Speak to

all the chieftains according to their fathers' houses;

[a total

of] twelve staffs, and inscribe each man's name on his staff.

Inscribe

will blossom…

And on

the following day Moses came to the Tent of Testimony,

and

behold, Aaron's staff for the house of Levi had blossomed!

It gave

forth blossoms, sprouted buds, and produced ripe almonds.

(Bamidbar 17)

It gave forth blossoms – a sign of

the young priests [literally: pirhei – "flowers of the"

– kehuna – "priesthood"].

sprouted buds – a sign that High Priests will descend from him and

will be diligent [shokdim = diligent; shaked = almond] in their

service, as they say: "Priests are quick." And in the tractate Avot [it

is stated] that Aaron's rod, its almonds and flowers are among the things

created at twilight on the eve of [the first] Sabbath.

(Hizkuni

ad loc)

It gave forth blossoms, sprouted buds, and produced

ripe almonds – Hiddushei

HaRIM ztz"l explained the matter of the blossoms and the buds: RaMBaN

z"l wrote that those 250 people were first-borns, that is, that they

complained for having been deposed from holiness and replaced by the Levites. At

first they thought this arrangement would only persist in the wilderness and

would not be permanent, and that the service would return to them when they

arrived at the Land of Israel. That was why when they were condemned to die in

the wilderness; they complained that they had been rejected from the holy

almonds. This showed that even though the flowers and buds are not fruits and

the almonds are the important thing, that, nevertheless, almonds cannot ripen

without the flower and the bud. Each preserves the other and fruit is produced

from them, so that they are all considered as part of the fruit, for without

them the fruit cannot grow or be sustained. Similarly, even though the Levites

were chosen, in any event they [the firstborn] were not rejected from holiness,

because the Levites' holiness derived from them just as the fruit [develops

from the flowers and buds] and they all are holy. For without Israel, the

Levites have no holiness, and their high station is only thanks to Israel, and

they are all one and a vessel for holiness.

(From Siah

Sarfei Kodesh – a collection of divrei Torah from the Rebbes of the

Pischa, Kotzk, and Alexanderer Hassidim)

Who

is the Chosen One?

Menachem Klein

The

controversy of Korah and his faction vs. Moses and Aaron was a dispute over the

distribution of appointments and perks among members of the reigning tribe – the

Levites. Korah and his followers accused Moses of nepotism, while Moses claimed

that he did not personally decide who would lead or function as High Priest;

these were God's choices.

Korah and his

faction were not the only ones to suspect that familial and personal interests

led Moses and Aaron to set themselves up as leaders. Another great event occurs

the day after the earth swallowed up Korah and fire burned the 250 members of

his faction who offered incense. Now it is as if nothing had happened the day

before, as if the crowd that gathered around to see the contest between the two

Levite leaders – Moses and Korah – had not fled in terror for they said:

"Lest the earth swallow us up." And the entire Israelite

community complained – not one faction of the reigning tribe, but rather

the entire community accused Moses and Aaron: You have caused the people of

the Lord to die. Your considerations were personal; you wanted to protect

your status. God did not appoint you, rather, you appointed yourselves and

killed those who exposed you. God's response was harsh. This time He did not

kill a few hundred, as He had done to Korah and his faction; rather, He kills

14,700 Israelites. Moses and Aaron were the ones who ended the killing. Defying

the accusation made against them by the people, Moses and Aaron saved the lives

of their accusers. Even this deed did not suffice to calm the protests and

doubts regarding their election. An extra test was required, the test of the

flowering staff: The man whom I choose – his staff will flower. The

previous proofs involved punishments and intimidation. They brought death and

did not help quite the protests. The test of the staffs was, instead, a test of

flowering and flourishing; it had life, it was positive rather than negative. And

blossoms, sprouted buds, and produced ripe almonds.

Did this test

help? And Moses took out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the

Israelites and they saw and each man took his staff. Were the Israelites

then completely reconciled to the choice? Did they gnash their teeth? Did they

apathetically shrug their shoulders? It is not clear. First of all, it can be

seen that the choice has positive significance involving flourishing, and not

only rejection and alienation. Secondly, the question of choice and preference

is not a marginal issue, a quarrel among members of the ruling elite. Rather,

it is one of Scripture's central themes, and the Korah incident is one of its

instances. The issue of “choseness” appears early in Bereishit with the story

of how Abel's offering was preferred to that of Cain, who gave a murderous

response. Throughout the book of Bereishit we find recurrent conflicts between

the chosen and the rejected son; beginning with the book of Shemot and

continuing through Chronicles this becomes the struggle between the chosen

people and other rejected peoples.

