Printable PDF available here. Previous pieces on Parshat Korach can be found here and here.

The Lord spoke further to Aaron: I hereby give you charge of My gifts, all the sacred donations of the Israelites; I grant them to you and to your sons as an eternal portion…. The choice of the oil and the choice of the wine and grain, the first of which they give to the Lord, to you I have given them. (Bamidbar 18)

Rav Kook (Based on Ein Ayah, Shabbat 32b)

Tremendous goodness comes to Israel through the influence of the Kohanim, from the incorporation of such exalted individuals into collective Israel. Alas, the blessing that flows from the institution of the priesthood is not manifest at this stage in history, for this institution is currently but a shadow of its true essence. The G-dly directives that bind the Kohanim to the people and the people the Kohanim – commandments like tithes – [apply only in Israel and] are either ignored, or fulfilled begrudgingly out of a sense of obligation, a desire to fulfill the barest letter of the law.

This is regrettable, but also understandable. Our generation does not comprehend the purpose of life in its full true and eternal character. It cannot see that the honor and dignity owed to the institution of priesthood is not on account of its present stature. Like all spiritual matters, the kehuna is cherished due to its future greatness, from the storehouse of spiritual goodness that accumulates over generations of contributions in past, present, and future. It is part of a Divine edifice built by Torah and mitzvot, whose bricks are laid over many lifetimes.

But we fail to perceive this. We relate to priesthood as little more than a vestigial quirk of yichus (lineage), to Kohanic entitlements (such as tithes) as a tax and a burden to be discharged. With such a limited outlook, life will offer little satisfaction and the soul will find no contentedness from any of its accomplishments. What good is material success when life’s inner content is empty and misunderstood, when humanity’s refined feelings and higher consciousness are incapable of being nourished and have no soil to grow in? This state of mind cannot serve as a vessel for receiving Divine blessing.

We must broaden our outlook and strive to perceive reality from the highest peaks. Our gaze must encompass and embrace all generations and the fulness of all existence. Only with such an outlook can the nation be ready to receive a profusion of blessings, both spiritual and material. It is with regard to this attitude toward tithing that the prophet Malachi (3:10) declared, “Bring all the tithes to the storehouse, so that there is food in My house. Test Me in this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of Heaven, and pour out to you blessing until there is more than enough” (lit. עד בלי די).

The prophet does not mean to assert that tithes are a currency in some sort of Divine gumball machine, that if we pay our taxes to the Kohanim [and Leviim], G-d will reward us. Divine reward does not operate in such arbitrary, transactional ways. Malachi is teaching us that when we appreciate and cherish the priesthood – which, as we have already said, requires being rooted in and appreciating the past, present, and (especially) the future – it is then that we have created a vessel for G-d’s unlimited blessings. It is only in such a state that we will find contentedness and inner peace, that we will find our souls permeated with Divine goodness and sense the essential goodness of life, from its heights to its depths. For when life is not limited to or constricted by the flaws of the present, nothing is lacking.⁽¹⁾

(1) Rav Kook concludes by citing the Sages’ homiletical interpretation (Gemara Shabbat 32b) of the phase עד בלי די in Malachi -“Until one’s lips are worn out from declaring ‘Enough!’”

Rav Kook (Orot ha’Techiah 5); translated by Bezalel Naor

Great is our past and even greater is our future, which is clarified when we desire the righteous ideals hidden in our souls. With this great power all the moments of the present live and exist in our midst with a full spirit of life, and all the memories by their might fill a multitude of deeds with vitality; infuse mitzvot, customs, and orders with a special power of insight, a distinctive creative ability, an outstanding world-outlook. These are all full of meaning and romance, love and ecstasy, and drenched with the dew of life, of courage and majesty, from our ecstasy, from our courage, from our singular majesty.

The quintessential form of all the arrangements of the life of the society according to the divine formula that corresponds to life – broadening life, purifying and uplifting it to freedom and to the concentration of all the media that make freedom a truly good gift – is hidden [among other places] in the system of the mitzvot dependent on the Land… The future does not desist from demanding of the present its role, and the present becomes interesting to the degree that it knows the future is in need of it. Thus the present is not inconsequential vis-à-vis the future but rather fills up thereby with all its character and essence, and its inclusion in the aspiration of the future and its exalted height adds to it pleasure and living strength.

