Korach 5784

Korach 2024

Questions of leadership and authority are not something concocted solely in our modern-day America. Poor Moses, the most prominent leader in Jewish history, found his authority questioned by his cousin Korach.

As our Torah reading for this Shabbat opens, we are introduced to Korach. As a member of the tribe of Levi, he demanded that he be appointed the Kohen Hagadol. The High Priest, responsible for the religious rites of the people. In his demand he asks what right did Moses have to appoint Aaron as the leader. He suggests that anyone who is from the tribe of Levi could have been appointed as the spiritual and ritual leader. Korach conspires with two others, Datan and Abiram, who were from the tribe of Reuben. As members of the tribe of the oldest son of Jacob, they demanded that they had even more of a right than Moses to be the political leader of the Israelite nation. They assembled two hundred and fifty chieftains to join with them in confronting Moses and Aaron.

Moses responds with a most responsible of answers. He states that it was not Moses who chose Aaron; nor did he self-proclaim himself as the political leader of the Jewish people.  Then we read that Moses “spoke to Korach and to his entire congregation, saying: Morning, the Lord will disclose who is His, and who is holy and will bring him near to Him, and whom He shall choose, He will bring near to Him” (Numbers 16:5).

Moses does not turn to his cousin and state the obvious “Hashem appointed both Aaron and me.” Nor did he provide the historical reality of Moses and Aaron’s leadership in serving as Hashem’s messengers in bringing the Israelite from slavery to freedom. Instead, he provides Korach with the truest of tests – let it be decided by the one who appoints the religious leader – Hashem himself. Clearly no one should dispute Hashem. Moshe actually suggests that through a sign from God, one of them will receive a vote of confidence and will be the leader of the people.

A beautiful midrash in Numbers Rabbah tries to make sense of Moses explanation.

The midrash interprets it in the following fashion. What is meant that “He said: “Morning, the Lord will disclose who is His” – why is it so? Rabbi Natan said: The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘If all the magicians of the world gathered and sought to transform morning into evening they would not succeed. Just as I distinguished between light and darkness, so I distinguished Aaron to sanctify him with sanctity of the highest order.’”

What might we read into this explanation? One of my colleagues, Rabbi Eli Garfinkel, suggests that “This midrash is saying that Koraḥ and his followers were protesting the unchangeable. Doing so never ends well, because things that are unchangeable cannot be reversed or overthrown no matter how hard we kick and scream. You can say that 6 divided by 0 is 0 until you’re blue in the face, but your protest does not change the fact that division by zero is undefined. So it was with the Kohanim and Levites. The difference between them was set as a matter of divine law, so there was no point in protesting it.”

One can protest any of the rulings of most courts. One can also agree with them. However, while the rulings of the most Supreme, can be questioned, one must recognize that once placed into law it is unchangeable. The one who protests the ruling will come to realize that one cannot change the ruling. One can only interpret it, draft a new legislation that will supersede the old one, or repeal the old one. In Jewish tradition through the ages each of these avenues have been taken.

One such legal concept that works around a Torah law is called a takkanah. The word is most known to us from the concept of tikkun olam, repairing the world.  The takkanah was “an enactment which (1) revises an ordinance that no longer satisfies the requirements of the times or circumstances, or which (2), being deduced from a Biblical passage, may be regarded as new.” (Encyclopedia Judaica). As such the takkanah repaired or improved the world for the better.

For example, in the time of the Torah, debts were forgiven every Sabbatical year, or once every seven years.  Due to a fear of not having the obligation paid by the borrower, in its full amount, Jewish lenders tended not to lend to other Jews.

The great sage Hillel created a takkanah, a legalism called the Prosbol. Through this principal, debts, that in Torah law would have been wiped out without payment, could still be collected. The work around the law was that the loan was not made to an individual. Rather it was made through the court. As such there were no private loans.  

Both the Torah’s law and the principal of Prosbol are still used today in the religious world, so that one is able take out a mortgage on a home, a business, an auto or any other type of loan.  In utilizing this creative legalism, the lender would not have to fear that the loan would simply be forgiven on the Sabbatical year.  

In a similar fashion, a second legalism, heter iskah, is used in the Jewish world when loans are made, so that one Jew is permitted to charge interest to another. Torah law forbids interest. Quicken Loans, which was founded by a Jew, includes the heter iskah clause in all of their loans to clients who observe the Torah commandment of not taking interest from a fellow Jew.

As we continue to study Parashat Korach, in the morning God chose Moses and Aaron once again. It was Hashem who cast the vote, not Moses or Aaron, and not Korach and not Datan and Abiram.  The Torah teaches us how important it is to respect that decision.

The midrash reminds us that certain things simply cannot be altered. Once we accept that reality, then we need to find the derekh, the path to bring understanding to not only what it implies, but also how to best work with it and all of its implications. What makes Jewish law so beautiful is it inherent ability to find solutions even to the most difficult of situations created by the law itself.

Shabbat shalom.

Rabbi K