Leadership

Korach

Num. 16:1 - 18:32

 

Précis: Korach foments a rebellion, claiming that Moses and Aaron have taken too much power for themselves. Datan and Abiram also attack Moses’ leadership, claiming that Moses has brought them from a land of milk and honey (Egypt!) only to let them die in the wilderness. A test of fire offerings is arranged, and Korach and his followers are destroyed as the earth opens and swallows them. The People continue to complain, God threatens to destroy them once again, but Moses and Aaron intercede. A plague takes the lives of 14,000 people. A final test, that of staffs, is performed, and when Aaron’s staff miraculously blossoms on the following morning, his status as High Priest is secure.

 

Num. 16:3 “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?”

Rabbi Sacks notes that Korach had a point: at the heart of his challenge is the idea of equality (Rabbi Sacks Legacy, 6/26/25).  However, Korach does not mean what he says. He claims to be opposed to the institution of leadership, but at the same time he wants to be the leader. Korach asks, “Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?”  and in so doing he is mistaken in his view of leadership. He sees leadership as a matter of status, and that the leader is what we would today call an “alpha male” who controls, directs, and dominates. But this is not the kind of leadership which our tradition honors. Moses, the greatest leader, is one about whom it is said “He was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth” (Num. 12:3). In our tradition, leadership is not a matter of status but of function, and leadership is not about popularity. Even further, a true leader is not eager for the job. Witness Moses’ repeatedly attempting to avoid leadership of Israel.

This was Korach’s mistake. He thought leaders were those who set themselves above others. 

Truth

Sh’lach

Num. 13:1-15:41

 

Précis: Moses is ordered to “send out” (sh’lach) spies to examine the land. Representatives of each tribe go out, report on its bounty, but also report about its fearsome inhabitants. The People are frightened, and their “murmuring” turns into something close to panic. God tells Moses that He will destroy the People, but Moses intercedes; the People are sentenced to spend 40 years in the wilderness. Near its end, the parasha discusses the wearing of tzitzit, a paragraph which is part of the traditional recitation of the Sh’ma.

 

Num. 13:27-28 “And they told him, ‘We came to the land you sent us to, and surely it flows with milk and honey; but the people that live in the land are fierce. And the cities are fortified, and very great, moreover, we saw Amalekites there.’”

What is “truth?”  There was a time when we could say. “you can argue about your opinions, but you can’t argue about the truth.” Sadly, that is no longer part of American political discourse. In the verses above, the spies report on “facts” but interpret them in a way which causes consternation among the Israelites. These days, we have a President of the United States who, when confronted with demands for proof of his absurd “facts,” walks away from the interview and calls the interviewer names. The war with Iran has been called “over” too many times to mention, yet the war continues.​

As Ron Charles has noted (RonCharles@substack.com, 6/12/26), the Covid-19 pandemic and the rush of research it generated inspired a backlash of misinformation and skepticism about evidence. Given Trump’s systematic attacks on science — and his appointment of a kook as secretary of Health and Human Services — the way forward is not clear. Right now, the world needs more people who value evidence, because those who don’t are gaining strength.

            This is also true in social media, where so-called “antizionists” ignore context, background, and history, and claim that the modern State of Israel is a colonial extension by and on behalf of Europeans.

            The Israelites were doomed to wander in the wilderness for forty years until a new generation could emerge who owed fealty to truth. I hope that we may be the generation which reveres truth, but fear that it may take decades for us to reach our Promised Land.

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