Therefore, full of life are the memories stored in the commemorations we perform… The things look to us now shriveled, their outer appearance is meager, but inside they are full of life and content. We circumvent the observance of shemitah (the sabbatical year) by selling the lands to a non-Jew; we observe the giving of tithes to the Kohen and to the Levite by a device that inflicts no great loss on the giver, nor brings great profit to the receiver; we bless and tithe, and redeem ma‘aser sheni (the second tithe) worthy of being eaten in sanctity in the central city, holy and living, the site chosen by the Lord, the heart of the nation with all the streams of its life…

But in these minute grains great potential for growth is contained, for all that they long, from all that has grown in the past, and all that they will eventually produce. All this is contained in them in a typical way, and they silently influence the observant soul, constantly fanning a holy fire of love of the land – through these shares of holiness, through the divine, religious, national and ethical superiority of these actions. They educate the people in its days of lowliness to its spirit of greatness. Knesset Israel, its sons and builders, understood this and did not cease from actualizing these memoirs, as much as was possible in the lands of its wanderings, but especially upon its return in any form to its place, its inheritance.

The majesty and beauty, and the special glory that there is in the mitzvot dependent on the Land – when observed now in the Land of Israel by us, by that pioneering force building the ancestral land and preparing a more certain, clearer prospect for the coming generation – is revealed to us from the strength of our inner desire that pounds within our soul, to assert the character of our nation in our ancestral land with its full countenance, with all the contours and lines that make up its character, which stress that this is our nation with its original, lofty value, with its body, spirit, and soul. For this, we aspire to renew upon us early days, as in the days of old, and as in former years. Behold, we slept a national slumber during a long and very difficult galut (exile). Our national energies remained absorbed within our midst. Outside all becomes atrophied and aged, but inside the dew of life continuously streams.

Just as the practical mitzvot in general, in their fullness, went with us in exile and preserved for us in exile our vitality and our inner, essential spirit, bringing us to these days, the beginning of the period of the resurrection of the desire of national renascence in our land, so the mitzvot dependent on the Land will bring us to the upliftment of life, as they [i.e., those mitzvot] were determined by life’s full dimension. The more we contemplate the essence of all the mitzvot dependent on the Land, seeing how far they are from us, how much healthier and stronger our lives must be in order for these mitzvot to be observed by us, so will the ardor grow in us to observe with love and honor that portion that we can observe as a commemoration, a holy commemoration, a remembrance of whole life that will come to us when complete salvation will come to our people on our soil, an eternal salvation. When we observe those mitzvot now, we enrich the soul of our nation with that holy fire that will become a holy flame full of life at the time of rebirth. When we fulfill now the mitzvah of tithes, even though we do not have all the concrete foundations upon which these mitzvot are constructed, “neither a kohen at his service nor a Levite at his song” – behold this vision appears before us and we are filled with a spirit of song exalted as the flight of eagles, in view of the light of the happy days that await our nation on our blessed soil: Here is the Temple on its foundation, a pride and honor for all the nations and kingdoms, and here we carry with joy sheaves of our Land of Delight.

We come with a spirit full of true freedom and pure trust to the silo and winery, full of grain and wine, and our heart is gladdened by the abundance of a Land of Delight. There appear before us priests, holy men, servants of the Temple of the Lord, G-d of Israel. Their hearts are full of love and kindness, the holy spirit floods their faces, and we recall the crescendo of holy feelings that filled us at the time we saw their faces, when we went up on pilgrimage; when we saw them standing to serve within our Temple pride of our strength and delight of our eyes. How handsome and pleasant they are to us, and now here is our silo full of the blessing of the Lord from this Land of Delight that we inherited from our fathers, and the portions of these men, men of spirit, are with us. We are happy to give to them their tithes; we find within our midst an exalted feeling and rise together with the tithe to the spiritual plane where these holy men ascend.

Our soul is drenched with the bounty of heaven. And behold the Levites, these delicate ones who captivated our hearts with their harmonious music in the holy place during the festival, when we went up to see the glorious Temple of G-d in Jerusalem, to behold the face of the Master, the Lord, G-d of Israel. Their joyous, delicate faces remind us of their holy music; we float in streams of spiritual joy and give them with a happy heart their portion, the tithe. Soon we will once again meet on the Mountain of the Lord at the next festival. How proud we will be to see these kohanim (priests) and Levites of the Lord at their holy work and music! Happy the people who has this; happy the people whose G-d is the Lord.

