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Korach- Subconscious Bias
For this year’s Parsha Lesson I will be focusing on a chinuch (parenting/educational) lesson that can be derived from the Dvar Torah.
Background
In this week’s parsha we read about the infamous coup which was attempted by Korach and his followers. Korach was the son of Yitzhar, the son of Kehas the son of Levi. He was a first cousin of Moshe and Aharon, who were the sons of Amram, the son of Kehas. Korach, in his jealousy of the positions of leadership that both Moshe and Aharon had (which was further stoked by the elevation of Elitzafan the son of Uziel the son of Kehas, another first cousin of Korach’s, to the position of Nasi of the family of Kehas), Korach riled up a crowd of over 250 other dignitaries to challenge the leadership Moshe and Aharon.
To understand the context, Korach had been a very wise, and righteous person. Additionally, Korach was THE wealthiest person in the Jewish nation, which was a nation of very wealthy people- having cleared out the great majority of the wealth of Egypt, the greatest nation in the world at that time. From his position, within the tribal structure of the Jewish people, as well as the level of wisdom and wealth that he had, the rebellion of Korach was particularly threatening and dangerous to the integrity and very foundation of Klal Yisroel.
It was for this reason that it demanded such a clear, divine and harsh response from Hashem- clearly being meted out in support of Moshe and Aharon. And so it happened. Moshe told the instigators that if they wanted to challenge the position of Moshe and Aharon, they could enact a very simple test, a showdown of sorts. The rebels would take the special ketores spice and attempt to offer it to Hashem. Aharon would do similarly. The ketores offering was particularly potent because the halacha is that if someone brings the ketores offering to Hashem, when they were not authorized to do so, they would be liable for death.
In fact, Moshe went one step further and conveyed to the rebels the following prophecy from Hashem: Moshe told the the rebels that if they would proceed with this challenge and they would be wrong, that Hashem would not suffice with a ‘regular’ death from burning unauthorized Ketores, but rather Hashem would open up the earth itself and Korach and any rebels who would be part of this challenge would be swallowed up whole, headed straight down to the depths of Gehinnom (Hell). The rebels agreed to take up this challenge. Moshe pleaded with them to desist and do teshuva. Moshe, in fact, took the extraordinary step of traveling to the homes of two of the main rebels, Dasan and Aviram, in an effort to accord them honor and try to convince them to stand down and not suffer this horrible punishment.
All of these efforts from Moshe did not sway the rebels and they proceeded to challenge Aharon to this deadly showdown. Sure enough, immediately after Moshe warned the rebels about this fantastical threat, and they proceeded with the Ketores offering nonetheless, the earth opened up and swallowed ONLY the men who were party to this rebellion, their families and all of their possessions. On top of the obvious, open miracle, the earth created slopes in order to funnel all of their possessions, wherever in the Jewish people’s camp that they may be, to the opening in the ground which swallowed them all up.
This was an amazing, clear, openly miraculous display from Hashem that ‘משה אמת ותורתו אמת’, that Moshe and ‘His’ Torah (the Torah he taught the Jewish people from Hashem) are in fact true and that everything he taught and set down for Klal Yisroel was from Hashem.
The next morning, immediately after this very public and open display which transpired in front of the entire nation, many people came to Moshe and Aharon and had complaints against them- ‘you have caused many people, of the nation of Hashem, to be killed!’ As the commentators explain, they were sensitive to the fact that challenging the rebels to a ‘ketores cook-off’ was essentially a death match.
Hashem finally had enough, and told Moshe and Aharon to separate themselves from the rest of the Jewish nation and Hashem would destroy them at once for their intransigence and constant complaining and murmurings against, essentially, Hashem Himself.
Question
How could the Jewish people be so dense!? How could they have not gotten the message?
First of all, their complaint on its face makes no sense. Why should Moshe and Aharon be liable for the deaths of Korach and his rebels? Their entire complaint against Moshe and Aharon was that Moshe and Aharon had appointed themselves to their positions and that this was not really ordained by Hashem. In order to settle this issue clearly, it would make sense to use a potent force like the Ketores to clarify this matter, clearly. Especially being that Korach and the other rebels were quite wise and knowledgeable and knew exactly what they were getting themselves into. They took up this challenge without any coercion or pressure. In fact, Moshe did his utmost to convince the instigators to NOT take up this challenge. How could any reasonable person blame Moshe and Aharon?
