Roots of Rebellion — Korach 5781
Dear old Korach. How is it possible that we’re back to you already?
It may come as no surprise to those of you who know me, but I identify with Korach, the Israelite who leads a rebellion in the desert against Aaron and Moses, and therefore according to Jewish tradition against G-d directly.
Numbers 16
Now Korah, son of Izhar son of Kohath son of Levi, betook himself, along with Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—descendants of Reuben—
to rise up against Moses, together with two hundred and fifty Israelites, chieftains of the community, chosen in the assembly, men of repute.
They combined against Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! For all the community are holy, all of them, and the LORD is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above the LORD’s congregation?”
Korach was a first-born son, and he was accustomed to the status that came with being a first-born son. But he faces a world where as the 13th century French rabbi Chizkuni says, “the system of allocating spiritual and material advantages to the firstborn had been replaced by a system of hereditary spiritual background.” So he allies himself with the descendants of Reuben, the first-born of Jacob, who were jealous at the status of that was accorded to the descendants of Joseph, continuing a rivalry between Jacob’s first-born son and his favorite son, both of whom who have long since made peace with each other and long since passed away. Together, they face Moses, challenge his authority, and are punished by G-d who splits the earth to swallow them and their households whole.
Most of Jewish tradition makes Korach out to be a power-hungry revolutionary, dissatisfied with his lot in life, seeking to supplant Moses as leader of the Israelite people. People who hold power often struggle after losing their power, and those who, like Korach, merely expect to hold power, perhaps because of their birth order, their religion, their gender, their skin color, their nationality, or their economic status, well they struggle even more when they realize they will never have the power they’ve been taught to expect. Put this way, you might be wondering why I identify with Korach, but I wonder if maybe we’ve gotten Korach wrong.
I’ve just finished reading Kristin Hannah’s latest novel, The Four Winds. I loved it, the way I love all of her books. The story is grounded in the Dust Bowl, and the experiences of migrant farm workers in California during the Great Depression, which felt particularly poignant as I read it last week. At the end, there was an author’s note, written in May 2020 as Hannah completed three years of work on her new novel.
“Three years ago,” she wrote, “I began writing this novel about hard times in America: the worst environmental disaster in our history; the collapse of economy, the effect of massive unemployment. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that the Great Depression would become so relevant in our modern lives, that I would see so many people out of work, in need, frightened for the future.”
This is the first time I’ve attended KICKS in person since the pandemic began, and I have to stop myself from getting too excited, because as wonderful as it is to be here the world is 1000% more broken today than it was a year ago when Kristin Hannah finished her book, and the last time we read about Korach’s rebellion. The characters in Hannah’s novel echo the words I read in the news today—workers rights, profitability, and an urge to return to normal, whatever that is—offering a fresh perspective from which to grapple with this week’s Torah portion.
Perhaps Korach wasn’t the dangerous agitator he’s made out to be by the powerful rabbinic establishment. Korach’s words, after all, compel others to join him in challenging Moses. Is his rabble rousing any different from the moans of migrant farm workers in the 1930s who, having escaped starvation in the drought-ridden Plains States, faced it anew in California at hands of wealthy land owners, and organized themselves in defiance? Are the cries of the Israelites which spur Korach to action, the lamentations of lost homes in Egypt any different from those of migrants who consoled themselves with thoughts of their former homes, of lands so parched they literally cracked and swallowed people whole but which still held a grip on their hearts?
We can’t ask Korach, and no one at the time seems to have gone out of their way to understand Korach’s intentions. But we can take the lesson anyways, and listen to the rabble rousers of our day, to understand their intentions as best we can rather than rely on our own biased assumptions. The people fighting for affordable childcare so they actually can return to work, those holding out for higher pay or better working conditions because they know they deserve them, those who pick our vegetables and stock our shelves, drive our cars and teach our kids. These voices and stories aren’t new, but we’re in a moment where they can be heard, and we should listen before it’s too late, or watch huge numbers of our fellow human beings be swallowed up by the earth once more.
Shabbat Shalom