Questions for Discussion/Further Thought

1. What role are the Kohanim meant to serve?
2. Why did the Kohanim need to be supported by the people?
3. Rav Kook encourages us to move from a narrow perspective focused on the present to one that “encompasses and embraces all generations and the fulness of all existence.” That sounds like a lofty goal. How do we achieve it?
4. Why are the priestly entitlements reiterated in Parshat Korach?
5. Are the two pieces above from Rav Kook saying the same thing, or is there a slightly different emphasis in each?
6. Rav Kook writes that “Behold, we slept a national slumber during a long and very difficult galut (exile). Our national energies remained absorbed within our midst. Outside all becomes atrophied and aged, but inside the dew of life continuously streams.” What do you think he means?
7. What problems does contemporary culture/society face as a result of being excessively focused on the present?

Printable PDF available here. Last year’s post on Parshat Korach, which deals with similar themes but from an entirely different angle (re. Rav Kook’s take on Christianity) can be found here. See also this piece regarding withdrawal and isolation, written at the height of the COVID pandemic.

Rav Kook (Orot ha’Kodesh, 2:28)

The theme of separation is pervasive in Parshat Korach. Korach claims that Moshe and Aharon have no basis to rule over the people, as “the entire congregation are all holy.” The separation of the tribe of Levi also appears to have a role in the controversy. Both the death of Korach/his assembly and the miracle with Aharon’s staff all reinforce the distinct roles of Moshe, Aharon, and the tribe of Levi, roles which are reaffirmed by the laws at the end of the parshah as well.

Separation (lit. הבדלה) is one of two spiritual channels by which each individual and the collective must conduct their affairs. The second channel is that of integration (lit. הכללה).

Separation is more than just physical partition. It expresses itself any time that a person withdraws from the broader world due to an inner longing to perfect his world of spirit, thought, emotion, instinct or action. A sensitive soul understands that he must occasionally withdraw from the noisy superficiality of the world when it seeks to deprive him of the supernal treasure of an elevated life and a pure and joyful consciousness. He must be apart in order to rescue himself from the pale, constricted imitation of life that others regard as “the real world.”

On a broader level, separation expresses itself whenever any group is set aside for a distinct mission. At the outset of Israel’s development, the tribe of Levi was separated from the rest of the nation, and from the tribe of Levi, the Kohanim, descendants of Aharon, were further separated as well. Later in our history, the halacha developed distinctions between pious members of the community and amei ha’aretz, who were unreliable when it came to certain matters of ritualimpurity and tithes. But there are more fundamental expression of havdalah that provide the basic architecture for existence itself – the separation between Israel and the nations of the world; and prior to that, the separation between humanity and the rest of the animal kingdom, through man being endowed with a unique spiritual sensitivity and ethical awareness, which undergird his inner world and enable him to strive heavenward.

But within the very depths of separation is concealed an orientation and a potential for integration. By their very nature, spiritual talents and proclivities are scattered throughout the world. But when a group is Divinely set aside, those sparks can be nurtured into a flame of holiness and reach their most essential and consummate expression. The perfected aspirations of the group do not remain locked within it, but spread an inner illumination well beyond its boundaries, uplifting all of existence.

A few examples will serve to illustrate the truth of this principle. Humanity was separated from the rest of the natural world and raised up as the crown of G-d’s creation. However, mankind’s spiritual stature is not meant for its own aggrandizement. Our spiritual potential was conferred so that we would uplift of all of G-d’s creation and guide the entire world to its perfection.

The unique nation of Israel, the סגולה מכל העמים, fiercely guards its inner uniqueness and separates itself from the ways of other nations, not as an expression of chauvinism, but so that it can retain the ability to serve as a light to the nations and bring salvation to the rest of humanity.

The tribe of Levi is set apart of the rest of Israel. However, its unique path serves to distill a purity and spiritual intensity by which the rest of the nation is blessed. The same thing is true of the Kohanim, whose kedushah is not something foreign to Israel, but rather draws down the supernal revelation of ruach ha’kodesh for the benefit and refinement of the entire collective.

The separation of chaveirim from amei ha’aretz was not an expression of hatred or contempt for less educated members of the community. By living in accordance with unique spiritual aspirations, above and beyond what is expected from the masses, the chaveirim were able to cultivate an intensity of spiritual talents and aptitudes, which uplifted everyone they came into contact with.

All of this is the opposite of the shallow and superficial integration preached by the broader world (lit. ההכללה הגסה), which seeks to erase all differences and combine everything under one amalgamated banner, and thereby plows under every repository of spiritual splendor and refinement. Ultimately, life and clarity of consciousness become coarsened and dark. The unrefined “universal love of humanity” becomes polluted and corrupt. The great unity of shallow universalism disintegrates into resentment, hatred, and even bloodshed. As the holy Zohar teaches, “The forces of evil and negativity (lit. סטרא אחרא) begin in unity and end in separation. The forces of holiness (lit. סטרא דקדושה) begin in separation and end in unity.”

