Parsha for Kids: Korach 2023
Below is the transcript for the past week’s episode of Parsha for Kids, Korach 2023.
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Season 4 Episode 5:
Hello! My name is Chana and this is Parsha for Kids. The parsha of the week is “Korach.” Korach is the name of a person who plays a pivotal role in the story of this week’s parsha.
Who was Korach?
Korach came from a prominent Levite family. He was the son of Yitzhar who was the son of Kehas, who was the son of Levi. Korach persuaded Datan and Aviram, who our Sages identify as two troublemakers, to join him in a rebellion. He also persuaded 250 men from the tribe of Reuven, one of whom was named On ben Pelet, to join the cause.
What was the rebellion about?
Power.
Rashi explains: once upon a time, there was a man named Kehas. He was of the tribe of Levi. Kehas had four sons: Amram, Yitzhar, Chevron and Uzziel (Shemot 6:18). These four brothers are listed in order of their birth. Amram, the oldest brother, had three children: Miriam, Aharon and Moshe. As we know, Aharon became the Kohen Gadol, or High Priest. Moshe became the leader of the entire Jewish nation, the person who took them out of Egypt.
Yitzhar was the second oldest brother. Korach was his son. Korach thus assumed that when the next leadership opportunity came along, he would be selected for it. Instead, he was snubbed. Moshe appointed Elitzaphan the son of Uzziel as Nasi over the sons of Kehas. Uzziel was the youngest of the four brothers! Of course, Moshe had not performed the selection for this role on his own- everything Moshe had done was based on God’s commands to him.
But Korach did not consider this. Snubbed and stung, he vowed that he would make Moshe sorry for what he had done.
TRANSITION
The Midrash uncovers yet another layer of what caused Korach’s rebellion. It had to do with his wife.
Have you ever noticed that your perspective is affected by the company you keep? Imagine that one day at school, something doesn’t go your way. For example, maybe you don’t get the part you wanted in the school play. You tell a friend about how you are feeling. That friend now has a couple of different options of how to react.
They could say, “I’m sorry to hear that. It can be hard not to get a part you really wanted.” Maybe the friend would offer to cheer you up by taking you out to get some ice cream.
Alternatively, they could say, “Well, of course you didn’t get the part! The teacher in charge of the school play is out to get you. She’s refusing to give you what you deserve. Let’s tell the principal about this!”
When the friend simply says they are sorry to hear you didn’t get the part, they are validating your feelings. There’s nobody to blame- just a tough situation.
With the second response, however, the friend is assuming that this is someone’s fault- and it must be another person’s fault, not yours.
The first response offers compassion, but also acknowledges that you have the ability to get through and move beyond this challenge. The second response gets you stuck in the situation and makes it worse, since you are now engaged in fighting a vendetta against the teacher in charge of the school play. In most situations, being able to move on is healthier.
When Korach told his wife about Elitzaphan being picked for a significant leadership role, she had the choice of how to respond. She could have soothed and comforted him, assuring him that no matter what his role was within Bnei Yisrael, she was happy that he was her husband.
Instead, Korach’s wife added fuel to the fire. She told Korach that Moshe was practicing nepotism, appointing people he liked (like his brother) to positions of power. She also commented that Moshe had deliberately made sure that all Levites had to shave their hair (so that they were bald) in order to make them look ugly. Korach knew there was a logical flaw here, since Moshe had also shaved his hair, but Korach’s wife insisted Moshe only did that so that all the other Levites would look ugly and be humiliated.
Korach’s wife also belittled the laws of the Torah, claiming that Moshe was making them up. For example, you may remember that we learned about the mitzvah of wearing tzitzit, ritual fringes. One of the threads on each corner of the tzitzit is supposed to be blue, and is referred to as being techeles. You may not have seen people you know wearing blue tzitzis because the knowledge of how techeles was made was lost for a long time. We were able to recover that knowledge, and now some people do wear tzitzit with techeles.
In any case, Korach’s wife thought it was silly that the men were only supposed to wear one blue thread on each corner. “It would make more sense to wear a four-cornered garment that was entirely made out of blue techeles,” she said. Korach agreed.