Every choice

creates a hierarchy, and as parashat Korah demonstrates, rankings and

preferences inspire dissent on the part of those who feel deprived. The

justification of choice and preference is not a simple matter. Of course, it

bothers those who are not chosen. They want to know why they lost out. Often,

they also want to replace whoever was chosen. The rejected are not the only

troubled ones; the chosen also ask why they were chosen and why they must bear

the burden of election. Across the generations, Jewish thinkers have offered

various answers to these questions. R. Saadia Gaon and RaMBaM said that the

election of the Jewish People was founded upon the Torah and observance of the

commandments. R. Yehudah HaLevi and schools of thought within kabbalah and

Hassidism thought that the choice of Israel was founded upon the people's

ethno-biological makeup and the laws of the cosmos.

Modernization,

secularization, and emancipation reduced the distance between Israel and the

nations, making the question of election more problematic. The solution

formulated on the basis of classic Jewish thought saw choseness as a kind of

educational mission. Election was not meant to grant the chosen people

existential preference or to mark the inferiority of other peoples or to

discredit them. Rather, the People Israel was chosen in order to light the way

for other nations and to help them change. Being chosen means having to share

what you have with others and not to close yourself off, entrenched in

superiority. This view can be regarded as apologetics – but that need not be

so. This "civilizing" approach was typical of the white Europeans'

feeling of superiority vis-à-vis the peoples of Asia, Africa, and the

Americas. It was also utilized to resolve the theological issue of Israel's

relations with the nations. However, since the second half of the 20^th

century, decolonization, democratization, and the values of egalitarianism and

liberalism have rendered the "civilizing" thesis unconvincing for all

those who see themselves as belonging to modern and postmodern Western culture.

This approach ameliorates the gap between Israel and the nations, but it does

not erase it. In contrast, humane, liberal, and universal values require that

we view all human beings as fundamentally equal. The information revolution and

globalization have deepened the need for a new justification of election. The

information and communications revolution call to our attention the fact that we

are not essentially different from other people. Together with globalization

they reduce the distances between different cultures and pull down barriers.

Rabbi Jonathan

Sacks, the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, makes a bold intellectual effort

to make religious principles relevant to the 21^st century. He does

not think globalization and our knowledge of other cultures subvert our traditional

world; rather he greets them as a challenge. In order to successfully grapple

with this challenge he says we must replace our paradigm instead of taking it

on armed with yesterday's concepts. He claims that today's religious challenge

is to recognize the image of God even in those who do not resemble us. "There

are times when God meets us in the face of a stranger" who is not Jewish. The

foundational idea of monotheism "is not what it has traditionally been

taken to be: one God, therefore one faith, one truth, one way. To the contrary,

it is that unity creates diversity." That, he writes, is the

opposite of tribalism. The principle advocated by Rabbi Sacks has many

theological consequences, including some related to the question of election. The

Jewish People was not chosen because it had something that others did not. The

notion of choseness must be understood as a kind of pioneering; to be the first

people to present the view that one God reveals Himself through difference and

is worshipped in different ways. One might say that God did not choose us from

all the nations, but rather with all the nations.

Dr. Menachem

Klein teaches in the Political Science department of Bar Ilan University

All of

them are holy – And you shall be holy

These two

passages present us with the concept of kedusha – of holiness – in its

two contradictory forms: the category of, All of them are holy, which

is the inferior form of the religious category, as against And you shall

be holy, which is the absolute and extreme opposite of Korah's version.

It is a demand, in the sense of And you shall be for me a kingdom of priests

and a holy nation. The results of Korah's conception are arrogance, pride,

boasting, and sanction to cast off obligations. According to this approach, the

very fact that one is part of the Israelite nation is sufficient to determine

one's standing and value. The Oral Law, however, makes great efforts to order

man's life within a framework of Torah and commandments, attempting to realize

the important dictate of You shall observe all of my commandments and you

shall be holy unto your God. This is to be accomplished by the imposition

of very strict restrictions and obligations upon man, something which has

continued throughout the history of the Jewish People. While the kedusha

at the conclusion of Parashat Shelah is the highest expression of the purpose

of faith, that of Parashat Korah is the preeminent symbol of man's rebellion

against faith in God. The distance between these two approaches, is also the

distance between the belief in God and idolatry. There is no simpler, easier, cheaper,

and more contemptible form of religious faith than the belief that holiness is

a given in natural reality.