In summary, behind every act of separation lies a more profound goal – that life’s deeper and more sublime dimensions be preserved in their truest form, not to remain permanently constricted and withdrawn, but for the ultimate enrichment of and integration with everything outside of its borders. This is the path of G-d in all matters of holiness – separation for the purpose of ultimate integration.

Food for Thought

The above piece from Rav Kook deals with the profound spiritual relationship between separation and integration. If his insights seem esoteric or hard to relate to, consider the following excerpts from Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch:

Commentary on the Torah (Bereishit 28:22): The sanctity of [Jewish] homes is the necessary condition for the sanctity of the House of G-d, which is not mikdash because it is the place to which kedushah is relegated, but, because from there holiness is to flow out and penetrate all human conditions and places, it is to be their center point. “Let them make a Sanctuary unto Me” it says later on to the descendants of Jacob who are to build out the foundation of this stone into a system of private and national life, “that I may dwell,” not in it, but בתוכם, “amongst them”… and the goal of the development beginning with this stone is as stated in Zechariah’s description of the messianic era, “Every saucepan in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy unto G-d.” (Zechariah, 14:21)

Collected Writings (Vol. 2, pg. 154): Thus our holy periods [in time, i.e. moadim] are not simply an oasis in a desert but are comparable to blessed wellstreams which flow in all directions… over all bordering time spans to spread holiness over all of life.

Commentary on the Siddur: The holy is set apart from the profane only to show that it is from the holy that the spirit of sanctity and sanctification should go out to permeate all the other phases of human life. That which is shut off from the light is so separated only that, under the cover of darkness, it may gather new strength in order then, suffused with light, to be awakened to new life and vigor. Yisrael, too, is set apart from the other nations only so that, through Yisrael, the rest of the nations may be won over to an ever-increasing extent to the truths it has revealed.

Horeb (Pg. 106): From the duty to ponder over the concept of the Sabbath when the Sabbath commences and to affirm that concept when the Sabbath departs [i.e. tosefet Shabbat] there follows this corollary: It is above all your duty not to limit the influence of the Sabbath to the short period of its duration but to let its holiness overflow into the week.

Consider also the following excerpt from the Rambam, particularly the bolded portion.

Maimonides (Mishnah Torah, Hilchot Melachim 12:1): Let no one think that in the days of the Messiah any of the laws of nature will be set aside, or any innovation be introduced into creation. The world will follow its normal course. The words of Isaiah: “And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid” are to be understood figuratively, meaning that Israel will live securely among the wicked of the heathens who are likened to wolves and leopards, as it is written: “A wolf of the deserts does spoil them, a leopard watches over their cities.” They will all accept true religion [lit. dat ha-emet], and will neither plunder nor destroy, and together with Israel, peacefully eat that which is permissible, as it is written: “And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.”

I believe the following quote, from an excellent work of political theory by a non-Jewish author, illustrates Rav Kook’s point about the “shallow and superficial integration preached by the broader world.”

Professor Patrick Deneen (Why Liberalism Failed, pg. 79-80, 82): Liberalism valorizes placelessness. Its “state of nature” posits a view from nowhere: abstract individuals in equally abstract places. Not only does liberalism rest on the anthropological assumption that humans are from no one… but that we are from nowhere. The place where one happens to be born and raised is as arbitrary as one’s parents, one’s religion, or one’s customs. One should consider oneself primarily a free chooser, of place as of all relationships, institutions, and beliefs…This placeless default is one of the preeminent ways that liberalism subtly, unobtrusively, and pervasively undermines all cultures and liberates individuals into the irresponsibility of anti-culture…Larger units than the locality or the region can flourish in the proper sense only when their constitutive parts flourish. Modern liberalism, by contrast, insists on the priority of the largest unit over the smallest, and seeks to impose a homogenous standard on a world of particularity and diversity.

Questions for Discussion

1. Was Korach wrong when he said “the entire congregation are all holy, and the Lord is in their midst?”
2. What are the possible meanings of “true religion” in the excerpt from Maimonides above? What are the implications of each possible interpretation? And which do you think Rav Kook would agree with?
3. Think of some Torah laws that differentiate between different groups of people. Are they more intuitive in light of Rav Kook’s insights? Why or why not?
4. How would Rav Kook react to someone invoking the chosenness of Israel to support racist beliefs or comments?
5. Can you think of any concrete examples of the process described by Rav Kook, where a shallow “universal love of humanity” degrades into resentment, hatred, and even bloodshed?
6. What are healthy ways of withdrawing from “the noisy superficiality of the world?” What are unhealthy ways?

