Community Blog

Shabbat Shalom!  This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Korach, in which a Levite named Korach leads an Uprising against Moses and Aaron and is ultimately smote by God, with the earth opening up and swallowing whole Korach and all his followers. 

I'm generally a Korach fan, and think our tradition is too harsh on him. However, Rabbi Shai Held makes a compelling case against him in his contemporary commentary The Heart of Torah. The chronology in the Torah itself is often vague and confusing, and it is sometimes further purposely rearranged by the rabbis. However, if we assume that the events of this week’s parasha immediately follows receiving the laws written at the very end of last week's parasha, the true sin of Korach can be understood in a new light, directly connected to the Mitzvah of wearing tzitzit. 

The end of Parashat Shelach contains the commandment to wear fringes. It is a pretty terse yet simple commandment here in the Book of Numbers: "Speak to the Israelite people and instruct them to make fringes on the corners of their garments throughout the ages; let them attach a cord of blue to the fringe at each corner. That shall be your fringe; look at it and remember all the commandments of HaShem, and observe them… thus you shall be holy to your God." In the Book of Deuteronomy, mention is made again of the tassles on the corners of our garments, but a different word is used, leading ancient Aramaic translators, medieval rabbis and commentators, and traditional Jewish garment makers throught the ages to put wool fringes on linen garments. This violates the laws of sha'atnez, a series of verses in other parts of the Torah prohibiting the mixing of different "species'' - two different species of farm animals should not be mated, multiple types of seeds should not be planted together, and wool and linen should not be combined in a single garment.

So why would a holy garment violate an otherwise standing rule? Rabbi Held brings in Bible Scholar Jacob Milgrom to explain that the priestly garments in the Torah were also explicitly made from a combination of wool and linen. So he posits that sha'atnez is prohibited generally, not because it is impure or anything like that. But rather because it is too holy to be worn on regular clothing. Rabbi Held goes on to point out that similarly in the commandment against mixing kinds of seeds, Deuteronomy adds, "lest the ground be sanctified", which also made me feel better about my own planting habits, and a newfound but immediately soothed fear that our Jewish laws contradicted old indigenous knowledge of the land I live on. The idea is that by only mixing kinds for a divine purpose, like the sha’atnez of tzitzit, we are reminded of the commandments, and are better able to include holiness into our everyday lives. If we are not going to live up to our holiness goals, we should not fool ourselves by wearing these holy garments. Personally, I feel specifically connected to my tzitzit and the reminder to also leave the corners of our fields unharvested such that the poor may feed themselves with dignity. Even things that seem out of place or haphazard have great purpose. 

How does all this connect with Korach, who only just heard these laws and had had no opportunity to implement or violate them? Korach's challenge to Moses seems very reasonable on its face, "All the community is holy, all of them, and HaShem is in their midst." In the laws around sha'atnez and tzitzit - as with many of the laws throughout the Torah - the language is that all the Israelites are made holy through observing mitzvot. Holiness is aspirational, while Korach states it as a given. I, of course, do also believe in the inherent holiness of all people. But I appreciate Rabbi Held's d'var Torah on this, that Korach is demanding the privileges of holy status, without the responsibility of acting holy. It calls to my mind how the concept of respect is often used and misused. 

All people deserve basic respect as fellow human beings. Beyond that, further or more specific respect is given due to behaviors and interpersonal relationships. People tend to be more respectful toward people they know, whom they have come to trust. People tend to be more respectful toward people who have proven themselves to be trustworthy or to have some talent, skill, knowledge, acumen at a particular task. Just this morning, my messy partner who I have had many arguments with over the cleanliness of our homes over the last 12 years feigned insult that I deferred to the opinion of a professional cleaner over him. Of course I respect the opinion of a man who owns a professional cleaning service over a man who has told me repeatedly that he will never vacuum. However, I would respect Philip’s opinions on video games and movies over most people. Yet, some people expect more instantaneous respect because of their perceived or self-assumed status, a human-created hierarchy of power and privilege that often demands cisgender, heterosexual, white, Christian, abled men deserve more inherent respect than women, LGBTQIA people, people of color, religious minorities, immigrants, or people with disabilities, about anything, even when it comes to issues that are specifically about these marginalized communities. 

My sense is that this is the sort of thing Rabbi Held is accusing Korach of: demanding to be treated on par with Moses, without having to put in the work that Moses is putting in. While he claims to speak for all the people, he isn’t really offering to unionize and gather more distributed responsibility. For the most part, the Israelites have already abdicated that responsibility to Moses. They told him that they were afraid to speak with God, to have a direct democratic relationship with the Most High. They elected Moses to do this work for them. Of course he has earned more respect, of course he occupies a holier standing than everyone else. 

Given my general sympathies for Korach, and my desire that everyone should be treated with equitable respect and seen for the spark of divinity that they are, my wish this Shabbat is that we all rise to be our highest selves. That we actively seek out holiness, connection, accountability, responsibility, and righteousness. That we be worthy of demanding that God speak to us as God would speak to Moses. That we be willing to listen to the divine messages we are already receiving. And may we create a world of true equality and an end to arbitrary hierarchies. Amen and Shabbat Shalom.