korach: for the sick and afflicted, a maskil of moshe
hello all,
a short note this week -- i've found it difficult to write, for absolutely no particular reason whatsoever at all.
starting in bamidbar 15:32 (end of last week's parsha!) we get the story of a man gathering wood on shabbos. some of the israelites find him, bring him before moshe, aharon, and the עדה (a word variously used for the justices of the community, the leaders, and the military. these were the people who, incidentally, freaked out over the spies' lies last week before the common people did. just a little elite panic for you, as a treat.)
the man gathering wood is placed in custody because "it had not been specified what should be done to him" (sweet sweet criminal justice baby).
moshe speaks with hashem, who says the man must be stoned to death. so all the עדה take him outside the camp and stone him to death.
then hashem tells moshe to tell the israelites to wear tztizis to remember the commandments (for example, just off the top of my head, about shabbos.)
a little late, bro.
read in order, this is the set-up for our parsha this week, which begins:
Now Korah, 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 [כל-העדה] are holy, all of them, and haShem is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above haShem's congregation?”
it is interesting to me that korach uses the phrase כל-העדה. he's not saying here that all the israelites are holy, but that the עדה are (same spelling as my name, btw, but a different word. feels crucial to point that out.) the עדה seems to be, as we've seen in the last several parshas, a specific group. possibly the military, possibly the judges, possibly the leadership of the tribes.
but crucially, the עדה are the people who just stoned a man to death at hashem's command, relayed through moshe. one can't help but wonder if some of them -- e.g. korach -- weren't very happy with what they had done. perhaps they even wondered "is this really divine? could davka this be what hashem wants?"
this little revolution doesn't go well for korach. hashem, at moshe's suggestion, opens up a mouth in the earth that swallows them up, all of korach's people. (then hashem brings a plague that kills an additional 14,000ish people. i'm tired.)
a quick story time and then i'm done for the week:
once upon a time, rabbah bar bar chanah (full name, every time) was walking along a road when he encountered an arab merchant who claimed to know where the swallowed ones of korach still were to that day. he showed rabbah bar bar chanah two cracks in the ground, and told rabbah bar bar chanah to listen. and rabbah bar bar chanah listened, and he heard singing. and this is what he heard:
a song. a psalm of korach's children.
for the leader, for the sick and afflicted, a maskil of moshe.
[sung to your preferred tune for mi chamokha. just make the scansion work, that's what you do in shul every week anyway.]
halameisim ta'ase-pele im refaim yakumu yodukha selah
do you work wonders for the dead? do ghosts rise up to thank you? selah.
hayesupar bakever khasdekha emunasecha baavadon
do any in the grave tell of your khesed, any in ruin of your faith?
hayivada bakhoshekh pilekha vetzidkasecha b'eretz nshiyah
are your wonders known in darkness, your tzedek known in the forgotten world?
good shabbos,
ada