Printable PDF available here. For the first time ever, we have a second ‘bonus’ page of additional sources and commentary. Contact us if you are interested in additional sources from two thinkers not often mentioned in the same breath – the Shem m’Shmuel and Rabbi Eliezer Berkowitz.

Orot (Yisrael U’Techiyato, 16):[1]

“You take too much upon yourselves, for the entire congregation are all holy, and the Lord is in their midst. So why do you raise yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?” (Bamidbar 16:3)

The foundation of wickedness, which is subdivided into idolatry and heresy, comes to set up a place for the dross of life… to give them greatness and rule within the good and holy; not to purify the holy, but rather to defile and contaminate it. Idolatry stands outside, in the place of pollution and coarseness… But greater yet is the hidden, poisonous wickedness of heresy, which seeks a corner in the very essence of holiness…

Heresy strives to leave intact all the pollution of the world, all the coarseness of the flesh, and all the wicked inclinations of unrefined physicality… and to rise with them to the ecstasy of the holy. However, the holy is immediately profaned and defiled by impure hands. “The Lord did not turn to Cain and his offering” because of the wickedness that inhered therein. Yes, the murder of Hevel only materialized afterward, but it was already lurking in potential when Cain brought his sacrifice. His sacrifice amplified the power of evil[2]and was an abomination…

This is the ideology of wicked Cainism, which seeks G-d’s favor while inwardly knowing that the Lord has rejected it. Its face falls and it is extremely angry, and at every opportunity the hand of the murderer appears. Sin, the true longing of Cainite man, manifests in all of its abomination. Later, the founding of Christianity, which ridiculed the words of the sages and wreaked inner havoc in Israel… wove a web of deceit over the faces of many peoples. Paganism was exchanged for heresy…. The outer appearance was scrubbed up, but the goal remains the same – a repudiation of the imperative to sanctify the will, life, physicality, and inward being, through the order prepared by G-d and established in Israel, a holy nation from whose branchings all nations can derive nourishment.

Cainite Christianity accomplished among mankind what Koraḥism sought to perpetrate in Israel. The cry “All the congregation is holy and the Lord is in their midst” mocks the very essence of holiness, the inner refinement and preparation necessary to establish sanctity in life, to protect it against debasement and adulteration. Therefore, it was necessary that Korach’s band descend alive into the bowels of the earth and disappear forever, as a warning against “emulat[ing] Koraĥ and his congregation.”

The call to all the nations, who are sunken in all the filth of impurity, in the abyss of wickedness and ignorance, in the most frightening depths of darkness – “You are all holy, all sons of the Lord, there is no difference between peoples, there is no holy, chosen people in the world, all men are equally holy” – this is the Koraḥism of mankind, the new Cainism from which man suffers… until the day comes when “the Lord will visit punishment on the heavenly host on high and earthly kings below.” (Yeshaya 24:21) The pretentious flight to the heavens, of which Christianity boasts, will be fundamentally eradicated. The world will recognize that a phrase, a statement of theoretical belief, is insufficient for man to ascend to Paradise, while evil, murder, and abomination are stowed away intact in the chambers of his heart. The illusion that man requires no purification or education, no concentration or upliftment, will be eradicated… “An end will be put to the darkness…” (See Iyov 28:3)

[This is] why G-d desired to establish one nation as “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Only through Israel can the supernal Divine light shine upon the nations. And even then, only when the Jewish nation is strong and free, having returned to its intact and unspoiled state, with its heritage of holy truths and spiritual wealth. And only when Israel relates to the rest of humanity with a shining countenance, despite suffering centuries of hatred and persecution at their hands. And only when the rest of humanity reciprocates with a longing for companionship with this godly people, in which is hidden the gift of holiness for pure and consecrated living…

Then will it be apparent to all that holiness is not a cheap trinket to be seized by any impure hands, but rather a treasure acquired through awesome toil, constant self-sacrifice, and ancestral merit, for sons who… guard the way of the Lord with love and might. Then the fog, the mask, will be lifted off the face of all the peoples, and the compromise of Christianity will be recognized for what it is: a counterfeit coin, which blinds the eyes and sullies the soul, which increases murder, bloodshed, and every abomination.

