Too often we reel from the savage assaults of terrorists. We encounter these cruel, animalistic brutes in familiar places where ordinary life happens and we are forced to see the ordinary aspects of life twisted out of shape. We wonder who terrorists are and what drives them.
Terrorists are selfish. Their passion is born out of close-minded paranoid zeal, fed on a need to control others and nourished by the refusal to recognize others as bearing legitimate opinions. Terrorists take – and this is why they are heartless and cruel- for they have chosen to only take and never to give.
In this week’s Parsha, we are introduced to Moses’s cousin. Korach is a descendant of Jacob’s son Levi and therefore on the same footing as Moses. Korach wants to replace Moses as leader. However instead of addressing Moses directly, as any mensch would, Korach takes 3 other people along with him. Korach organizes a band of malcontents and accuses Moses as having done them all wrong by setting himself as leader above them all. Korach’s sin is “taking” others and directing them along a path of selfishness. He leads 3 main assistants and 250 subordinates in a revolt against Moshe. Lest anyone suggest that Moses wishes to hold power exclusively in his own hands, remember that on multiple occasions Moses encourages power-sharing with 70 leaders and other prophets (Eldad and Medad to name but 2).
In no way can Korach be called a terrorist. However, he was a mutineer, instigating the only rebellion against Moses (and therefore God), over the course of 40 years. His sin was that he TOOK without consideration of the consequences of his actions. The lessons for us today as we read of Korach’s exploits 3,300 year later, are many. One may be to attend to how we take and how we give in our daily lives.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Steve Silberman
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