Sarcasm on Parshat Korach

: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!