’t support someone without making sure you have all the facts first.
Now, let’s move on to Moses. My boy Momo (the biblical figure, not the flying lemur) isn’t so innocent in this portion. You might say, “What do you mean? He set up a test to see who is worthy of priesthood. He tried to make things fair!” To which I would advise you to look at the portion more closely. While yes, Moses does set up this test, he doesn’t leave things up to fate…or well G-d. He sets up the test and then goes to G-d and says “Yo, I set up this test thing and you’re going to have to be the judge but like…don’t pick one of those guys.” Okay, so maybe not in those words but that’s my interpretation of it. If you want to read the actual text, just scroll back up to the summary. Here’s one more Marissa interpretation just in case you need it: essentially Moses is like “Bruh these people are accusing me of things but like I swear I didn’t do it so like…just ignore them. Like, don’t even listen to what they have to say.” Kinda fishy, right? Moses kinda bribed off the judge in the competition. He cheated. He made sure he would win. He stuffed the ballots. He fixed the election. He- well, you get the point.
Yes, you could argue that even so, G-d could have just ignored Moses and made the decision without his influence. While this is a valid point, we don’t actually know if it’s true. Nothing more is mentioned about it after that. We don’t really see G-d’s opinion or response. The portion just moves on to the next part.
Speaking of G-d, let’s talk about some things G-d did in this portion that might not have been so great. First, as mentioned before, G-d was potentially influenced by Moses in the test to not pick Korach or Korach’s followers. G-d didn’t seem to question Moses’s suggestion or motivation and just went with it. In addition, when the Earth swallowed up Korach and Co, it also swallowed up their wives (?) and children. They were not mentioned once in the portion before this, so why are they being punished so harshly? Guilt by association? But did they really deserve a punishment so harsh? If someone in power (not G-d) did this, what would you think? Just because G-d does something, doesn’t make it automatically right. Like with everybody else, don’t take things at face value and go with it. It’s okay to question other’s actions and motives even if it’s G-d’s.
We encourage you to take some time this Shabbat to reflect on your own privileges, biases, and actions and see what you can do to change yourself for the better.
Have a peaceful Shabbat, practice social distancing, and remember: Black Lives Matter.
Marissa & Amanda
