Parasha: Korach · Aliyah: Third (Tiferet)

הבדלו מתוך העדה הואת "separate yourselves from this congregation, etc." This instruction was not addressed to Moses and Aaron as they did not have anything to fear from the attribute of Justice. Nothing would happen to them even if they remained standing close while G'd killed the whole community. I can give you proof of this when you consider that Aaron who was part of that group when he offered his incense remained unharmed while the earth opened underneath Korach and his family and swallowed them. G'd's instructions were addressed to the other righteous men in the congregation, people such as Joshua and Caleb as well as the families of Moses and Aaron. G'd prefaced His instructions to Moses and Aaron with the word לאמור. If the instructions had applied to Moses and Aaron themselves the word לאמור would have confused them. G'd addressed the righteous people who had to demonstrate by separating themselves that they disassociated themselves from Korach and his associates.

ואכלה אותם כרגע, "and I will consume them in a moment." Why did G'd add the word כרגע, "in a moment?" If all G'd wanted to inform us of was that He possessed the power to wipe out 600.000 people in a flash, He had already told us this in Exodus 33,5 "for if I go up in your midst for one moment, I shall consume you."

It appears according to the Midrash quoted by Rashi on verse 22,4 that this was already the fourth time the Israelites sinned and that the uprising of Korach occurred after the sin of the spies. I have explained there that the decree that the Israelites would die in the desert remained in effect but that Moses' prayer in this instance only prevented G'd from destroying the people all at once instead of over an extended period of time. In view of all this, the congregation we speak about here was already guilty of death in the desert. The Torah therefore reintroduces the threat to kill the whole people at once. This provides us with an answer as to why G'd would decree death for the vast majority of the people who had not been part of this uprising at all. Moses himself speaks about a single person sinning and the whole community becoming the target of G'd's anger (verse 22). Actually, as we demonstrated, the people were under sentence of death regardless of whether they associated themselves with Korach's rebellion or not. We have learned in Shabbat 32 that Satan is always especially active when there is danger. At such times even a relatively mild offence such as talking during the prayers is considered serious enough to free soldiers from participating in expansionary wars lest they endanger themselves needlessly on account of that sin. It is clear that the sin of talking during prayers is not a captial offence. It is only the fact that during war the angel of death is especially active which makes the unatoned for sin of talking during prayers potentially lethal. In our situation, the fact that the people were under sentence of death anyway would have made the angel of death eager to kill them at once if they had not first dissociated themselves from Korach.

After looking further into this matter I have realised that ordering the people to separate themselves from Korach's group could be perceived as therapy for the Jewish people. Had G'd not given these instructions, only those righteous amongst the Jewish people who had not yet been included in the decree that they would die in the desert would have escaped becoming victims of the angel of death at that time. By giving this instruction G'd actually gave the Israelites an opportunity to save themselves from imminent death seeing that all of them had a minor share in Korach's sin because they had not protested it. In fact, failure to protest what Koarch was trying to do was equivalent to being a passive supporter of Korach. G'd instructed Moses and Aaron to separate the righteous and thus enable him to pray on their behalf to ask for them to be spared, invoking his own merit. This is why G'd said to Moses: "tell the whole congregation 'get up from from around the dwelling of Korach, Datan and Aviram'" (verse 24). If we accept this approach the word הבדלו in our verse was meant to alert Moses and Aaron to pray, seeing there was no need for Moses and Aaron to separate themselves in order not to become victims of Korach's sin. Perhaps this is what G'd alluded to when He said לאמור, meaning that the whole purpose of G'd speaking to them at this juncture was לאמור, in order that Moses and Aaron start to pray as we indeed find that they did in verse 22. If we accept this interpretation we need not understand that G'd referred to Moses and Aaron removing their families from around the tent of Korach.

ויאמרו קל אלוקי חרוחות, They said: "O G'd the G'd of the spirits of all flesh, etc." The reason Moses used the name קל for G'd was that he realised that the attribute of Justice was in the ascendancy. By invoking the attribute קל Moses hoped to counterbalance the attribute of Justice with the attribute of חסד, loving kindness.

