A Tale Of Two Miracles: Korach

A Tale Of Two Miracles: Korach

D’var Torah by Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman

Since the dawn of humanity, human beings have treated the earth in two ways:  Some saw it as a never-ending source of supplies—dirt, stone, clay, metals and fuel. Others saw the earth as either divine in itself or, at the very least, imbued with divine life-giving powers.  Mountains, hilltops and valleys became places where gods and other mythical creatures lived and were worshipped.  Wells, springs and seas were seen not only as physical boundaries separating between countries or regions, but also as pathways to the underworld and the afterlife.  Temples were built and religions flourished at such places. 

Even in the Torah, the Earth seems to have special powers, though these are placed under God’s unique control.  So it is that God blesses the earth and commands it to bear ongoing life; or, conversely, after the failure of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, that God places a curse on the earth so that it would no longer yield its fruit to humankind without intense, “sweat of the brow” labor.

Yet, when Cain kills his brother Abel, the earth “opens its mouth” to swallow the spilled blood of Abel.  Ancient, apocryphal stories (not included in the “official” version) abound about the earth’s role in covering up this crime.

In this week’s Torah portion, Korach (Numbers 16:1—18:32), the earth opens up once again. At Moses’s command, “The earth opened her mouth and swallowed them and all their houses and all the men who were with Korach and all their property.  They and all they possessed descended alive to Sheol, and they perished from among the congregation.”  (Sheol was the name by which the ancient Hebrews identified the underworld, a place where all souls and spirits were collected and thought to have lived after the bodies they had once inhabited died.)

Earthquakes are not unknown in the Middle East.  It is, after all, the region where three continents meet.  The Syrian-African rift stretches all the way from the Hermon Mountains in Lebanon, down to the Dead Sea, then on to the Red Sea and beyond.  It isn’t inconceivable that the story of Sodom and Gomorrah’ fire-and-brimstone upheaval originated with volcanic explosions. 

But, at least as described in parashat Korach, the timing of this particular cataclysm was more than coincidental, more than just so much tectonic activity.  Korach, a Levite man from an aristocratic family, had joined up with two leaders from the tribe of Reuben—the first born of Jacob—to demand that Moses share his leadership.  Why was all power concentrated in the hands of the few, Korach asks, supported by powerful warlords who felt that their natural rights, too, had been usurped. 

It is as proof of Moses’s rightful leadership that the earth opens up and swallows the rebels, their families and all their belongings.  It’s a terrifying moment that causes panic to spread throughout the people. 

Yet what makes this miracle so unusual is that it isn’t God who commands it, but rather Moses.  It is Moses who calls upon the forces of nature, and nature obeys.  All the other miracles in the Torah are caused by God.  Moses’s staff—whether striking the Nile so that its water turns to blood, extended over the Red Sea to make it part, or hitting the rock to produce water—is no more than the lightning rod which guides God’s energy with precision and power.  In Korach, however, it is Moses who calls the shots, while the earth obeys.   This astounding fact is unique; no wonder that the Israelites find themselves panicking to an unprecedented degree.  They have almost gotten used to God’s miracles; this one is different enough to stand completely alone.  The people will continue to gripe and moan, but they won’t rebel again.  Moses’s power will never be questioned again.

Nor will such a miracle ever happen again.  In a famous story in the Talmud (“Achnai’s Oven”) the Rabbis will once and for all decree that miracles cannot be used to prove leadership.  In doing that, the Sages establish a new way of determining halakha (Jewish law).  From that point on, it would be a democratic process, based on majority vote (though, of course, the due process of Jewish Law, not unlike our own more modern civil law, is also based on precedent and past understandings).

Yet, though powerful and unique, this miracle is not the only one this portion recounts.  Immediately following the story of Korach, yet another miracle happens, as different from its predecessor as can be. 

One of the questions raised by Korach and his rebellious band is of the validity of Aaron’s role as High Priest, a role that is to be passed down exclusively to his descendants throughout the generations.  In response to this claim, Moses is told by God to take the leader’s staff from each tribe chief.  He is to add Aaron’s staff to those and place them all in front of the Tent of Meeting, in full view of the entire people.

Overnight, Aaron’s staff—an almond branch—blossoms, flowers and gives fruit, while the other staffs remain dry and lifeless.

The power of this miracle is enough to make the role of the kohein—the priest—an eternal inheritance, even to our own day.

It isn’t only that this staff, cut off from the living tree, has the power to live again (a powerful symbol in its own right).  It’s that it is disconnected, separate and alone.  Not rooted in the earth, disconnected from its ancient trunk, this staff’s life comes from a different source.  It is solely the power of God’s spirit that makes this staff flower and give fruit.  The earth, mythological giver and taker of all life, has nothing to do with this awesome miracle.  Instead, with this marvel a new power is declared.  The blossoming staff proves once and for all the power of a spiritual, not earth-bound God. 

It isn’t by happenstance that these two miracles appear side by side in parashat Korach.  The total effect goes beyond their first purpose of proving the validity of Moses and Aaron’s leadership.  In this portion we are witness to nothing short of a spiritual revolution.  It is, in fact, the capping of the story of the Exodus.  In Egypt, God and Moses wrought miracles meant to prove that God’s powers supersede Pharaoh’s.  In Korach, this power is defined once and for all.  It is by God’s spirit—or as the Prophet Zechariah expresses it: “Not by might, nor by power, but by [God’s] spirit” (Zech. 4:6)—that God rules over both heaven and earth.

That is the source of all life, of all strength.  And that, too, is the secret behind the survival of the People of Israel, some 3,600 years old and still here, still blossoming, still giving fruit.

© 2014 by Boaz D. Heilman