It wasn’t only Korach who was affected by the company he kept. The 250 men he persuaded to join his rebellion were mostly from the tribe of Reuven, who camped near Korach. Their physical proximity made them vulnerable to his ideas. Additionally, since Reuven was the firstborn son of Yaaakov, an argument could be made that the kehunah, priesthood, was meant to be his. Thus, men from the tribe of Reuven, too, could be persuaded to see themselves as snubbed and overlooked. They felt like they had been unfairly treated. They were therefore interested in aligning themselves with Korach, who they saw as representing their interests. They figured that if Korach ended up in charge instead of Moshe, he would be willing to let them become Kohanim.
TRANSITION
Korach and his men came before Moshe and Aharon and said, “Rav lach! You take too much power for yourselves. Ki chol ha’edah kulam kedoshim- because the entire congregation is holy.” The argument Korach and his men were making was that every member of Bnei Yisrael was kadosh, holy. Since this was so, what gave Moshe the right to elevate certain people, like himself, or Aharon, above others in the community? Why did they have additional special roles that regular members of Bnei Yisrael did not have?
According to the Midrash, Korach also questioned the laws Moshe taught them. Korach was wearing a completely blue tallit. He asked “Does a tallit that is completely made of techeles blue still need a blue thread attached to it?”
“Yes,” Moshe said. Korach mocked him, pointing out how illogical that was.
Then Korach said, “If a house contains sifrei Torah, Torah scrolls, does it still need a mezuza, the parchment we place on the doorpost that contains certain sections of the Torah?”
“Yes,” said Moshe.
Korach mocked Moshe again, “This is also illogical,” he exclaimed. “After all, sifrei Torah have the entire Torah text inside of them while the mezuza only has the Shema. So why would we still need a mezuza on the door?”
“I don’t believe these mitzvot are from God,” Korach declared. “I think you invented them yourself.”
TRANSITION
What was wrong with Korach’s actions?
In the mishna, which is part of Torah She’Baal Peh, or the Oral Law, we learn that there are two different types of machloket. A machloket refers to a disagreement between at least two people. One is a machloket l’shem shamayim, a disagreement for the sake of Heaven. The other is a machloket lo l’shem shamayim, a disagreement that is not for the sake of Heaven.
A machloket l’shem shamayim is one where the disagreement is caused by a true desire to do what you believe God wants of you. The sages Hillel and Shammai were involved in such disagreements. There were many areas of Jewish law where they ruled differently. For example, when it comes to lighting the menorah on Chanukah, Hillel believed that we should add a light during each night of the holiday, so that on the eighth night we would have lit eight candles. Shammai, in contrast, believed that we should light all eight flames the first night, and then subtract until there was only one candle left on the last night. They each based themselves on Jewish ideas. Shammai noted that when we offer bulls on the holiday of Sukkot, we start with thirteen on the first day, then subtract one a day so we are left with seven bulls being offered on the seventh day of the holiday, and just one bull on Shemini Atzeres, the eighth day. In contrast, Hillel focused on the idea that when it comes to the Torah “maalin b’kodesh v’ein moridim,” we increase in matters of holiness and do not take away.
Even though Hillel and Shammai disagreed strongly, their disagreement was not personal. According to a mainstream view, they allowed their children to marry one another, and respected each other.
In contrast, the disagreement of Korach was personal and focused on what he ultimately wanted- power. Korach did not approach Moshe because he was truly interested in learning why a completely blue tallit still needed a piece of techelet tzitzit. If that was what he cared about, he could have approached Moshe in private to talk through his concerns. By doing it in public and in front of a large group of people, he was questioning Moshe’s authority. Korach made himself look like a holy person but he wasn’t really. He was just dressing up his arguments for why he should have power to seem more palatable. This kind of disagreement is called a machloket lo l’shem shamayim, a disagreement not for the sake of heaven. Eventually, this kind of disagreement will fall apart, and the person heading it will show their true colors.
TRANSITION
Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik calls Korach’s rebellion The Common Sense Rebellion. He elaborates on this in an essay he wrote of the same name.
Here’s what Rabbi Soloveitchik explains- there’s expertise and there’s common sense. A person needs both of these, but more importantly, they need to know when to use each one of these approaches towards navigating life.
Let’s say you’re not feeling well. You have a fever, runny nose and a cough. Common sense tells you that some sleep, chicken soup, and perhaps some over the counter medication like Tylenol will help you feel better.
But let’s say that fever persists and it’s climbing higher and higher. You’re not getting better. At that point, you’ll want expertise. You’ll want to find a doctor who is expert in their field and ask them exactly what you need to do in order to get better.
