Will We Ever Learn? A Thought for Parashat Korach

It always pains me, at least a little, to offer my thoughts on Parashat Korach (Numbers chapters 16-18).  It shouldn't.  The portion offers a narrative that that offers a - may I use this phrase, cliched by certain politicians? - Teaching Moment regarding dissent and conflict.  Moreover, it was my son Eyal's bar mitzvah portion, so it should - and does - bring forward many fond memories of an important family milestone.  But nevertheless it makes me look at the world around me, from the Jewish community moving outward to the greater world in ever-widening concentric circles, and realize that year after year, we learn nothing.  If a great national tragedy causes us to introspect and take a lesson that will make us wiser, stronger, and better, then that is ultimately for the good.  But if we keep engaging in the behaviors that led to the tragedy, then all the suffering that came with the tragedy is meaningless.  And unfortunately, that's where we are today.

Korach is a Levite who, with a group of 250 of his kinsmen, rebels against Moses' leadership.  Now I realize that, in my last blog installment, I asserted that Moses' leadership was on a downward trajectory to where Hashem would ultimately decide that Joshua Bin Nun must take over the reigns.  But that has not yet happened.  If Moses' leadership is faltering to the point that it would cause harm to the people Israel, there is not yet any indication thereof.  And remember, Moses is the leader whom G-d Himself chose despite Moses' not thinking he was up to the task.  Besides, Korach and his followers have not laid out a platform that indicates they have any better an idea of how to lead the people to success.  They simply want to be the ones in charge.

As I already pointed out, Korach and his followers are Levites.  That means they're not laymen.  Not rank-and-file.  They are members of the tribe which, as a whole, has been set apart from the people Israel to serve important functions in the cultus that serves as the nexus between Israel and Hashem.  They enjoy an exalted position.  But they want more.  They are drunk with the power they now wield, and it makes them want more.  And they want it so bad, that they are willing to push aside those specifically chosen by G-d for the highest positions:  Moses, his brother Aaron, and Aaron's sons.

Korach's only complaint against Moses is why do you lord it over to G-d's people?  But his only solution is to replace Moses with himself...so he, Korach, would then be in the position to lord it over to G-d's people.

Unfortunately, so much of the conflict we experience is of this nature.  We're ready to condemn leaders - at whatever level - for their failings, real or imagined.  But the conflict becomes about unseating the leader about whom we object, with little or no thought of a better way forward.

I'm not going to draw parallels to the national political situation in the USA, because they are all too obvious.  But I have seen this Korach Syndrome in effect at so many levels, in so many settings.  Seeing it operative over and over in Jewish religious life, drove me into retirement from the rabbinate years before I had planned.  It was just heartbreaking to see it tear at the fabric of the community, year after year with no end in sight.

I'm not suggesting we should not allow conflict, or that we should quash discussion of any issues that might lead us into conflict.  Rather, we should take heed to the Rabbis who used the conflict of Korach and his followers to teach us about conflict:  Conflict for the sake of Heaven (conflict for the purpose of finding a better way) as opposed to Conflict not for the sake of Heaven (conflict for conflict's sake, for usurping the current leadership).  The former is healthy - when carried on within certain constraints and parameters - and the latter is patently unhealthy.  As these important chapters come around once more, let's try to give Korach's rebellion a fresh look and really take the lessons it offers, to heart.  Shabbat shalom.