Korach! Just the name raises the psycho-spiritual deflector shields of Torah readers. Korach leads a rebellion against Moses and Aaron’s leadership. The claim, a familiar one, is that Moses and Aaron have lost touch with the people, thinking they are better than the common Israelite! (16:1-3). Moses and Aaron respond by accusing the rebels that they are really rebelling against God and thus the confrontation is set in motion. The result, of course, is a foregone conclusion. The Torah God accepts no deviation and the rebels, and their followers are killed. (16:31-35)
There are so many frightening parallels to our world and human behavior in this portion. Was this rebellion a natural result of the fact that, in last week’s portion, the people voted not to listen to Joshua and Caleb? Was Korah and his followers projecting their own sense of inadequacy on the leadership? Indeed, this sense of “mirroring” is discussed in several commentaries. What lesson could tradition be teaching us about conflict resolution; is the use of power always the best avenue, or is a more nuanced response the better path to avoid violence? Was this challenge to authority a matter of seeking truth, or a matter of a group seeking power? (16:9, 10)
In her book on “The Biblical Path to Psychological Maturity”, Vivian Skolnick suggests that Korach’s rebellion “is also a metaphor for the destructive power of envy which affects not only the “have nots” but the privileged as well.” (p.187). That idea caught my attention this week and I began to think about the challenge of envy vs. gratitude and where and how that has played out in our lives, especially as we have aged. How many of us have looked back now and seen those moments in life when we were envious of another person or their status or possessions? I wonder, knowing what we know now, if we have learned how destructive that emotion can be and maybe has been for some of us. Did that envy drive us to bad decisions? Did it cost us economic, spiritual and/or psychological damage? Were we able to challenge that envy into a positive emotion that resulted in blessing? Is envy always a negative?
I ask you, as your study this portion this week, to consider the role of envy in our lives. What role has it played? Have there been times when our own soul and moral compass was lost in the pursuit of what someone else had or were we able to use that envy as a positive motivation for our own liberation?
Shabbat shalom
Rabbi Richard F. Address
Rabbi Richard F. Address, D.Min, is the Founder and Director of www.jewishsacredaging.com. Rabbi Address served for over three decades on staff of the Union for Reform Judaism; first as a Regional Director and then, beginning in 1997, as Founder and Director of the URJ’s Department of Jewish Family Concerns and served as a specialist and consultant for the North American Reform Movement in the areas of family related programming. Rabbi Address was ordained from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1972 and began his rabbinic career in Los Angeles congregations. He also served as a part time rabbi for Beth Hillel in Carmel, NJ while regional director and, after his URJ tenure, served as senior rabbi of Congregation M’kor Shalom in Cherry Hill, NJ from 2011-2014.
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