Many ideas have been advanced as to why Korach revolted against Moshe; the most common being that, despite his greatness, he had twin fatal flaws in his character, jealousy and excessive desire for honor. These characteristics, as Pirke Avot states in the name of Rabbi Elazar HaKappar, "Jealousy, excessive desire in general, and desire for honor, in particular, remove a person from the world," (Avot, 4:28) as Korach himself literally was so removed. I wish to focus on the question of why this revolt happened specifically "here and now," in the Desert of Paran, after the sin of the "Meraglim," the "Spies," who misreported concerning Eretz Yisrael with disastrous consequences, somewhat comparably to the way the media, in general, portrays Israel today. That event occurred "last week," so to speak, here in the Diaspora, and "two weeks ago" in the Holy Land, which is ahead of us by one week at this point in the weekly Torah readings, due to an aspect of Jewish Law that is interesting, but which is unrelated to the topic under discussion in this essay. The RAMBAN, a great Torah scholar of thirteenth century Spain and later, Israel, deals with this question. He writes, "when Israel was in the Desert of Sinai, no harm came to them, for even when they sinned with the Calf, which was a terrible and very public sin, their punishment included relatively few deaths and they were saved because of the prayers of Moshe, for he prayed for them forty days and forty nights. And they loved Moshe as they loved themselves, and obeyed him, such that if someone would have dared rebel against Moshe, the People would have stoned him." "Therefore, Korach suffered the elevation of Aharon, and the first-born suffered the elevation of the Leviim, and everything that Moshe did. But when they came to the Desert of Paran, they were burnt in the fire at Taverah (BaMidbar 11:1-3; because they assumed the attitude, for no apparent reason, of complainers), and many died at Kivrot HaTaavah, (when they sinned by complaining about their vegetarian diet - BaMidbar 11:4-34)." "Then, when they sinned with the sin of the Spies, Moshe did not pray for them, and consequently the Divine Decree was not cancelled, and the Princes of all the Tribes died in a Plague before G-d, and it was further decreed upon the people that all of them would perish in the desert." "Then, when the spirit of the People became depressed, and they said that they would have nothing but trouble from obeying Moshe, THERE did Korach find his place to mount a revolt against the actions of Moshe, and to believe that he would find support among the People." "And this is why the People said that Moshe had taken them out of Egypt to kill them in the Wilderness. They said, 'You took us to this place, and you did not fulfill your promise to give us a land flowing with milk and honey. You didn't bring us to any inheritance at all, but rather, we will all die, because our children will likewise not be able to escape the desert. And thus the promise to the children will be cancelled, as you have already cancelled the promise to the parents.' " "And this is the reason that the Revolt took place here, immediately after the Incident of the Spies." But RAMBAN does not explain why Moshe did not pray for the Jewish People, as he had after the Sin of the Golden Calf. We've mentioned earlier that the Book of BaMidbar is, as noted by Rabbi Berel Wein of twentieth century Chicago, New York, Monsey and Jerusalem, the "saddest Book of the Bible." Rabbi Eitan Mayer, of twentieth century New York (Yeshiva University), focuses that idea a bit, when he says that Sefer BaMidbar is the Book of "Lost Opportunity." Rabbi Mayer provides a response to the above question, in his "Parashat Shelah," archived in http://parsha-themes.homepage.com. If someone would like to subscribe to the shiurim (i.e., receive them automatically via email), he or she should write to emayer@virtual.co.il. "Moshe urges the people to 'aim high' and actualize the transcendent goals of 'mamlekhet kohanim ve-goy kadosh' ('a kingdom of priests and a holy/dedicated nation') -- The slaves are to transform themselves, looking above mundane matters and dedicating themselves to moral and spiritual goals. But the people see another set of goals for themselves: they do not trust the invisible G-d as Moshe does, and they do not trust the miraculous environment which supports them."
"Moshe … is beginning to understand where the people stand. The incident in which the people demand meat -- and begin to cry for it like babies -- leads Moshe directly to the image he later uses to describe the people, that of the 'yonek,' the infant suckling. In this posture, Moshe is sympathetic to the people's needs not because he sees their demands as reasonable, but because he sees the people as deeply immature. You wouldn't explain to a suckling why crying for food is inappropriate, and Moshe doesn't try." "But as time goes on and the people begin to turn against Moshe himself, Moshe becomes bitter; his sympathy dissolves and his patience turns to angry frustration. It is at this point, we will see, that Hashem tells him that he is no longer fit to lead the people into the Land of Cana'an." "After the Egel, Moshe faced Hashem as the bold defender, audacious and daring in defending his people, refusing to accept Hashem's proposal that he separate himself from them, obstinate and implacable in his single-minded insistence that Hashem forgive the people and return His presence to them (centered in the Mishkan). At that time, Moshe's energy was high and the people were relatively innocent newcomers to freedom and to monotheism. Moshe was sure that the people had the potential to make the jump from their current weakness to the lofty goals they had been called upon to meet; their idolatry was a moment of understandable weakness, a temporary lapse." "But by now, the situation is different." "Moshe could no longer lead the people because he had lost his faith in them; he had written them off in bitter disappointment, never understanding why their dedication did not equal his, why they could not trust Hashem as he did." "He could defend the people only when he believed in them, but once his faith had weakened, it was all he could do to save their lives." "One of the things the Torah teaches us here is a critical lesson about leadership, especially religious leadership: no one can be a leader if he or she does not believe in the people being led. Moshe falters here, and eventually stumbles in the story of the hitting of the rock, because his faith in the people crumbles and his patience runs out. Moshe no longer believes that this people can achieve the mission assigned to them, so he can no longer insist that Hashem allow them to continue their journey." "As we will see, Hashem's decree that Moshe will not lead the people into the land is not so much a punishment for his misbehavior as it is a recognition of a state of affairs: at this point, Moshe could no longer effectively lead, and there was no other alternative than to retire him."
"May we merit to have leaders of patience, faith in our potential to meet the challenges facing us and patience with us when we stumble; and may we be worthy of their faith in us.
Rabbi Pinchas Frankel Rabbi Frankel is an Educational Coordinator at the OU |
