What is a holy people?

Parashat Korach Bamidbar (Numbers) 16:1 - 18:32 June 26-27 1998, 3 Tammuz 5758

Rabbi Amy Levin

The people of Israel had been lead out of Egypt by Moshe, Miriam and Aharon. They had stood together at the foot of Sinai and had experienced the overwhelming presence of God. Moshe had gone up to Mount Sinai and came down cradling stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God. Moshe had brought them to the edge of the Land promised to the patriarchs, and a delegation of their number reported their first sight of this land.

Then Korach -- a Levite, a family connection of Moshe's, Miriam's and Aharon's, stands before them with 250 supporters and declares: "You have gone too far! [or, in an alternative translation, "you have too much!"] For all the community are holy, all of them, and the Lord is in all their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above the Lord's congregation?"(16:3).

Just as when we read Romeo and Juliet, we already know that Korach's end will be tragic -- he and his extended family and his followers will be swallowed up by the earth (16:31-33). Despite the forgone conclusion, perhaps we owe Korach a careful reading of his challenge -- if for no other reason than that his words were passed down to us through the Torah. What really offended his sensibilities? What motivated him and his followers?

First, Korach declares that Aharon and Moshe either have too much or have gone too far (the Hebrew, "rav lachem" is a bit ambiguous). Too much power? Have they gone too far in dictating the conditions of the brit (covenant) to the people Israel? Perhaps so, for Korach's next point is that all the people of Israel are holy, not just Moshe and Aharon.

What, indeed, is holiness? Is Moshe's pre-eminent leadership based on his holiness or on another of his characteristics?

The word holy is based on the Hebrew root k-d-sh. Familiar words based on this root are "kiddush" (the blessing that sanctifies Shabbat or a Festival through a blessing over wine); "kiddushin" (the ceremony that sanctifies the relationship between the groom and the bride); and "kaddish" (the prayer that sanctifies God's name in a variety of liturgical contexts). All of these uses of the root invoke the concept of holiness, sanctity. In order to appreciate the essence of this family of words, we need to understand what holiness is. According to our tradition, something that is "kadosh" is something that has been set apart for a special purpose. In the marriage ceremony (kiddushin) the bride is set apart from all other women -- she is only "available" to her groom; and her groom is only allowed intimacy with his bride. When we recite the kaddish, we are emphasizing how set apart, how essentially "other" God is from those He created.

If, as Korach declares, the entire community of Israel is kadosh, then the entire community of Israel has been set apart from other peoples for a special purpose. As each patriarch learned in his turn, and as the entire people Israel learned at Sinai, that special purpose is to enter into and maintain a special relationship with God. That relationship is defined by the brit (covenant) in which both parties (God and Israel) have responsibilities to the other. Each individual Jewish person, and the every generation of Jews as a collective, bear the responsibility for maintaining, sustaining and passing the brit on to the next generation. That is the special purpose for which we are kadosh, for which we are set apart.

That being the case, Korach is approaching Moshe and Aharon and challenging their authority by saying -- "You have too much power! We are all responsible for maintaining and passing on the brit!" If he had stopped there, Korach might have been credited as being the first champion of democracy in Judaism. His, literally, fatal error came in his next sentence: "Why then do you raise yourselves above the Lord's congregation?"

From what we know of Moshe, is it the case that he "raised himself" above the rest of his people? In truth, what we know of Moshe is that he found no attraction in the "glory" that comes with responsibilities of leadership. When God approached Moshe at the burning bush, Moshe's first words to God were: "Who am I that I should go to Pharoah? that I should bring the Children of Israel out of Egypt? (Exodus 3:11)" And, further along, when God had described more of his mission, Moshe said of his own people: "But they will not trust me, and will not hearken to my voice . . . (Exodus 4:1)"

More than this, we know that it was Moshe who stood before God as the champion of his own people. As he faced the brunt of God's anger after the outrage of the golden calf, Moshe was offered -- and rejected -- exactly the opportunity to exalt himself over the rest of his people. In His anger, God says to Moshe: "I see this people -- and here, it is a stiff-necked people! So now, let me be, that my anger may flare against them and I may destroy them -- but you I will make into a great nation! (Exodus 32:9-10)"

Without a moment's hesitation, Moshe turns away the offer as if it was never made, and responded: "Moshe soothed the face of YHWH his God, he said: 'For what reason . . . should Your anger flare against Your people whom you brought out of the Land of Egypt with great power, with a strong hand? . . . . Turn away from your flaming anger, be sorry for the evil intended against Your people! Recall Avraham, Yitzhak and Yisrael your servants, . . . . And YHWH let Himself be sorry concerning the evil that He had spoken of doing to His people. (Exodus 32: 11-14)"

But the clearest statement in the Torah, one that crumbles Korach's argument into the ash of lies, is one we read just recently: "Now the man Moshe is exceedingly humble, more than any other human who is on the face of the earth (Bamidbar 12:3)."

Korach went wrong when he turned from a true principle to an ad hominem argument. It is true that the people Israel are a holy, set apart, people; a people who share a common, sacred brit with God. But Korach destroyed his case, and ultimately himself, when he abandoned the truth and attacked Moshe personally with an out-and-out lie.

In a world where we are so often challenged to "make our case", to "win the votes", to "defeat 'them'", we can learn much about the wrong and, hence, the right way to pursue our arguments from Korach's flawed example.

Shabbat Shalom

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE: Amy Levin has served as rabbi of the Masorti (Conservative) Family Congregation of Beit Ha-Kerem, Jerusalem, since September 1995. She is one of the first women to study in the rabbinical school of the Masorti/Conservative Seminary of Judaic Studies in Jerusalem. In addition to her congregational work, Amy teaches Talmud at Hebrew Union College's new Liberal Yeshiva -- a program designed to introduce English speakers to the basic texts and concepts of the Jewish tradition. Amy made aliyah in 1981 and is the mother of two wonderful teenagers.