By referring to G'd as the "G'd of the spirits of all flesh," Moses used an argument that always evokes an echo from G'd as He wants that all spirits accept His Kingdom while they are still flesh, i.e. alive in this world. By saying הרוחות, Moses indicated that he referred to something spiritual, i.e. the G'd of thoughts and ideas. We find something parallel in Ezekiel 20,32 והעולה על רוחכם היו לא תהיה, "what enters your thoughts it shall not be!" Moses argued that though the judgment which G'd planned to perform through annihilating the whole people instantaneously was fair, the fact remained that to the outsider the impression this would create would be that G'd killed the whole people on account of the rebellious act of an individual. After all, it was clear that this rebellion did not involve the whole community! If G'd would proceed with what He had planned, the human mind would be so appalled by this that it might forever reject acknowledging such a G'd.

Moses also intended that his words should have a calming effect on G'd, making Him better disposed towards the Jewish people. He did so by reminding G'd of a variety of creatures who did not only recognize His sovereignty but paid tribute to it such as the angels, the souls of the righteous who have already departed from this earth, as well as the righteous souls who have not yet been assigned bodies to inhabit. We know that there is a store of such souls from Yevamot 62 where we have been taught that the Messiah cannot come until that store of souls has been emptied and all the souls therein have been asssigned bodies to inhabit. All of these souls acclaim and praise the Lord as we know from Proverbs 16,4: "G'd has made everything to serve Him." The songs of praises recited by the souls which inhabit bodies in this world are still more precious to G'd. Why would G'd do something which would make it difficult or impossible for these souls to praise Him if they went to their graves prematurely? By consigning them to death G'd would make it impossible for these souls to grow to love Him! The Zohar elaborates on the theme of how important it is to G'd for man to grow to love Him.

Considering all this, Moses was very astute in using the appellation אלוקי הרוחות לכל בשר, implying that G'd wants that all spirits would acknowledge, praise and love Him while they were still fused to the flesh. Killing them all at once would thwart G'd's desire. It was not reasonable then to allow the attribute of Justice to remain in the ascendancy.

The reason Moses referred to G'd's anger was to demonstrate that though G'd was perfectly aware that this particular rebellion was started by a single man, the punishment it provoked was only due to G'd's anger, i.e. תקצף.

האיש אחד יחטא, "shall one man sin, etc.?" Why did Moses phrase this in the future tense? He should have said: האיש אחד חטא? He referred to the fact that as long as Korach had not actually presented his incense he had not yet challenged Aaron's priesthood except with words. All he had been guilty of so far was ridiculing the system. If he were willing to retract, it would not be too late to save him.

דבר אל העדה לאמור, "speak to the congregation to say, etc." It appears unusual that G'd uses the relatively harsh דבר when the thrust of the message is to save the people from death. He did so in order to demonstrate that He minded terribly that there were Jews who were so careless with their lives that they risked it by not removing themselves from immediate danger. This is why G'd not only employed the tough דבר, but repeated the word לאמור in verse 25 to ensure that the message would get across to the people. G'd demonstrated how important it was to Him that this precious people not be diminished in numbers. The repetition of the word לאמור may mean that the exact wording of G'd's message was left to Moses. If he did not want to phrase it so harshly he was at liberty to do so. As long as the result of the way Moses relayed G'd's message was העלו that the people would remove themselves from around the tents of these rebels this was all that mattered. In fact, Moses did make some changes when he did not mention Korach by name but referred only to "these wicked people (verse 26)."

