Korach

Korach – Steve Miller 

Steve Miller is a social entrepreneur, community activist and visionary. He is the founder of many organisations including Tzedek, Restore Community Projects, and Faiths Forum for London. Letakeyn, Steve’s latest project is both a challenging idea integrating personal, social and political transformation and a virtual organisation looking for opportunities to put these ideas into practice. Steve is co-chairing the London Limmud Festival in Bloomsbury which takes place on 1 November 2009.

I’ll admit it – I do have a "problem" with authority. 

And I don’t think I’m the only one. Status, respect and deference in the 21st century are difficult to win – and easily lost – rather than simply "given" due to birth, profession or position.

This change is reflected in our attitude to Biblical narratives. In recent years discussions of Korach's rebellion against Moses have often been framed in a way that is sympathetic to Korach, the rebel, rather than Moses, and even God, the "natural" authorities.

The rebels’ accusation against Moses and Aaron doesn’t sound so unreasonable. The Children of Israel have already been told (in Exodus 19:6) that "you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation". So, is it stretching things so much that Korach, Datan and Aviram now say to Moses and Aaron: "Too much is yours! Indeed the entire community, the entirety-of-them, are holy, and in their midst is God"? (Numbers 16:3)

Korach himself seems quite the opposite of a rabble-rousing firebrand. He never speaks out alone – always with others, including the 250 "men-of-stature" who clearly share these concerns.

Moses suggests that Korach is motivated by jealousy – as Moses' and Aaron's cousin he would quite like to be a priest rather than just, as a member of the tribe of Levi, an assistant. But is this really enough to warrant the dramatic and unique punishment of the earth swallowing them up alive?

Traditional commentators are quick to pile on to Korach and his followers a whole bunch of more dubious motives to ensure that we know that the punishment really does fit the crime. But we come from a generation that expects to be able to grapple with the text directly and not just defer to a past generation's judgement. Is there a way for all of us to resolve this narrative?

Martin Buber suggests that there are much larger questions at stake here. "The issue is always that of "divine freedom" against "divine law". … God rules through men who have been gripped by His spirit and who … carry out His will not merely by means of instantaneous decisions but also through lasting justice and law". (Moses, East and West Library, 1947).

The problem as Buber sees it is that even when the law starts off as inspired by God, too often it becomes "emptied of the spirit" and the legitimate conclusion is that "the law must again and again immerse itself in the purifying fire of the spirit". 

In Buber's view Korach has forgotten the second part of this process.  He assumes that humans are now capable of generating law for themselves, and that "God's rule is only restricted to the 'religious' sphere", whereas Moses' instinct – whatever mistakes and errors he makes – is to refer back to God in all matters (although this, in turn, is made easier for Moses who has a direct connection to God). 

Both at the time Buber wrote Moses, and at the present time, questions of legitimate authority, power, justice and equity loom large. This particular story doesn't give us easy answers – especially for those of us whose natural position is to challenge received authority. But at the very least it reminds us of the complex inter-action between the material and spiritual spheres of authority, and the perils – in this story very tangible and dramatic – of misunderstanding the true issues at stake.