Talking Torah - For heaven's sake!

Parshat Korach and the benefit of the loyal opposition

Each language has its idioms, terms that taken literally make no sense. Consider for example: “For heaven’s sake!” In English, it’s a term of frustration. But in Hebrew, a dispute “for heaven’s sake” is a holy quest.

Both idioms seem to be at play in this week’s parsha, Korach, named for one of the ringleaders of the 250 chieftains who challenged Moses’ leadership:

Now Korach, 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 YHWH is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above YHWH’s congregation?”

When Moses heard this, he fell on his face.

Korach was Moses’ cousin, jealous of his relative. Dathan and Abiram were members of the tribe of Reuben, Jacob’s eldest son. Reuben’s role as firstborn was eclipsed by Judah, Joseph and Levi. The tribe harbored the resentment and humiliation of the usurped.

Although Moses is known for his humility, he does not like having it questioned. His anger flares as he throws Korach’s words, “You’ve gone too far,” right back at him. He issues his own challenge: Why don’t you have your delegation bring incense and let’s see what God thinks about it? Moses knows that offering the incense for impure reasons can be fatal, as his nephews Nadav and Avihu were incinerated for just that offense.

The next day, Korach and the rebels show up, their incense pans smoking. Moses’ intent is clear in his appeal to heaven:

[I]f YHWH brings about something unheard-of, so that the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, you shall know that those involved have spurned YHWH.”

Moses’ prayer is answered: The ground opens with a thundering crack and Korach and 250 men fall to their death. Although Korach usually gets cast as the bad guy, Moses’ murderous response is stunning. No surprise that in the next parsha he will strike the rock instead of speaking to it and God will tell him he will not lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. But for those attuned to foreshadowing, Moses’ handling of the Korach rebellion already told us that.

The people are clearly troubled by this bloody putdown. The rebellion continues. Then God suggests the following:

Speak to the Israelite people and take from the chieftains of their ancestral houses one staff for each chieftain ... twelve staffs in all. 
Inscribe each one’s name on his staff, 
Also inscribe Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi. 
Deposit them in the Tent of Meeting before the Pact, where I meet with you.
The staff of the candidate whom I choose shall sprout.
Moses deposited the staffs before YHWH, in the Tent of the Pact.

The next day Moses entered the Tent of the Pact, and there the staff of Aaron of the house of Levi had sprouted: it had brought forth sprouts, produced blossoms, and borne almonds.

With this miraculous sign, not with force but with flowers, the rebellion is quelled.

**********************

Aaron’s flowering staff evokes another place in Torah where almond blossoms are the motif. Here are the instructions for the Menorah:

You shall make a lampstand of pure gold; 
the lampstand shall be made of hammered work; 
its base and its shaft, its cups, calyxes, and petals shall be of one piece.

Six branches shall issue from its sides; three branches from one side of the lampstand and three branches from the other side of the lampstand.
On one branch there shall be three cups shaped like almond-blossoms, each with calyx and petals, and on the next branch [the same]; so for all six branches issuing from the lampstand.

And on the lampstand itself there shall be four cups shaped like almond-blossoms, each with calyx and petals…

The Menorah had seven lights, three pairs of arms and a central stalk, each decorated with almond blossoms:

The Menorah is a visual representation of a better approach to conflict resolution. The arms may seem in opposition, but the opposites are connected to the same body and to each other. And the whole, made of one piece, integrates all of the parts. Opposition is held in balance.

Pirkei Avot, the great wisdom book of the Mishnah, contrasts these two paths for managing conflict by comparing Korach with the famous dueling sages of the Mishnah, Hillel and Shammai:

Every dispute that is for the sake of Heaven, will in the end endure; But one that is not for the sake of Heaven, will not endure. Which is the controversy that is for the sake of Heaven? Such was the controversy of Hillel and Shammai. And which is the controversy that is not for the sake of Heaven? Such was the controversy of Korah and all his congregation.¹

A “dispute for the sake of heaven” is a dispute of noble purpose, to get at the truth, as opposed a fight just to win the argument. Hillel and Shammai had many arguments over the halakha (Jewish law). The Talmud records over 300 instances where the two differed on the law. Hillel’s view was generally preferred. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks quotes the Talmud, explaining why:

The reason is that they were agreeable and forbearing, showing restraint when affronted, and when they taught the halakha they would teach both their own statements and the statements of the School of Shammai. Moreover, when they formulated their teachings and cited a dispute, they prioritized the statements of School of Shammai to their own statements, in deference to School of Shammai.²

Hillel took pains to deal respectfully with his famous counterpart. He was the more beloved teacher, a patient and kind man. Accounts on Shammai are mixed. The most charitable view was that he was kind of a hard-ass on the law but nice in person. But we sense they could have shared a wineskin as they engaged in a Chavruta, two irons sharpening each other in the image from Proverbs. They were both after the truth. Korach, by contrast, has no counterpart in the passage quoted above because he was simply constituted against.

*****************

There’s another passage from Pirkei Avot on point. On the eve of the first Sabbath, at the end of creation, God added a few finishing touches, fourteen in all.³ Here are the first six:

Ten things were created on the eve of the Sabbath at twilight, and these are they: 
[1] the mouth of the earth, 
[2] the mouth of the well, 
[3] the mouth of the donkey, 
[4] the rainbow, 
[5] the manna, 
[6] the staff …..

Surprisingly, two of these six relate to this week’s parsha - the mouth of the earth that swallowed the Korach rebels, and the staff that sprouted almond blossoms. Both ways of dealing with conflict are part of creation, and available to us. It’s our choice.

Shavuah tov,
Rich

Davar Acher (Actually, a flight of Divrei Acher)

1. Hillel and Shammai remind us that rivals can elevate each other. Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, bitter NBA adversaries through the early 80’s, became friends during the filming of this commercial in 1986. This article details their journey to friendship, even as they fought to outdo each other on the court.

2. On the subject of meeting force with flowers, there’s this moment.

3. Finally, if you haven’t seen this commencement speech from Steve Carrell, you must. He has reinvented the form. And amidst the laughs, his call to kindness is definitely of the School of Hillel.

1. Avot 5:17

2. Eiruvin 13b.

3. Avot 5:6