ויקם משה וילך אל דתן ואבירם, Moses rose up and went to Datan and Aviram, etc." Why did the Torah have to write ויקם that Moses rose up? If the Torah only wanted us to know that Moses had been sitting down before, why is this piece of information important to us 3000 years later? We may have to understand this in light of Proverbs 16,18 לפני שבר גאון, that "pride goes before ruin," and Proverbs 16,33 ולפני כבוד ענוה, "whereas humility precedes honour." Our sages in Shemot Rabbah 45,5 explain what David meant in Psalms 113,5 המגביהי לשבת. "When others deride me, G'd elevates me, whereas when I elevate myself G'd puts me in my place." Similarly in our verse. As soon as Moses had decided to waive his dignity and to go and appeal to Datan and Abiram, "he arose," i.e. he was elevated in the eyes of G'd. This is also the meaning of the verses we have quoted from Proverbs.

וידבר אל העדה לאמור, He spoke to the congregation, saying, etc. The word לאמור means here that Moses told the people that he had been instructed by G'd to tell them what he was about to say.

סורו נא מעל אהלי האנשים הרשעים האלה, "please depart from the tents of these wicked men." Moses was very astute in requesting from the people that by their departure from the tents of Korach they should indicate that they considered these men as wicked and about to perish. They should be afraid lest the evil that would overtake these men would also overtake them. If that would be the motivation behind their removing their presence from the tents of Korach G'd would interpret this positively and save them also from coming to harm. Even though G'd had already indicated that it was sufficient to merely remove oneself from Korach's tent, the righteous, such as Moses, are always concerned with helping their contemporaries to acquire additional merits.

ויעלו מעל קרח ודתן ואבירם, They lifted themselves up from the residence of Korach, etc. The effrontery of Datan and Aviram in continuing to maintain a defiant posture though they had already been abandoned by their fellow travelers who had withdrawn in fear of being punished together with them, made a suitable impression on Moses so that he announced that the people would witness Divine intervention by the manner in which these people were going to die. This was to prove that he had not appointed himself as their leader but that G'd had appointed him at the time. The words את כל המעשים האלה mean that everything Moses had done including insignificant appearing things were all carried out at G'd's instruction. He now said that not only would these people die immediately but they would die a particularly gruesome death.

בזאת תדעון, "Hereby you shall know, etc." Why did Moses think that after all that had occurred during the preceding two years that the Israelites still did not believe that he was a true prophet? Furthermore, why did he have to repeat כי לא מלבי, "that I did not do all these things arbitraily?" The people did not actually accuse Moses of having acted on his own when he appointed Aaron as High Priest, etc. However, they thought that Moses had exploited his good standing in the eyes of G'd to persuade G'd to agree with his personal choices for these positions. Alternatively, the people had thought that Moses had desired for these particular appointments to be made and G'd had read his mind and indulged him by telling him to make these appointments. The people had not disagreed that Aaron was unworthy to be the High Priest. Moses therefore countered that what was about to occur would be proof that he had not even initiated any of these decisions but that all of them had originated with G'd. As to the people's suspicion that in his heart Moses had wished for these people to be appointed to the positions they had been appointed to at the command of G'd, he said כי לא מלבי, "the thought had never occurred to me." The word כי here indicates that Moses felt he did not need to prove that he had acted on his own. All he had to prove was that he had not even entertained any thought of appointing close relatives to high positions such as the position of being High Priest.

אם כמות כל האדם, "If, in a manner similar to the death of anyone else, etc." In this instance the term האדם is one that includes Gentiles. We have a parallel for this in Baba Kama 38 where the Talmud explained that the word האדם in Leviticus 18,3 includes Gentiles. So far Moses referred to the actual death. The words ופקדת כל האדם refer to their burial. We have an example of that meaning of the word פקדה in Kings II 9,34 where the burial of Queen Izzevel is described. The words לא ה׳ שלחני mean that if Moses' prediction will fail to materialise this would be proof that G'd had not appointed him but that he himself had originated all he had done though G'd had not hindered him. The words ואם בריאה introduce what is going to happen, i.e. that body and soul will perish simultaneously.