Food for Thought

Rabbi Ya’akov Emden (Seder Olam Rabbah Vezuta):[Jesus] brought about a double kindness in the world. On the one hand, he strengthened the Torah of Moses majestically…. And on the other hand, he did much good for the Gentiles by doing away with idolatry and removing the images from their midst. He obligated them with the Seven Commandments [Noahide Laws]….He also bestowed upon them ethical ways, and in this respect he was much more stringent with them than the Torah of Moses, as is well-known. This in itself was most proper…

Rambam (Hilchot Melachim, Chapter 11): Nevertheless, the intent of the Creator is not within man’s power of man to comprehend… Ultimately, all the deeds of Jesus of Nazareth… will only serve to prepare the way for Mashiach’s coming and the improvement of the entire world, motivating the nations to serve G-d together… [Because of Christianity], the entire world has already become filled with the concepts of a messianic redeemer, Torah, and mitzvot… They [at least] discuss these matters and the mitzvot of the Torah, saying: ‘These mitzvot were true, but were already negated in the present age and are not applicable for all time’…. When the true Messianic king will arise and prove successful… they will all return and realize that their ancestors endowed them with a false heritage and their prophets and ancestors caused them to err.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: The American Declaration of Independence (1776) [begins with] “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…” [However] “these truths” are very far indeed from being “self-evident.” They would have sounded absurd to Plato and Aristotle, both of whom believed that not all men are created equal and therefore they do not have equal rights. They were only self-evident to someone brought up in a culture that had deeply internalized the Hebrew Bible and the revolutionary idea set out in its first chapter, that we are each, regardless of color, culture, class or creed, in the image and likeness of G-d. This was one of Judaism’s world-changing ideas.

Rachel Barenblat (a contemporary Reform rabbi): The Reform and Reconstructionist movements have relinquished the divisions between kohen, levi, and yisrael. In our egalitarian communities, all are equal (whether descended from one tribe or another; whether Jews by birth, or Jews by choice)… Maybe we’ve finally built what Korach was agitating for. I suspect that we can still benefit from learning from Korach’s mistakes. We need to bear in mind that if our yearning for social justice is going to bear fruit, it may require us to work within flawed systems. That it’s laudable to strive for more, but we need to be conscious of our own privilege and of how others see us. The whole community is holy, and G-d is indeed in our midst! [Editor’s note – she seems to overlook the next part, where G-d kills all the people who made this claim.] And the best way to open ourselves to that divine presence is to be gracious, generous, and kind to each other, even when we disagree. Otherwise, we may be swallowed up by our own self-importance, and lose the opportunity to build a better world.

Questions for Discussion

1. What are some dangers that come with the idea that everyone is equal?
2. Would you agree that many contemporary ‘hot button issues’ in contemporary Orthodoxy revolve around the idea of equality as presented by Korach? If not, why not?
3. According to Rav Kook, Christianity rejects the need to sanctify “the will, life, physicality, and inward being.” How does Judaism claim to accomplish that goal?
4. Korach claimed that “the entire congregation is holy”? Was this just empty demagoguery? If not, where did Korach go wrong?
5. Rav Kook understands Korach as not merely a character in the Torah, but the founder of an ideology that he calls ‘Koraĥism.’ Other than the idea that all people are equal, what are some other elements of Koraḥism?
6. After G-d punishes Cain for murdering his brother, he protests that גדול עווני מנשוא. If Cain represents proto-Christianity, what Christian idea would Cain’s claim correspond to?
7. Can you think of any other similarities between the incident of Cain/Hevel and Korach/Moshe? Are there any obvious differences or contrasts between the two?
8. Is Rav Kook’s criticism of Christianity directed at Jesus, the Church, or Christians in general?
9. The Declaration of Independence makes the claim that “all men are created equal.” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (cited above) claims that the Founding Fathers based this on the Jewish Bible. Rav Kook seems to regard this idea as inimical to Torah and dismisses it as ‘Koraḥism.’ Who is right? What would Rav Kook do with the verse in Bereishit which suggests that all of man was created in G-d’s image?