When it comes to dangerous situations, we want experts. I want an engineer to build a bridge rather than someone who thinks they can just “figure out” what the right approach is to bridge-building. I want a dentist to check my teeth, not my high school English teacher. But the English teacher might be perfect when it comes to helping me proofread my paper. People are experts in different areas and we need to know when to seek out a particular expert and we need to understand what they are actually experts in.
The mistake Korach made, according to Rabbi Soloveitchik, had to do with his understanding- or lack thereof- of Jewish law. Korach thought that the law had one specific purpose, and if the purpose could be achieved a different way, it was no longer valid. For example, he thought that in a home that already contained Torah scrolls there was no need for an additional mezuzah scroll. But Korach was wrong. There was another purpose to the law of mezuzah, one that we don’t know. Common sensing our way through the situation would be the wrong call. We would have to consult an expert- like Moshe or God Himself- about this.
Korach also thought that the law was there to evoke a certain kind of feeling. For example, if wearing blue techeles is meant to cause one to think about God in the sky, then surely it doesn’t matter whether it’s a thread or a full garment that’s blue. But here, too, Rabbi Soloveitchik disagreed. Each of us feels differently. We won’t all have the same emotional experiences tied to mitzvot. That’s why the law is stronger than our emotions. We need to keep the law even when our emotional connection is not so strong. Think about anything worth doing- we have to do it even when we don’t feel like it. Anyone who becomes excellent at something does it even on the days when they don’t want to. Think about Simone Biles, Olympic gymnast. She probably had days when she was tired and didn’t want to practice her routine, when she didn’t feel happy about doing it, but she did it anyway. Especially if we want to become excellent at connecting to God, we need to persevere and follow His laws even if our feelings are telling us otherwise.
TRANSITION
So if you’re Moshe, and Korach and his men have all come to fight with you, what do you do next?
Well, Moshe was a very humble man. So he fell down on his face in prayer. Then, he explained how they would be able to determine, once and for all, who was chosen to serve in high positions within the community and who was not. Moshe instructed Korach and the men with him to each take a firepan and place ketores, incense, upon it- as well as fire. God would then demonstrate which of those individuals, if any, he had chosen to serve as kohanim.
But Moshe did not want all of these people to be punished by God. So he pleaded with them. “Isn’t it enough,” he asked, “that you have been chosen to serve as Levites? Do you really need the kehunah as well? Why complain about Aharron?”
Unfortunately, Moshe’s plea fell on deaf ears.
TRANSITION
Dasan and Aviram were not present when Moshe spoke to Korach and the group that were with him. Moshe therefore decided to reach out to them separately. He asked them to come meet with him.
They refused. They argued that Moshe had taken them out of Egypt, a land flowing with milk and honey, to instead have them die in the Midbar. Given that he had done this, they had no interest in following his leadership. They declared that even if Moshe gouged out their eyes, they would not go to him.
Moshe was very distressed by their statement, and the way they painted him as someone who was only after power, not caring about the cost to his fellow Jews. Moshe asked God not to accept their sacrifices. He told God that he, Moshe, had not taken a donkey from any of them, nor had he ever hurt them.
TRANSITION
Earlier in our story, we mentioned that there was a man called On ben Pelet of the tribe of Reuven. He then disappears from the story. The question is- what happened to him?
You may recall we noticed this in another section of Tanakh. That time, Besuel, Rivka’s father, appeared in the story- and then we never heard from him again. He too disappeared from the story. What happened to him?
In that episode, the Midash explains that Besuel died. Our episode here is a bit different.
When On came home and told his wife that he had pledged himself to support Korach, she was upset. “What difference does it make to you,” she asked, “whether Moshe is the main leader or Korach is the main leader? Either way, it doesn’t affect you.” On saw that she was right but he didn’t want to go back on his word. Luckily for him, his wife gave him wine which made him drunk, causing him to sleep. When men came to collect On to join the firepan test, she blocked the entrance of the tent by sitting there and combing out her long hair. The men were embarrassed to see her with uncovered hair, so they left. In this way, she saved On’s life.
You may notice the contrast between Korach’s wife and On’s wife. Korach’s wife caused him to be even more bitter and to risk himself to pursue power. On’s wife, in contrast, just wanted to keep him safe. The Midrash deliberately sets up this parallel so we can once again see how important it is to choose our friends - let alone our spouses- wisely.