ואם בריאה יברא ה׳ ופצתה האדמה את פיה, "If G'd will create a new creation and the earth will open its mouth, etc." Why did the word בריאה have to be repeated? Our sages in Sanhedrin 37 explain that the earth's mouth has remained closed ever since the day that the earth opened it in order to hide the blood of Abel whom Cain had slain and that this was the curse the Torah referred to in Genesis 4,11. This meant that whenever the earth wanted to open its mouth in order to sing G'd's praises it had to use its "wings" rather than its mouth. This is the meaning of Isaiah 24,16: מכנף הארץ זמרות שמענו, "we have heard songs from the wings of the earth." In this instance when Moses wanted to punish the wicked he said: ואם בריאה יברא השם "if the Lord will create a new creation." [The author explains why Moses did not say ואם יברא הי בריאה. Ed.] He referred to a creation which had once existed, namely the mouth of the earth, but which had been sealed due to some deed the earth had carried out so that for practical purposes this creative act of G'd had been undone. Now Moses wanted the mouth of the earth to be opened again so that it could swallow Korach and associates. Perhaps this was Moses' way of affording the earth an opportunity to make up for a time when it had opened its mouth to hide a sin, i.e. to swallow the blood of a righteous person, i.e. Abel.

ככלתו לדבר את כל הדברים, "when he finished saying all this," The earth timed its action at the precise moment when Moses completed what he had to say. As soon as Moses was finished it swallowed Korach, etc.

ותבקע האדמה אשר תחתיהם, The earth which was underneath them split. Why did the Torah have to write both that the earth "split" and that it "opened its mouth?" Why did the Torah describe the earth as אדמה when describing that it split, and as ארץ when "it opened its mouth?" Perhaps the mouth of the earth had not previously been situated exactly where Korach and his associates stood at the time so that the earth's reaction had to be described as a crack in its surface; for practical purposes this now became the earth's mouth. The crack was described as a crack in the אדמה, the mouth as the mouth of the ארץ.

וירדו…חיים שאולה, they descended into Sheol while still alive. The earth did not kill them but they remained alive so that the bowels of the earth became their Gehinom. The reason the Torah did not say חיים לשאול, but חיים שאולה is that although generally speaking when a word should have the letter ל at the beginning, the letter ה at the end of that word can substitute for the missing letter ל at the beginning, the Torah does not make such changes arbitrarily, without a reason. In this instance the Torah hinted by means of this construction that after Korach and associates descended they did not die but were given the ability to remain alive. This is what is meant by Sanhedrin 100 that G'd gives the wicked the ability to experience their punishment. If they were to die too soon they would not suffer the pain of G'd's retribution. If the Torah had written לשאול instead of שאולה, the meaning would have been that they died as soon as they arrived in Gehinom.

אמר אל אלעזר, "say to Eleazar, etc." The reason Moses instructed Eleazar to collect these censers rather than Aaron was that he did not think the High Priest should perform such a menial task. It is also possible that seeing that these people had died in order to prove that Aaron was the High Priest, i.e. that Aaron had been a cause of their death, G'd did not want that the act of giving some status to these censers should be performed by Aaron.

וירם את המחתות, and he shall lift up the censers, etc. In view of the fact that this was a totally new commandment why did the Torah write the conjunctive letter ו at the beginning of the word וירם? Perhaps the Torah considered this use of the censers as part of the demise of Korach and associates. G'd wanted the people to see that the Priesthood of Aaron had been His doing and that He would reinforce this decision by reminding the people of it throughout the generations when they would observe that the censers of the people who had challenged Aaron's status were being used by Aaron when he performed the sacrificial service on the altar.

החטאים האלה בנפשתם, "of these sinners who sinned at the cost of their souls." The reason the Torah repeats this may have been so that Aaron and Moses would not feel badly at having been involved in causing the deaths of these people. The Israelites should also not attribute the death of Korach and associates to any fault on the part of Moses or Aaron. The Torah therefore emphasises that not Moses and Aaron but solely these sinners themselves were to blame for what happened to them. In spite of all this, the Israelites did not understand G'd's intention and accused Moses and Aaron of being the cause of the death of these people (17,6).