(Y. Leibowitz, Sheva Shanim shel Sihot al Parashat HaShavua, pp. 680-681)

More on "Controversy for the Sake of Heaven"

The author of Midrash Shmuel on the Mishnah (Avot 5:7), writes (as

per the RaMBaM): "Every controversy for the sake of Heaven [will

endure] etc.," the reason for this is that we know (Sanhedrin 17a) that "If all [judges] convict – he is

acquitted," for when there is no opposition, offering question and

arguments, the matter cannot be completely illuminated, and it is possible that

all are subject to error. Understand that by everyone striving to make his

point, the picture will sharpen and truth will come to light.

(Yismah Moshe II;7/2)

Who is to

be Punished – the Inciters or the Incited?

They

will You be furious?!"

It is revealed

and known before You that the spirit of the masses are easily inflamed by

dazzling claims, and a person such as Korah, who is spiritually superior and

who enjoys full confidence heretofore unblemished, is able to dupe the people

and lead them to sin. When the masses sin, the guilt can usually be attributed

to a few instigators of high standing. When human beings intervene against the

transgression, as a rule it is the incited masses – who are less guilty –

who are hurt; the inciters themselves usually go unpunished. But You are God,

God of the spirits of all flesh, because You are all powerful God, You have

it in your power to punish whoever is guilty; and since You are God of the

spirits of all flesh, You can discern in your wisdom the degree of

every man's guilt. When one man sins – Korah alone was

guilty, whereas the incited masses are deserving of Your graces. We have noted

a number of times in similar cases: when the Holy One, Blessed Be He, leads

Moses to prayer, He arouses in his heart the understanding of His ways of governance;

He elevates his spirit, as it were, to think – along with Him – the thoughts of

divine governance.

(Rabbi

S. R. Hirsch, Bamidbar 16:22)

 I Have

Public Figure

According to the

plain reading, custom was that the public ruler would be carried on a horse, as

per Kohellet (10:7):

I have seen slaves on horseback, and nobles walking… From here we see

that the proper order is the reverse; but even the servant who accompanies his

master on his travels is given a donkey. Not only did I never take one's horse

Rashi explains this according to a Midrash of the Sages: even the donkey upon which my wife

rode when we traveled from Midyan to Egypt was not

theirs. It should be noted that he could have made an even more remarkable

claim: that even the bread he ate in Egypt was not taken from the public. [But

he does not make any such claim]. From this we learn that it cannot be

rightfully expected of one who constantly engages in public affairs that he not

eat from public funds, for then he would have to set aside some hour to make

his living, which would result in his not attending to public needs. The public

prefers that even that hour be devoted to their needs and that the leader eat

at their expense. Moses, too, ate at public expense, and only the donkey on

which he brought his wife was his. In fact, the presence of Moses' wife and

children in Egypt was unnecessary – they returned to Midyan

immediately – but she had asked him that she be able to see the glory of the

Exodus from Egypt (Mekhilta

Yitro). This was not essential for the

necessary for life's essentials.

(The NeTziV of Volozhin; Ha'amek Davar, Harhev Davar, Bamidbar 16:15)

It is proper,

therefore, that we review and internalize that final passage of these thoughts

of the NeTziV. They are worthy of being said to all

generations – especially to this generation, in which it is not customary to

emulate the attributes of Moses our teacher. (Y.

Leibowitz, Sheva Shanim shel Sihot

al Parashiyot ha'Shavu'a,

p. 694)

Every wise

woman builds her house; but the foolish plucks it down with her hands. (Proverbs 14:1)

Every wise woman builds her

house – this refers to the wife of On, the son of Pelet; but the

foolish plucks it down with her hands – to Korah's wife.

(Sanhedrin 110a)

Rav said: On, the

son of Pelet, was saved by his wife. She said to him, "What matters it to

you? Whether the one [Moses] remains master or the other [Korah] becomes master,

you are but a disciple." He replied, "But what can I do? I have taken

part in their counsel, and they have sworn me [to be] with them." She

said, "I know that they are all a holy community, as it is written, seeing

all the congregation are holy, everyone of them (Bamidbar 16)." [So,] she proceeded, "Sit here, and I

will save you." She gave him wine to drink, intoxicated him and laid him

down within [the tent]. Then she sat down at the entrance thereto and loosened

her hair. Whoever came [to summon him] saw her and retreated. Meanwhile, they

(Sanhedrin 109b-110a, based on Soncino translation)

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