Commentary

Rav Kook’s connection between Korach and Cain is based on earlier Kabbalistic sources. The Arizal (Sha’ar HaGilgulim, Ch. 29 and 32) explains that Korach and Moshe were reincarnations (lit. גלגולים) of Cain and Hevel, respectively.[3]According to Rav Aaron Lopiansky (a contemporary Rosh Yeshiva in Silver Spring), it is incorrect to treat gilgul as a purely mystical concept that is inscrutable to those uninitiated in Kabbalah. When one individual is regarded as a gilgul of another, that always points to some connection that is comprehensible on the level of p’shat as well. And if we look for connections between Cain/Hevel and Korach/Moshe, there are many:[4]

1. In Bereishit, the Torah says that the earth “opened its mouth” to receive Hevel’s blood. This phrase recurs only one other place in the entire Torah – in our parshah, when the earth “opens its mouth” to swallow Korach’s band.
2. Hevel’s name literally means ‘breath,’ insignificance. Similarly, we are told that Moshe was the humblest of all men.
3. Cain murdered Hevel out of envy, since G-d rejected his offering but accepted Hevel’s. Similarly, both Moses and Korach were members of the tribe of Levi, and Korach could not stomach Moses’s position of leadership.
4. Cain was motivated by a striving for honor and recognition. He regarded Hevel’s distinction as an insult and an offense against his position. Similarly, Korach felt deeply unhappy because he lacked the recognition he felt he deserved.
5. The Shem m’Shmuel notes an interesting midrashic allusion. The Torah (Devarim 11:6) says that the earth swallowed not just Korach’s followers, but all of their property as well – literally כל היקום אשר ברגליהם. Another place we find כל היקום being wiped out is by the Mabul. And guess what the midrash says on that? ׳וימח את כל היקום זה קין שנשטף׳

Even More Food for Thought

Rabbi Norman Lamm (Derashot Ledorot, Numbers): If indeed the story of Korah and Moses is but the reenactment of the old drama of Cain and Abel, why are the results so different? Why is it that Abel was the victim of Cain in that ancient story, while the man identified with Abel, Moses, is the victor over Cain’s representative, Korah? Why does the good lose in one case, and triumph in the other?

Before we answer that question, we must find yet one more similarity between these two couples. And that lies in the element of disguise, of cloaking evil in piety… Cain’s motivations were, as we have seen, completely selfish in nature. Yet, Cain did not announce his intentions as boldly as all that. Tradition teaches (Genesis Rabba 22:7) that Cain and Abel divided the world in the following manner: Abel was to receive all chattel, or moveable objects, while Cain was to possess all land, all real estate. Therefore, Cain decided to press his claims in the form of justice and righteousness. Wherever Abel went, Cain told him, “You are standing on my land. Please move on. If you continue to trespass I shall protect my rights against you.” From a formal, conventional point of view, Cain was apparently within his rights. He had justice on his side. If that was the agreement between the two brothers, Cain had the right to insist upon its complete execution – so his kina and ta’ava and kavod were all wrapped up in the cloak of legalism, piety, righteousness.

Korah, according to the Bible and Rabbis, did the very same thing…. He did not call a press conference and announce that he was going to initiate a coup d’état in order to satisfy his ambition for greater power and influence…. He set himself up as the great democrat, defender of the people. Jewish tradition further records that Korah tried to make Moses and Aaron appear as tyrants who needlessly exploited the people for their personal gain and profit. He cast himself in the role of the advocate of the ordinary, common man against the tyranny of Moses.

Here, then, we can discover why Moses was the victor, while Abel was the victim of his aggressive brother. In all our readings of the Torah and our midrash we do not find that Abel truly fought back against Cain. We do not find him calling Cain’s bluff. Instead, in all likelihood, he tried to counter his brother Cain on his terms. No doubt he rebutted his arguments with legal arguments of his own. And when you try to fight the devil on the devil’s terms, you are bound to lose.

But Moses had learned the lesson of Abel. He refused to discuss Korah’s complaints in the manner they were presented. Instead he pierced the mask, he went straight to the heart of the matter, and ripped off the disguises of these evil men…. He said to them (Numbers 16:8-9), “Listen here, you sons of Levi, is it not enough for you that G-d has chosen your tribe above all others, that you seek as well to become the priests, the sole leaders?” He stripped them of all their pious pretentions and let all the people see what these rebels really wanted – power, power, and more power. And then he turned to the people and said to them, “Depart from the tents of these evil, wicked people.” That is all that they really are. Moses learned from the story of Cain and Abel – and we must learn from the story of Koraĥ and Moses – never to be impressed by pious frauds, for even their piety is fraudulent. Evil should not be debated – it should be exposed.

This is a lesson for us in all aspects of life. In order to survive, physically and morally and spiritually, we must insist upon the truth and look for it with all the power at our command.

