Korach and Moses – What sparked the sedition?
Broken Brotherhood
It should hit us like a thunderbolt!
In the two great revolts of Bnei Yisrael against Moses’ and Aaron’s leadership, namely the golden-calf episode and the incident of the spies, the stabilising force was the Levites.
When, following the golden-calf episode, Moses stands in the gateway of the camp and calls out Whoever is for G-D join me, only Moses’ fellow Levites flock to his banner. Every single one of them (Ex. 32:26). They alone are willing to execute justice against the main perpetrators of the sin. As a result, the Levites replace the firstborn as the ecclesiastical elite of the nation, ministering in the mishkan and gaining exemption from military service. When the nation encamps, the Levi’im form the inner corps. They offer spiritual protection to the nation while being protected by the other tribes materially and physically.
As a result, when the tribes each select an emissary to reconnoitre Eretz Yisrael in preparation for the conquest, shevet Levi do not. And while Caleb of the tribe of Judah and Joshua from the tribe of Ephraim distance themselves from the nefarious conduct of the other scouts, the military-age men of these two tribes act no differently to the rest. The entire male population rises in revolt.
Except the Levites. They feel no need to send an emissary. Nor do they press the other tribes to send. Consequently, they aren’t waiting with bated breath for the report, ready to pounce. Therefore, no Levite was implicated in the sin of the spies or subject to the decree of death in the desert. This is not mere Midrash as many think but is clearly stated in the Torah. In this Wilderness shall your carcasses fall, all of you who were counted in any of your numberings from twenty years of age and up. (Num. 14:29). The Leviim “were not counted among the children of Israel” (2:33). They were counted subsequently in separate reckonings from one month and upwards (3:15) and later from thirty and upward (4:3, 4:22, 4:30) but never from twenty and upward.
As a result of their loyalty to G-D and to Moses, all their men, as well as all the womenfolk of all the tribes, were to be graced with unrestricted entry into the Land 40 years later
The Leviim are thus presented as the uncorrupted and seemingly uncorruptible model segment of Bnei Yisrael. Which is why the sudden revolt of the Levite Korach and, it would seem, some other Levites too, shocks us to the core.
Who Was Implicated?
Were other Levites involved?
It would appear so (see Num. 16:8). Rabenu Chananel (990-1053) declares that most of Korach’s assembly were Levites whom he had won over by accusing Moses of nepotism in allegedly appointing (of course it was G-D who did the appointing) his brother to be Kohen Gadol. Others maintain that the 250 men who he had gathered were firstborn who had been disenfranchised from their role as the elite of the nation due to their participation in the golden-calf episode. Actually, both may be correct. According to the Talmud (Bekhorot 5a, cited by Rashi), 300 Levites were themselves firstborns. It is far from inconceivable that up to 250 of those 300 started to feel a double grievance – both as overreaching Levites and as disempowered firstborns – against Moses.
However, it still remains for us to discover what exactly were the triggers that transformed Korach and the fellow-Levites he swayed from true Moses-loyalists to disloyal insurrectionists overnight.
What Were The Triggers for the Revolt?
Assuming that the events of the parashiyot of Shelach Lecha and Korach are recorded chronologically – and Ramban maintains one must assume that to be the case absent compelling evidence otherwise – it would appear that the trigger was essentially twofold.
Firstly, it is easy to imagine the frustration of the Leviim following the decree of a 40-year detention in the midbar, a punishment the Leviim ostensibly did nothing to deserve as we have outlined above. True, they would enter the land. But only after a 40-year wait.
Sometimes the good have to suffer along with the bad. “Once the force of destruction has been unleashed it will not distinguish between the righteous and the wicked.” (Bava Kama 60a) The same can be said for any punishment as many a good schoolboy caught up in an out-of-control classroom knows very well! Of course, G-D’s ways are just, and possibly the Levites were found wanting in being too passive, both in the chet ha-aigel (golden calf episode) and in the chet ha-meraglim (episode of the spies). Or perhaps it was a Divine test for the Levi’im. And for the innocent womenfolk too. But the women passed all their tests with an A-grade. No mass feminist uprising was recorded here or for that matter anywhere in Tanach!
For the band of Levi’im led by Korach, however, what had hitherto been seen as a privilege – ministering to the Kohanim in the Mishkan – now became a bind. Instead of seeing themselves as a noble second-in-rank, they now viewed themselves as a poor second-best, or maybe third best! To minister in a glorious Temple in the Promised Land had been within reach. Now, following the decree of a nigh-on 40-year detention, their job-description suddenly changed – in their own eyes – from that of happy and proud bearers and keepers of the Mishkan to being merely the nation’s loaders and unloaders, erectors and dismantlers, shleppers and carriers from encampment to encampment for 38 long years. Perspective is a fickle thing!
