Korah along with Dathan and Aviram becan a rebelion against Moshe and Aharon. They all are leaders in their tribes. Korah is Levi. It is widely discussed in Jewish literature regarding the selfish motives of the rebels and their desire to be in the place of the Kohanim – the ultimate spot in the Jewish hierarchy as decreed by God. For such a “pshat” understanding we recommend reader to read any article (most of them are good) you can find on Torah related websites.
This post has a goal to understand the mentality of the people involved which will allow us to understand our life conflicts today. The minds which drove to a particular actions despite having the same life experience as members of the same family of people. Selfish desires … where do they come from? Is it lack of intelligence? Inborn human traits? Differences in childhood education?
If we could only pinpoint a particular trait of human character which, if it lack, it creates such as Korah, but if it is present it creates such as Yehoshua or Pinchas…, this would be a key to all unsolved causes of any conflicts today…
All Israelites lived through the same experience since they left Egypt. They all witnessed the miracles of the 10 plaques in Egypt, miraculous destruction of Egyptian army, unique in human history revelation at Mt. Sinai, Divine food from the Heaven (mana) and daily Divine presence as a cloud of Glory by day and Glowing fire by night.
All these motivated Yehoshua to follow Moshe anywhere he went, be next to him as a serving boy. Why? Because Yehoshua saw the so obvious close connection between Moshe and God and he wanted to have the same closeness to the Divine! In the deepest level of his mind Yehoshua wanted to be at the same proximity to God as Moshe Rabeinu! I like to call such desire a “spiritual ego” which is the same trait which brings birth to the spiritual giants… Whence – to be close to Moshe meant to learn how to get there…
Seems to be obvious, but then what about Korah?
Rightly chosen question will prompt the answer: This motivation was not the trait of Korah. Were it his desire, he also saw the obvious connection between Moshe and God to use this for his real advantage – to learn how to get closer to God … In fact he as a Levi had enough advantages compared to the rest of Israelites, to serve in Mishkan and learn the art of Divine service … To learn from whom? Only Moshe and Aharon “who’s being there and did that“. The only explanation left – neither Korah, nor Dathan and Aviram cared to get closer to God, or to be like Moshe. Neither all those 250 “leaders of Israel” who joined them.
We now discovered the very special trait which splits, if you will, all individuals into two categories: people who’s main goal is to get closer to God, or in our times when atheism took a full control of humanity, these people want to find God as a primary reason of existance, and another group who does not care about Divine, and in our time does not care about the reasoning and origin of the life on earth. Whence these two groups have quite different motivations in life. If the closeness to God is top priority and aspiration in life for one group, for another group the social status and power over other members of society became the only value in life.
Such analysis may wrongly drive us to the conclusion that this border line drawn between above two groups, as applied today, separates religious groups and the atheists. Such conclusion would be quite inadequate. It is not affiliation with a religious congregation what makes a person closer to God but only his sincerety in knowing God makes him “religious” in God’s “eyes”. Unfortunately, there is exists today the same drive for a position and status within religious community similar to the seculars with only exception that it is done “in the name of God” with religious forms and artificial observances. The trait of the desire of God realization which we find in such personalities like Yehoshua and Pinchas, is the authentic true desire which makes social status, powers and posessions absolutely irrelevant in their lives. In fact just as there are sincere God-seeking individuals within religious community, so there are such among the agnostics, people who’s mind is opened for the ultimate Truth.
THere is another glimps in the parsha which shows the difference between the God-realized individuals and those who don’t have a drive for God: in highlight we are talking about humility of Moshe and the arrogance of Korah. The man who already occupies the highest spot among the Israelites, shows ultimate humility: “And Moses tried to reason with Korah” For a man who already close to God, the status and position among humans are nothing but vanity. Yet for those who are distant from God, such position, boosted by arrogance and pride, is everything: “We won’t come” was response of Datham and Aviram. Then, even when the imminent punishment was approaching, ” Dathan and Aviram came out and stood defiently at the entrance of their tents”
Answer yourself this question – What is your ultimate goal in life?