Professor Peter Westen (The Empty Idea of Equality):[I]t is hardly likely that anyone would want to see all men treated alike in every respect. We should not wish rheumatic patients to be treated like diabetics. Equals . . . ought to be treated alike in the respect in which they are equal; but there may be other respects in which they differ . . . which justify differences in treatment. Men who make identical tax returns ought to be taxed alike, but if they suffer from different ailments they should be treated with different medicines… Anatole France expressed the thought more quotably: “The law in its majestic beg in the equality forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to streets, and to steal bread…”

Thus, to say that people who are morally alike in a certain respect “should be treated alike” means that they should be treated in accord with the moral rule by which they are determined to be alike. Hence “likes should be treated alike” means that people for whom a certain treatment is prescribed by a standard should all be given the treatment prescribed by the standard. Or, more simply, people who by a rule should be treated alike should by the rule be treated alike… Equality is entirely circular. It tells us to treat like people alike; but when we ask who “like people” are, we are told they are “people who should be treated alike.” Equality is an empty vessel with no substantive moral content of its own. Without moral standards, equality remains meaningless, a formula that can have nothing to say about how we should act. With such standards, equality becomes superfluous, a formula that can do nothing but repeat what we already know…

As a form for analyzing problems, equality is a search for equivalences. Unfortunately, by justifying particular moral and legal conclusions on the ground that one individual is “equal to” another, equality tends to mislead people into assuming that such persons are generally equal for moral and legal purposes. As a result, foolish mistakes are made in the assessment of moral and legal standards, mistakes that would not occur if focus remained on the substantive rights that inform the notions of equality… [B]ecause the proposition that likes should be treated alike is unquestionably true, it gives an aura of revealed truth to whatever substantive values it happens to incorporate by reference. As a consequence, values asserted in the form of equality tend to carry greater moral and legal weight than they deserve on their merits. That is why arguments in the form of equality invariably place all opposing arguments on the “defensive.”

Equality will cease to mystify – and cease to skew moral and political discourse – when people come to realize that it is an empty form having no substantive content of its own. That will occur as soon as people realize that every moral and legal argument can be framed in the form of an argument for equality. People then will answer arguments for equality by making counterarguments for equality. Or simpler still, they will see that they can do without equality altogether.

C.S. Lewis (The Screwtape Letters): Democracy is the word with which you must lead them by the nose… You are to use the word purely as an incantation; if you like, purely for its selling power. It is a name they venerate. And of course it is connected with the political ideal that men should be equally treated. You then make a stealthy transition in their minds from this political ideal to a factual belief that all men are equal. Especially the man you are working on. As a result you can use the word democracy to sanction in his thought the most degrading (and also the least enjoyable) of human feelings. You can get him to practice, not only without shame but with a positive glow of self-approval, conduct which, if undefended by the magic word, would be universally derided. The feeling I mean is of course that which prompts a man to say I’m as good as you.

The first and most obvious advantage is that you thus induce him to enthrone at the center of his life a good, solid, resounding lie. I don’t mean merely that his statement is false in fact, that he is no more equal to everyone he meets in kindness, honesty, and good sense than in height or waist measurement. I mean that he does not believe it himself. No man who says “I’m as good as you” believes it. He would not say it if he did. The St. Bernard never says it to the toy dog, nor the scholar to the dunce, nor the employable to the bum, nor the pretty woman to the plain. The claim to equality, outside the strictly political field, is made only by those who feel themselves to be in some way inferior. What it expresses is precisely the itching, smarting, writhing awareness of an inferiority which the patient refuses to accept.

And therefore resents. Yes, and therefore resents every kind of superiority in others; denigrates it; wishes its annihilation. Presently he suspects every mere difference of being a claim to superiority. No one must be different from himself in voice, clothes, manners, recreations, choice of food: “Here is someone who speaks English rather more clearly and euphoniously than I — it must be a vile, upstage, la-di-da affectation. Here’s a fellow who says he doesn’t like hot dogs — thinks himself too good for them, no doubt. Here’s a man who hasn’t turned on the jukebox — he’s one of those goddamn highbrows and is doing it to show off. If they were honest-to-G-d all-right Joes they’d be like me. They’ve no business to be different. It’s undemocratic.”

[1]Based largely on the translation of Bezalel Naor (Maggid Books, 2015).

[2]Kabbalah teaches that mitzvot performed for improper motives can give strength to negative spiritual forces.

[3]This idea eventually made its way into more ‘popular’ sources – the Shnei Luchot haBrit (or ‘Shelah’) and the Yalkut Reuveni, an anthology of midrashim and comments on the parshah.

[4]Connections (c) and (d) are from Rabbi Lamm, in his Derashot Ledorot– Numbers.