What does it mean that “they” became a sign?
Table for Five: Pinchas
In partnership with the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles
Edited by Nina Litvak & Salvador Litvak, the Accidental Talmudist
And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and Korah, when that assembly died, and when fire destroyed two hundred and fifty men, and they became a sign. Num. 26:10
Rabbi Elazar Bergman
Founder, hiddentzadik.com
Two (of many) interesting things about this verse. First, our sacred Torah interrupts a census (again) to tell us that some who ought to have been included aren’t because they died prematurely. Second, it tells us that a cryptic “they” became a sign.
In Genesis 46:12, two of Yehuda’s sons aren’t counted. Here, The Korah Group and the 250 incense-bringers are excluded. Both censuses precede a geographical and paradigm shift. In Genesis, a family moves to a foreign land, where it morphs into a nation. In Numbers, a homeless nation is on the threshold of entering the Land promised to its ancestors.
But not everyone is able to participate in transformative change. Whether one understands the sin of Yehudah’s sons in a crude, superficial way or per the Arizal’s take, neither built a family. Thus, they were precluded from being nation builders.
The cryptic “they” that became a sign are the copper fire pans used by the 250 incense-bringers. These pans were formed into a copper plates that covered the Altar. What does the sign say?
The sign says “stay in your lane”. The Korach Group and incense-bringers were not riff-raff, God forbid. Although they were consummate tzaddikim and leaders, they were nonetheless subordinate to Moshe Rabbeinu. Inability to submit to a superior’s leadership, to be mutinous, is antithetical to establishing and administrating a nation as it begins to fulfill its manifest destiny in its Divinely given homeland. They needed to remain outside. Good Shabbos!
Rabbi Eva Robbins
Co-rabbi, Nvay Shalom; Faculty, AJRCA
In the middle of a census, we have this statement which is a ‘repeat’ of an event from an earlier parsha, Korach, that describes a rebellion led by Korach, Datan, Aviram and 250 men against Moses and Aaron. Their jealousy of these two men is apparent. Moses responds, “…It is HasShem Who sent me.” Of course, Gd’s punishment is swift.
The Hebrew for census, ‘counting’ the Israelites, is “S’u et Rosh,” “’Lift’ the head,” the allusion to ‘elevating’ the individual by ‘accounting’ their importance in the collective. This is in stark contrast to the earth opening, from ‘below,’ and the rebels being swallowed. It is a severe reminder for sure. Doubling/restatements is a literary tool in Torah. But this time the added word, at the end, is ‘neis,’ translated here as a sign. It actually means “something we lift (a banner), a test, and a miracle.” Everyone is being reminded of the miraculous events Gd is capable of, including harsh punishments, as well as the failure of the rebels who didn’t pass the test, faith in the Holy One. Korach was an incredibly wealthy man and Datan and Aviram were from the tribe of Reuven, the first born of Jacob’s children. These men felt they deserved to wield power and influence because of wealth and birth order. Torah teaches otherwise. It is often the youngest and most vulnerable that Gd chooses to lead. The qualities of character and values is pre-eminent for leadership. This is a lesson for America today.
Rabbi Janet Madden
Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue
The fiery deaths of the 250 followers of Korach who offer incense in their firepans recall the fate of Nadav and Avihu and the mindful awe that is essential when approaching the sacred.
Ironically, the men who aspire to perform priestly service are already individuals of power and influence–they are chieftains, chosen in the assembly, men of repute. Yet they reject the value of their roles, perhaps because, as Ibn Ezra and Ramban assert, these are the firstborn who, after the incident of the molten calf, were replaced by the Leviim.
Whether motivated by zeal or envy, these men do not or cannot value the importance of the roles they hold. They fail to perceive that communal service takes many forms. Aspiration can be holy but we can also find holiness in appreciating our unique gifts, in finding meaning where we are, not where we wish to be or feel that we should be. Korach and his followers fail to discern that Divine service is not limited by or exclusive to any role. As Milton poignantly asserts in “On His Blindness”, “They also serve who only stand and wait.”
Divinely-sent fire, the element of purification and destruction, incinerates the men. Their firepans, however, survive. They are repurposed into altar-plating that safeguards both sacred space and those who would encroach upon it. This tikkun is completed in 2 Chronicles 8:10, when Solomon appoints another 250 men as Temple prefects, human guardians of the people and of the sacred space.
Rabbi Eliot Malomet
Host of Parasha Talk on Youtube
How did the earth “open its mouth and swallow them”? R. Yehuda and R. Nehemia debated this. The blunt, stern R. Yehuda said that each individual offender was swallowed up by his own individual sinkhole. The expansive, imaginative R. Nehemia argued that the offenders’ circular zone collapsed into a funnel-shaped depression, whorling all of them into the same subterranean cavern together.
Rabbinic debates always convey a “deep” truth. What is the fitting punishment for the Korahite cohort? According to R. Yehuda, “every personal role deserves a personal hole.” Why? Because each individual collaborator contributes his or her own unique talent to the mob. Sloganeers sloganize; strategists plot; thugs brawl. While the charismatic leader ably harnesses each individual’s ugliness, each comrade deserves his or her own unique punishment. But according to R. Nehemia, “a mob-amiss deserves a collective abyss.” Why? Because in a mob, each pungent member dissolves his or her own identity for the sake of the whole, creating a community that is entirely unique in its foul repugnance. Since Korah’s objective was to create a collective, his entire horde belonged in the same subterranean penal ward.
To R. Yehuda hell is to descend into your own personal pit, blaming yourself forever for stupidly believing the charlatan and swearing fealty to him. To R. Nehemia hell is to be flushed into a vortex of fellow believers and reside with them in an eternal sewer. Question: For the murderous mobs of irredeemable Jew-haters around the globe, which version is more appropriate?
Yehudit Garmaise
Therapist Trainee at Chabad Treatment Center
If we are not alarmed by the plague that took 24,000 after an episode involving idolatry, lewdness, and intermarriage, the Torah refers to other rebellious members of K’lal Yisrael who came to supernatural ends. Korach’s dramatic demise, we are now told, “became a sign.”
“A sign of what?” we might ask. If we are to fear Hashem in our hearts, the plague, the earth’s opening that swallowed Korach, and the fire that took the lives of 250 men are powerful reminders of what has happened to Jews who forsake the Torah.
Not only does this parsha recount the thousands who were punished for not obeying Hashem’s commandments, but the midrash tells us that Hashem had Korach’s punishment ready since the first erev Shabbos before Creation’s completion. Hashem had prepared the pi ha’aretz, the opening of the earth, “with the capacity to split and swallow the rebellious Korach and his crew when the time arrived to punish them.
Korach, who rebelled and was punished, here serves as the foil of Pinchas, who fought for Hashem and was rewarded abundantly.
Pinchas “diverted Hashem’s anger,” “restrained the pestilence from b’nai Israel, and merited kahuna and the “covenant of peace.”
Unlike Pinchas’s naysaying onlookers, we merit Divine protection when we witness Jews who “fulfill the commandments lavishly and learn Torah with passion,” and we “rouse to a similar ardor,” wrote the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
May we allow ourselves to be inspired by Jews who express their pure souls, as we work to stay aligned with Hashem.
With thanks to Rabbi Elazar Bergman, Rabbi Eva Robbins, Rabbi Janet Madden, Rabbi Eliot Malomet and Yehudit Garmaise.
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