One Word Says It All

Parshat Korah centers on an attack against legitimate authority, and its essence is captured in the unusual choice of its opening word:

And Korah, son of Izhar son of Kohath son of Levi, and Datan and Aviram, sons of Eliav, and On son of Pelet, sons of Reuven, took up (vayikah), and they rose up against Moshe… (Numbers 16:1–2)

Robert Alter rightly notes that the verb vayikah is oddly in the singular and focuses attention on the actions of the story’s principal agent, Korah, who becomes the archetype of the rebel against legitimate authority. The use of this word in this context has long stymied interpreters, generating numerous explanations of both its meaning and the political and psychological dimensions of the rebellion.

One of the Aramaic translations, Targum Yonatan ben Uziel, takes the word vayikah literally and, although the verse makes no mention of what Korah took, fills in the blank from a midrash on the parashat tzitzit found at the end of the previous parashah:

He took his cloak, which was entirely of tekhelet…

Rabbi Shmuel ben Meir (Rashbam), Rashi’s grandson, who is known for his preference for the plain meaning of the text, resolves the problem in a different way by supplying the missing object:

And Korah took many men to stand with him before Moshe.

Another Aramaic translation, Targum Onkelos, departs entirely from a literal interpretation and renders the word contextually:

Va’etpaleg — “he separated himself.”

Centuries later, this interpretation inspired the following midrash:

Now Korah took—“took” (vayikah) can only be a word of separation [or discord], in that his heart carried him away, as it is said, “How your heart has carried you away” (Job 15:12). This explains what Moses said to them: “Is it too small a thing for you that the God of Israel has separated you [from the congregation to draw you near unto Himself, to perform the service of the Lord’s tabernacle…]?” (Numbers 16:9). (Tanhuma Korah 2)

Rashi understood this midrash to mean that Korah’s sin lay in creating conflict and dissension within the community, thereby undermining the social and political cohesion of the emerging nation:

He took himself to one side with the intention of separating himself from the community so that he might protest the priesthood to which Moshe had appointed his brother. This is what Onkelos means when he renders it by va’etpaleg—“he separated himself” from the rest of the community in order to foment dissension.

Rabbi Moshe ben Nahman (Ramban) read this same midrash quite differently. Rather than focusing on the narrative of separation, he concentrated on the prooftext from Job. For Ramban, Korah’s sin was fundamentally psychological:

He (Korah) allowed himself to be led astray by his own thoughts and desires, separating himself from what was good and right. Vayikach Korach means that he took counsel in his heart to do that which Scripture subsequently relates, for the term “taking” also applies to counsel and thought. Similarly, “Why doth thy heart take thee?” means: “What thought does your heart lead you to?” … The Rabbis have further said in the Midrash: “Scripture does not state here: ‘And Korach quarreled,’ or ‘spoke,’ or ‘commanded,’ but it says vayikach (and he took). What did he take? He did not take anything; rather, it was his heart that took control of him, just as Scripture says, ‘Why doth thy heart take thee?’” This coincides with what I have explained. And Onkelos, who translated vayikach as ve’itpaleig (“and he separated himself”), explained the expression according to its general meaning rather than its literal sense, as is his habit in many places.

These two interpretations identify two different but related dangers posed by Korah. According to Rashi, Korah’s failing was political and social: he sowed division within the community. According to Ramban, it was psychological and moral: he allowed his ambitions and resentments to carry him away from truth. Together, they suggest that destructive rebellion begins both within the individual heart and within the fabric of society. In this sense, the opening word of the parashah truly says it all.