Korach’s wild argument that “the entire assembly … are holy … and why do you [Moses and Aaron] lord it over G-D’s congregation” (Num 16:3) is a mask for his real gripe. The supressed resentment which he and his Levite followers must have felt against the other tribes and their leaders and emissaries unleashes in full force in misdirected anger against Moses and Aaron.
But there is another trigger too, one which slaps us in the face – literally!
Tsitsit – A New Uniform for the Nation.
The passage that immediately precedes the Korach revolt introduces a new mitsva to the entire male population of Am Yisrael – the mitsva of wearing sky-blue-and-white fringes on the wings of four-cornered garments.
Why should that spark resentment on the part of some of the Levi’im? A simple psychological analysis will reveal the answer. The Levi’im will have already been very much aware of, and possibly a little envious of, the special uniform of their ‘superiors’, the Kohanim – their sacred garments “for glory and splendour” (Ex 28:2). They too may have been hoping for a distinctive apparel to set them apart. But that was not forthcoming. Instead. a uniform for all Bnei Yisrael without distinction would render the Levi’im indistinguishable from their ‘third tier’ Israelite brethren.
Now Korach’s kvetch becomes easier to understand. If the entire assembly – all of them – are holy – as evidenced by the tsitsit worn by all – then why do you, Moses and Aaron aggrandise yourselves above us – you, Moses, with the big stick you wield and you, Aaron, with your special robe, breastplate and headdress. The unspoken, subliminal question: where is our special uniform? Korach, and the rebellious Levi’im with him are insanely jealous but are too proud to reveal their jealousy. Their former loyalty to Moses evaporates in a fit of pique.
“We Want to Wear Special Garments Too!”
Now it is possible to understand the better a well-known Midrash:-
“And Korach took” (Num 16:1). What is written in the previous passage (15:38): “Tell them to make ….fringes …and to place upon the fringe of the corner a tekheilet (sky blue) thread”. Korach jumped up and said to Moses: “You say, ‘place on the fringe of the corner a tekheilet thread’. What about a tallit which is all tekheilet, what’s the rule? isn’t it exempt from tsitsit?” Moses replied: “It requires tsitsit”. Korach rejoined [mockingly]: “A tallit that is all tekheilet cannot exempt itself from tsitsit, but just four tekheilet threads exempt it! (Tankhuma, Korach 2)
The argument is risible! It barely makes sense. Korach, clever as he is, loses his reason, driven as he is by blind emotion and antagonism. But his real desire is revealed just a little later in the Midrash:-
What did Korach do? He immediately ordered the making of cloaks made entirely of tekhelet for the 250 men to enwrap themselves. (ibid.)
It should not escape our notice that tekheilet, sky-blue, is a dominant colour of the bigdei kehuna, the garments worn by the Kohanim. It is a principal colour of royalty and splendour. Mordechai, when he was promoted to the king’s viceroy, was “clad in royal apparel, tekhelet … (Esther 8:15).
Was Korach’s provocative klotz-kashe merely a springboard for the revelation of his real lament – the fact that he and his fellow-Levites were visibly indistinguishable from the third-ranking Israelites? If so, he now determined to put that right with his unauthorised sartorial tekheilet parade. The tailor-made, no-expense-spared sky-blue cloaks (remember Korach was number-one on the nation’s Rich List) were a big step up from the tsitsit everyone else had and almost as splendid as the apparel worn by the Kohanim!
It should be noted that the vast majority of the Levi’im, as well as the nation, were not swept up in Korach’s madness, but continued loyally to serve in and to guard the Mishkan, while at the same time the shock-waves emanating from the revolt kept the nation in good stead for the ensuing 37 model years when “at the word of G-D they encamped and at the word of G-D they journeyed (Num. 9:23)
In Summary
If we view the events of this Sidra and the last chronologically, the frustrations of having to suffer the 40-year detention punishment for a sin perpetrated by others as well as the imagined slight of not having a special uniform like the Kohanim appear to have ignited the spark for Korach’s revolt and a portion of the Levites’ falling out of love with Moses.
Don’t Rely on Princes or Presidents
There are many lessons for us to take from all this. However, I shall just highlight a very ‘in-the-moment’ one, namely, that the most solid social and political alliances (like that of the Levites and Moses) can collapse like a pack of cards in a moment. “Don’t rely on mortal rulers – none of them hold any salvation!” (Ps. 146:3). Our staunchest supporter, our most ardent advocate, our prize patron, our comrade-at-arms can become our fiercest foe overnight. Ententes are ephemeral. Power can and does corrupt. There is but one incorruptible Super-Power who will never forsake us!