Num. 16:1 - 18:32
PrĂ©cis: 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 (in pans) 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, it is clear that his status as High Priest is secure.
Num. 17:3 “Remove the fire pans of those who have sinned at the cost of their lives, and let them be made into hammered sheets as plating for the altar - for once they have been used for offering to the Lord, they have become sacred - and let them serve as a warning to the people of Israel.”
The test of the fire offerings has been completed, and the followers of Korach have been defeated. Their pans have lost the contest, and yet, somehow, the pans have become sacred. Is it not remarkable that something used to challenge authority becomes part of a holy object?
The first Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rav Kook, has a suggestion (quoted in Etz Chayim): Plating the altar with the defeated pans is meant to remind us of the legitimacy and necessary to rebel against stagnation and complacency. The holiness of the fire pans used by the rebels shows the necessity of skeptics and agnostics to keep religion honest and healthy.
The fire pans remind us that we are strugglers, and that rebellion is part of who we are.