TRANSITION
The next morning, Korach and his 250 men assembled with their firepans to perform the test. Dasan and Aviram remained beside their tents, remaining defiant towards Moshe and Aharon. God was very angry and told Moshe and Aharon that if they wanted, He, God, would destroy Bnei Yisrael in an instant. This was not, however, what Moshe and Aharon wanted.
God then told Moshe to tell Bnei Yisrael to move away from the tents belonging to Dasan, Aviram and Korrarch. Dasan and Aviram stood outside their tents with their wives and children beside them.
Moshe declared, “This is how you will know that God sent me to lead, and that I did not come up with my leadership position or God’s laws on my own. If these men die a natural death, then God did not send me. But if God makes the earth open up and swallow them whole, you will know these men have provoked God.”
As soon as he finished talking, the earth split open and swallowed Dasan, Aviram, their wives, their families, their tents, and their possessions. It also swallowed Korach’s tent, family and possessions. The rest of Bnei Yisrael ran away, terrified, because they feared the earth would consume them as well.
The 250 men who had offered up the ketores were not swallowed by the earth. Instead, God sent a fire that burned them all up. Korach was included in this punishment. He too was burned, and afterwards, he too was swallowed by the earth.
TRANSITION
The copper firepans that the 250 men had been holding had fallen to the ground, embers and incense scattered around them. God told Moshe to tell Elazar, Aharon the Kohen Gadol’s son, to pick them up. These copper firepans would be flattened out and made into a new coverirng for the Mizbeach HaNechoshet, the copper altar. This would serve as a reminder to Bnei Yisrael that only the true kohanim could serve in the Mishkan or Beit Hamikdash. Any time someone would look at the copper altar, they would remember all of the false kohanim who had tried to serve God, and the horrible deaths they had endured.
The day that Korach, Dasan, Aviram, their families and the 250 men were punished, Bnei Yisrael were terrified and did not speak up. The next day, however, they complained to Moshe and Aharon, accusing them of having killed all of those people.
God was angry that Bnei Yisrael had not learned their lesson. Rather than accepting that it was He, God, who had determined the positions Moshe and Aharon should have and the appropriate consequences that people who tried to fight against them should endure, the people were once again blaming Moshe and Aharon. God told Moshe and Aharon to stand aside because He was going to punish Bnei Yisrael with death.
A plague began. Moshe quickly instructed Aharon to get his firepan, put incense and fire on it, and atone for the nation. Aharon did this, standing between the dead and the living, and stopped the plague. However, before he could stop it, almost 15,000 Jews died due to this plague.
TRANSITION
But this was not the end. God did not want everything to end in smoke, fire, death and destruction. Instead, He gave another command. He told Moshe to take twelve wooden sticks and write the names of the 12 nesiim, leaders of the tribes, on them. On the stick that represented the tribe of Levi, Aharon’s name was written.
God then told Moshe to place the 12 sticks in front of the Aron, Ark. Only the stick of the shevet that God had chosen to serve Him would blossom. The rest would stay dry.
The sticks were placed before the Aron overnight. The next day, the stick with Aharon’s name was covered with leaves, blossoms and almonds. This made clear that God had chosen him and his tribe, the tribe of Levi.
God spoke to Aharon, and later to Moshe, directly, explaining specific gifts that needed to be given to Kohanim. God also explained the responsibilities of the kohanim once more.
TRANSITION
So here’s what we learned this week!
It is not good to crave power. One should lead because they are chosen to serve the people, not because they want the prestige of a high position.
If we are ever engaging in machloket, some type of disagreement, it is so important to make sure that it is a machloket l’shem shamayim, where we are truly engaging in it out of a desire to serve God well, and not a machloket lo l’shem shamayim.
Common sense can only get us so far. In many situations, we need to seek out experts. This applies in Judaism as well. There is a reason we turn to learned people like Talmidei Chachamim to help us understand Torah rather than just deciding it means whatever we want it to mean.
We can be impacted by the company we keep- and the people who we choose to marry. The stories of On ben Pelet and Korach show us how differently two spouses acted, and how one saved her husband’s life while the other ultimately caused his death.
If you have any questions or comments on this week’s episode, please email me at parsha4kids@gmail.com. That’s parsha the number 4 kids at gmail.com. Good Shabbos!