What is an Argument for the Sake of Heaven?

D’var Torah 6/11/18

שבת שלום

Our parasha for today is קֹ֔רַח, which is Numbers 16:1 – 18:32. Last week, the scouts came back concerned about going into the Promised Land, God told them that this generation would not make it in, and so there has to be tremendous disappointment that the goal that was pulling them along for two years in the wilderness was not to be realized for many years now, and never by the adults present at the time. This must be a climate ripe for discouragement and then rebellion. A quick summary: Korach, who is a cousin of Moses and Aaron, leads a group of 250 people in rebellion against them. The earth opens up and swallows the ringleaders and fire reaches out and destroys the rest of the 250. The community is still in rebellion, so God sends a plague and Aaron burns incense and prays for the plague to be stopped. The next day, the people are still grumbling bitterly – “You killed the Lord’s chosen!” At God’s command, a rod from each Tribe is brought for a test to see who God favors. Aaron’s rod blossoms and puts forth almonds. God then spells out the roles of the Kohenim, Levites, and Israelites more specifically.

What caught my attention most in this portion was a reference to it in the Talmud: “Every argument for the sake of heaven will in the end be of permanent value, but every argument not for the sake of heaven will not endure. Which is an argument for the sake of heaven? The argument between Hillel and Shammai. Which is an argument not for the sake of heaven? The argument of Korach and his company.” WHY did they make this distinction?

Jonathan Sacks notes that Hillel and Shammai were arguing in order to determine the truth. “Each [side] uses reason, logic, shared texts and shared reverence for texts; each side is willing to listen to the views of its opponents and take them seriously.” Korach on the other hand was arguing for the sake of victory. Nehama Leibowitz points out that Korach appeared to be playing the role of a demogogue. He wanted the power for himself and we have midrash that says that he was spreading lies about the laws that Moses and Aaron were imposing on the people in order to foster discord. Immediately after the tale of these rebellions, God specifies the tasks that the Kohenim and Levites are to perform, admonishing the priests that theirs is to be a service of giving. Thus, as Shai Held muses, if a true spiritual leader should really be a giver and not a taker, not in it for his own glory, Korach, who wanted power and prestige, was clearly a taker.

One of Korach’s arguments was particularly interesting to me. In Numbers 16:3, he says, כָל־הָֽעֵדָה֙ כֻּלָּ֣ם קְדשִׁ֔ים וּבְתוֹכָ֖ם יְהֹוָ֑ה [The whole congregation, all were holy, and God was in their midst.]

Martin Buber thought that the Holiness Code in Leviticus 19, which starts out saying, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy”, is a goal for the Children of Israel as a whole. Together they are to build a sacred community. But Korach interprets this to mean that the Children of Israel are ALREADY holy – and not as a sacred community, but each separate individual. So really any one of them is able to be the leader and there is nothing special about both Moses and Aaron that Korach instead couldn’t function as the High Priest.

This is excellent insight into human nature even in the modern world. I think of the Communist revolution, where people representing the common workers threw out the upper class but eventually had dachas of their own. Fame, adulation, power – all have gone to the heads of sports and music stars. They come to feel entitled to special treatment. They start buying into their own hype. This can happen with leaders – instead of taking a role in an organization because you want to serve the people and improve their lot, you might really have taken that role for your own benefit. I think of the president of the board of my homeowners association in another state, who had the people who were paving our common roads come along and pave his own driveway as part of the project. He was somehow entitled because he was the president.

So our lesson from Korach is that working together with people in order to determine the best outcome for the group defines a great leader. You are there because you care about the people, you care about the organization, and it really matters to you to better the conditions for everybody, not just for your own personal benefit. The ideal is to be a giver and not a taker. That’s a model for us in all human relationships.

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