Democratic Rhetoric

Korah

Num. 16:1 - 18:32

Précis: Korah 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 Korah 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, it is clear that his status as High Priest is secure.

Num. 16:1-3 “Now Korah…with Datan and Abiram…took themselves up against Moses and against Aaron and said, ‘You take too much upon yourselves, seeing that all in the congregation are holy….’”

As I reviewed some of the d’vrei Torah I have penned over the years, I find at times that some insights which were timely a decade or more ago remain remarkably so today. The story of Korah is one such example. Chancellor Ismar Schorsch, writing in his weekly d’var Torah (7/2/05), notes that Korah and his followers protest against Moses’ authority using “democratic rhetoric” and imply that they are merely seeking equality and that they want to share power. As readers, we see their acts as those of dangerous demagogues. Moses, on the other hand, remains humble. He understood that power can corrupt.

            Korah was viewed by tradition as venal and materialistic. One midrash suggested that he was very wealthy, having held the keys to Pharaohs’ treasure house.  Our tradition has a healthy disrespect for extraordinary wealth. We don’t devalue wealth, since the important mitzvah of tzedakah assumes wealth is needed for good purposes. However, without cultivating the spiritual side of life, we become like Korah: obsessed with things and unfit for leadership.

            Some might assume that I am about to go on a tirade against our extremely wealthy President, who has assembled around him advisors and a cabinet composed of other extremely wealthy individuals. I will not say that he is a modern-day Korah, although sometimes it does seem that the government has become a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs.

            I would note that like Korah, President Trump campaigned with a rhetoric aimed at those who feared the change that were occurring around them. The Israelites lived at a time of enormous change (freedom from slavery, the experience of Sinai and the gift of Torah) and much of Trump’s core support comes from those experiencing tremendous change (globalization, same-sex marriage, the threats they imagine from immigration, and their pending loss of perceived majority status which comes with population changes). Some of the Israelites rallied to Korah and were destroyed. We can only pray that those who rallied to Trump inherit a far better fate, along with all Americans.