כי הקריבום לפני ה׳ ויקדשו, "because they were offered before the Lord and have become sanctified." G'd explains that if He ordered these censers to be turned into a cover for the altar this did not mean that He was pleased with the incense that had been offered in them; on the contrary, the incense was repugnant to Him. However, the fact that these censers had been used for a holy purpose made them holy themselves. The new dimension of all this is that these censers were considered holy before the wrong people offered incense in them as they had been constructed for a holy purpose. ויקדשו, "they have become sanctified;" when someone donates silver or golden trinkets for the Temple, these trinkets become sanctified. Consider the status of these censers if the associates of Korach had decided at the last moment not to go through with their challenge to offer incense in them. The censers would have remained holy although they had not been used for the purpose for which they had been designated. As to the argument of Nachmanides against Rashi that the status of these censers was similar to vessels a non-priest constructed in order to offer a sacrifice outside the precincts of the Temple [and which therefore are not holy, Ed.], the Torah writes: "they have been offered before the Lord and become sanctified" (i.e. inside the precincts of the Tabernacle). The situation is not comparable to the one described by Nachmanides then as these censers had been brought to a site which was sanctified.

למען אשר לא יקרב איש זר "in order that a non-priest should not approach, etc." Why did the Torah add the words "and so that he shall not become like Korach?" Sanhedrin 110 derives from these words that if someone helps a quarrel to continue he is guilty of transgressing a negative commandment. In addition to this interpretation in the Talmud the Torah may have wanted to explain why it had to recall to people, זכרון, what happened to Korach who brought an unauthorised offering, and why it was not sufficient to merely forbid such offerings in the normal manner and to warn of the death that had befallen Korach. People would not be frightened by this. They would consider it an exceptional occurrence. Only the addition of the word זכרון would impress upon them how seriously G'd viewed the offence of someone arrogating to himself the privileges reserved for the priests.

כאשר דבר ה׳ ביד משה לו, "as G'd had said to him by means of Moses." The wording of this verse reveals that when Moses had told Korach that G'd would create something new and that he would descend into the bowels of the earth after the earth would split, he had not said this until G'd Himself had told him so. Had the Torah not written this we would have thought that Moses initiated this thought and that G'd did his bidding.

וילנו כל עדת בני ישראל, The whole congregation of Israel murmured, etc. What is the meaning of the word לאמר in this verse? Seeing the complaint was directed only at Moses and Aaron as has been stated what could the word לאמר possibly add? Perhaps the people did not spell out their complaint as did the Torah., i.e. they did not actually say: "you have killed the people of G'd." They merely voiced complaints which amounted to much the same as if they had made this direct accusation which the Torah summarised here. The words וילנו לאמר read together were equivalent to their having said the words quoted in their name in our verse.

Furthermore, the audacity of the people who had witnessed how Moses had not stood on ceremony but had himself gone to Datan and Aviram in order to give them a chance to escape death if they recanted, is impossible to understand. What could Moses and Aaron possibly have been guilty of? We must conclude therefore that the complaint of the people concerned the very type of test Moses and Aaron arranged, i.e. the offering of incense of all the associates of Korach at one and the same time. They claimed that Moses only had to make this test between Korach and Aaron and as a result, as soon as G'd had shown that He accepted the incense from Aaron and not from Korach, the other 250 men would have learned their lesson and would not have had to die by engaging in this confrontation. The word לאמר was an accusation against Moses who had made all these men offer incense. The people did not complain about the death of either Korach or Datan and Aviram. They were only angry at the death of the 250 men who represented the elite of the nation, its most senior judges, etc., who they claimed had died through an exercise orchestrated by Moses and Aaron. According to some of our sages, the people's complaint was directed at the very nature of the offering Moses had insisted on, i.e. קטורת, the holiest of the holy. He should have allowed them to perform a relatively minor form of Temple service instead. According to that view the word לאמר addresses the instruction to offer incense.