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This Week’s Dvar Torah
Korach: Who’s The Real Nut?
Yids, this week’s Torah portion, Korach, presents us with what might be the earliest recorded workplace insurrection in biblical history. Korach, a Levite of pedigree, stages a full-blown rebellion against Moshe and Aharon, armed with theology, a sharp tongue, and 250 men with matching incense pans. What could possibly go wrong?
Korach’s argument, on the surface, sounds impressively egalitarian: “The entire community is holy! Why do you raise yourselves above G-d’s congregation?” (Bamidbar 16:3). One can imagine the dramatic pause, the emphatic hand gesture, the glint in his eye as he delivers this line like a candidate at a populist press conference. 🤌
But as the Rebbe, whose 31st yahrzeit we commemorate this week on Gimmel Tammuz, would often point out, there’s a vast difference between holy people and a holy community.
Holiness doesn’t mean everyone takes the lead; it means everyone has a role. Korach wanted the glory without the vessel. He wanted to plug into the Divine circuit board with no grounding wire. Spoiler alert: it didn’t end well. The earth literally swallows him whole. (If you’re from Florida, you might know a thing or two about sinkholes. If you’re reading this from anywhere else, just use your imagination.)
