This week’s Parasha is about Korach’s rebellion against the leadership of Moshe Rabenu. As described in the Parasha, Korach was able to get the support of two hundred and fifty respectable community leaders to join him in the rebellion. The rebellion was so difficult that there was no natural way to deal with it, and Moses needed a supernatural miracle to decide the argument: the earth opened and swallowed Korach and his fellow rebels. Only then the was rebellion calmed.
The sages are puzzled about Korach’s motivation to get into such a dangerous confrontation.
The answer is that Korach saw in his mind’s eye, that one of his offspring, in future generations, would be equal to Moses and this is what gave him the motivation to challenge Moses. This offspring would be the prophet, Samuel.
Let us look and see where Korach made a mistake and how Samuel the prophet is related to this mistake.What did Korach want? What did he want to change in Moshe’s leadership? We will listen to his words: “And they gathered out to Moshe and Aaron and said to them, enough for you! Because the whole community are holies and God is among them, and why will you condescend over God’s people?”
Korach wanted to have an “open temple” without structure, to free the people from their dependence on Moses and Aaron, and to establish new rules of conduct according to which the divisions between the holy and the profane, between the temple and the rest of the places, between the priesthood and the regular Jews, should be blurred. The people will take their destiny in their own hands and stop being led by the prophecy of Moses. It was a rebellion against Moses, a rebellion against the prophecy, and a rebellion against the national hierarchy.
It was not a holy rebellion, but a rebellion against holiness.
The sages of the midrash who made the comparison between Samuel the prophet and Korach expressed the insight that Samuel, in his leadership of the people, took from Korach the positive side of the revolution, but did not embrace the negative side of the rebellion.
Samuel was born in the generation in which the Tabernacle in Israel, which stood in Shiloh, was managed corruptly by Hophni and Pinchas, the sons of Eli HaCohen the grand Priest.
“And the sons of Eli, did not know God. And the priests judged the people… And the sin of the boys will be very great… who will lie down with the women who came to visit the tabernacle.”
When Samuel grows up a little, he warns Eli in the name of God: “I will judge your family forever!” The prophet Samuel grows up and becomes the leader of the nation, but he does not surround himself with an entourage of servants or associates. Samuel is busy judging, but he does not sit in the ivory tower and expect the citizens to come before him. On the contrary, he walks around the cities of Israel and offers his good services to the people.
Samuel opens the doors of the temple, descends to the people, and in doing so he reminds us of his ancestor Korach, who claimed “all the people of Israel are holy.”
Samuel does not make the same mistake that Korach made and does not try to blur the differences between holy and profane. In fact, it was just the opposite. The prophet Samuel criticized the Priests behavior, but at the same time recognized and respected the priesthood structure. Samuel was the most revolutionary prophet by introducing to the people of Israel the kingdom system that is based on hierarchy and clear structure. He transmitted to the people of Israel that a Jew has his roll and his function, and by understanding and accepting it, all the nation, together, transforms to a holistic organization in which his main mission is to expand God’s glory over earth.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Refael Cohen