Secondly, this was not merely a ‘fire’ which killed them- ala Nadav and Avihu (the very pious sons of Aharon, who were Kohanim, who brought an unauthorized offering on the day of the inauguration of the Mishkan, and were promptly burned to death by a divine fire)- but rather this was very clearly a supernatural occurrence which was done directly by Hashem Himself! The splitting of the ground, the fact that only the instigators and their families were swallowed up and the fact that their possessions were ‘funneled’ to the hole, these all pointed very clearly to the fact that this was not a normal situation of people misusing the ketores! This was the hand of Hashem in a clearly obvious fashion! And the fact that all of this happened, in exact accordance with the prophecy of Moshe, made it all the more spectacular and clearly Heaven sent!
What were the Jewish people thinking and how could they have sinned in this way?
Answer
There is a popular misconception that many people have that if only we had prophecy, if only we had miracles from Hashem, in a clear and explicit fashion, would we be able to believe in Hashem and therefore do the mitzvos in the Torah properly. This is very clearly not true. One only need to look at the world around us to see the extent to which people can completely distort simple reality in their mission and drive towards a certain goal. Men can become women and women can be men. That which is true can be accused of being false and vice versa. That which is good can be called bad and that which is bad can be called good.
R’ Elchonon Wasserman (b. 1874 in Lithuania. d. July 6th, 1941 in the infamous 7th Fort by the Nazis y’’sh), in a very fundamental essay asked- how is it that a 12 year old girl and 13 year old boy can be tasked with recognizing Hashem as being the G-d of the world, when the brilliant scholars of history did not necessarily believe this? Brilliant thinkers like Aristote, were atheist. How could a young Jewish child, upon reaching Bar & Bas Mitzvah, be expected to believe this?
R’ Elchonon answers that recognizing truth has less to do with seeing the truth than it has to do with NOT being twisted into such a corrupted pretzel that you come to believe things that aren’t true or deny the existence of that which is true. What is the source of such corrupted thinking? Very simply, man’s want to be free of the ramifications of what the truth is telling him. If the truth of G-d’s existence means that there is now a purpose to life more than just living a hedonistic existence, then it is not very convenient to affirm that truth- regardless of how obvious it might be. If the existence of Hashem as the creator of the world means that there is an ultimate judge who will critically analyze my life and my decisions, and mete out the proper repayment for them- good or otherwise- then it is not very pleasant for me to believe as such. And therefore the human being adopts and ‘self-brainwashes’ themselves to believe however they want to believe, regardless of the truth in front of them.
As a philosopher once famously said ‘My mind is made up, don’t confuse me with the facts.’ And in truth, man goes even further and twists anything he can to support his corrupted beliefs.
The Jewish people were, quite understandably, not very keen on facing up to the fact that there is a ‘caste’ system in the Jewish religion. They were not comfortable with the fact that some people have more prestigious roles than others, by dint of their lineage and previous behavior. And this made it very difficult for them to accept the authority of Moshe and Aharon. Until Korach came along with his rebellion, no one would dare challenge Moshe, it was as clear as day that he was the appointed leader and that in turn his brother Aharon, whom he appointed to the role of Kohen Gadol (by command of Hashem) was also properly appointed by Hashem. But once the ‘cat was out of the bag’, once Korach came along and dared to challenge Moshe and Aharon, it awakened in the entire nation these feelings and resentments at being ‘second class citizens’ and not being able to ever be the High Priests and to do the service in the Holy Temple as a Kohen.
As obvious as it may have been to any outside observer, and to the people as well, their inner turmoil and resistance to the uncomfortable truth that they saw was too much for them and they blinded themselves to that which was ‘as clear as day.’
Chinuch Lesson
How important it is to be sensitive and aware of the inner leanings and self interests of our children, our students and ourselves. We must both ‘call out’ our biases and test them to see if they are corrupting our judgment, as well as do what we can to bring along our self interest and biases towards that which is good and true.
To make a party in celebration of the completion of a year of growing and learning Torah is a wonderful way to establish in the inner world of our children and students the pleasantness and joy of doing that which is right and good. Giving positive feedback to any progress, self-control, ‘rising up to a challenge’ that we sense in those we are leading, and in ourselves- are all invaluable to WANTING to do that which is right and good.
And, ultimately, fostering in ourselves and our children and students such a devotion and pleasure from attaining the truth, the ultimate, real truth, regardless of what it means to our sensibilities and regardless of what the ramifications to our sense of honor or esteem are, will innoculate and protect us and our children from the corruption and propaganda from a source more dangerous than the media, politicians, and the world at large and that is the propaganda that we tell ourselves.
Wishing you and your family a wonderful Shabbos!
Rabbi Eli Meir Kramer
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