:Parshat Korach begins as follows
וַיִּקַּח קֹרַח, בֶּן-יִצְהָר בֶּן-קְהָת בֶּן-לֵוִי; וְדָתָן וַאֲבִירָם
בְּנֵי אֱלִיאָב, וְאוֹן בֶּן-פֶּלֶת--בְּנֵי רְאוּבֵן.
And so took Korach son of Yitzhar
son of Kehat son of Levi; and Datan and Aviram sons of Eliav, and Oen son of
Pelet, sons Re'uven.
What did they take? In all the rest
of Tanach, The word 'Vayikach' always has a clear object, the person taking,
and a clear subject, the thing being taken. Here, the Torah only tells us who
took!
I conjecture that they, in fact,
took themselves. The language the Torah uses thus indicates that they
took themselves – and from where? They took themselves out of the congregation
of Bnei Yisrael.
Rav Hirsch on this parsha notes
that 'taking', by its very nature, is also to make separate. I note that the
words of separating in ancient Hebrew grow from the root word Kuf Daled Shin -
Kadesh.
When Korach says to Moshe &
Aharon:
'hashem - רַב-לָכֶם--כִּי כָל-הָעֵדָה כֻּלָּם קְדֹשִׁים,
וּבְתוֹכָם יְהוָה; וּמַדּוּעַ תִּתְנַשְּׂאוּ, עַל-קְהַל'
Korach is employing sarcasm - he is
insinuating that his Kahal – the Kahal that just constituted itself
against Moshe and Aharon - is, by merit of having declared themselves separated
to be leaders, more able and more worthy of leadership of Bnei Yisrael than
Moshe – after all, Moshe was chosen by God, but Moshe was a reluctant
leader - he only led because he had to. Korach is saying: Hey! Moshe - Good
News - you can step down now, we got this under control! You don’t have to
carry this burden anymore. It sounds pretty good, without the retrospect…
The adage that "Those who most
seek power are those least fit to wield it" is indicated to be correct in
God's eyes by His response to Korach’s Kahal’s Kedusha-claim. Or maybe, He
simply dislikes sarcastic politicians!
