TorahParsha

Korach

i
All the people are holy, and God is amongst them. And so everyone, and not only the priests, should be let to serve in God's Temple.

That is Korach's rallying-cry: through which he leads a rebellion against the whole concept of a priesthood.

God calls Korach's followers in this rebellion sinners.

ii
God has recently told the people to take up their tribes' positions within the camp—Judah at the front; Levi in the center; the priests at the Tent of God; and so on—as the people travel together towards the Land.

Before, they had all dwelt together: a single group at the base of the Mountain, learning the Laws and learning what they will need to know when they enter the Land, like children at school.

Then, the people graduated into their specific roles: Judah at the front; Levi in the center; the priests at the Tent of God; and so on.

iii
But Korach said: all the people are holy. He wanted everyone to be priests, together. He did not want anyone to graduate into differentiated roles, into unique lives.

He hoped that the people would remain schoolchildren forever.

That was the basis of his rebellion. And that was his sin.

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The Law is Like Settling a Country

i
The people fear to enter the Land. They have sent spies into it and these spies report back that the Land is unconquerable, that the Land is dangerous, that its people are altogether dangerous.

*
Here is a kind of apostasy. The people have rejected the Land and they have declared that a task will be impossible, though God will be with them.

God condemns that generation to die in the Desert.

ii
After the condemnation, God gives a kind of reassurance. God commands Laws that the people must follow once they (or, now, their children who will live) will settle in the Land.

You will not come there, God implies: but the nation will come there. And there, the nation will follow Law.

iii
To reassure the people that the nation will settle the Land, God describes Law.

This is a great statement about the meaning of the Law.

God's reassurance makes Law part-and-parcel with erecting a country.

Law moves beyond mere obedience, and becomes a way of creating a system of life.

*
Law changes from simple obedience into productive action.

Law becomes a way that God calls upon us to let Him help us build a world.

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