June 15th: Korach
THIS WEEK IN THE TORAH
Rabbi David E. Ostrich
Remember that old expression, “I’d love to be a fly on their wall”—to know what people say when no outsiders are around? Well, I sort of got to live the experience a few years ago. I was visiting my sister in Israel and went to one of the many Orthodox shuls in her neighborhood. In her extremely Orthodox town, there are no non-Orthodox alternatives, and rather than make for potential problems for her, I go incognito in re my religious Liberality. In fact, having my adjunct role at Penn State gives me a technically honest answer when they ask me what I do: I teach Jewish studies at Penn State.
So I’m at the Orthodox synagogue, and there is a guest speaker. He is a retired Orthodox Rabbi from America who has been asked to speak about Korach. He is an older man, one who has fought the religious battles of his life, and, for him, the story of Korach is about those battles. Korach is a kind of victory lap for religious leaders because this is one time when God comes down decisively on the rabbi’s (Moses’) side.
“Now Korach, son of Izhar son of Kohath son of Levi (cousin of Moses!), betook himself, along with Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—descendants of Reuben—to rise up against Moses, together with 250 Israelites, chieftains of the community, chosen in the assembly, men of repute. They combined against Moses and Aaron and said to them, ‘You have gone too far! For all the community are holy, all of them, and the Lord is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above the Lord’s congregation?’” (Numbers 16.1-3) The relevant question, here, is whether Moses and Aaron have raised themselves above their fellow Israelites, or whether God has appointed them into their leadership roles. The answer, in case you have not guessed it, is that God has appointed them, a fact that is made clear by the climax of the story.
“And Moses said, ‘By this you shall know that it was the Lord who sent me to do all these things; that they are not of my own devising; if these men die as all men do, if their lot be the common fate of all mankind, it was NOT the Lord who sent me. But, if the Lord brings about something unheard-of, so that the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that that belongs to them, and they go down alive in Sheol, you shall know that these men have spurned the Lord.’ Scarcely had he finished speaking all these words when the ground under them (Korach and his followers) opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households, all Korach’s people and all their possessions. They went down alive into Sheol, with all that belonged to them; the earth closed over them and they vanished from the midst of the congregation.” (Numbers 16.28-33)
So, as I’m sitting in the back of the synagogue, a proverbial fly on an Orthodox wall, I hear the Rabbi pick up on the phrase, “these men have spurned the Lord,” and begin to explain how the modern day Korach’s are in the Reform Movement. The Reformers’ goal, he explained, is to destroy Judaism and its relationship with God. He went on quite a while, but you get the gist.
It was curious to sit in the room and to hear this uninhibited attack on my religion and me, but, since he did not know who I was, I was less personally drawn into the drama and able to be more reflective about his perception. Did the Reform Movement spurn the Lord? Is it trying to destroy Judaism and it relationship with God? Is it really a Korach?
Traditional commentators look at the dramatic end of Korach and take it as a clue from God that Korach’s intentions and motivations are less-than-good. The traditional understanding is that he is jealous and greedy and wants to take over what he perceives as a cushy, lucrative, and powerful position. In fact, though he claims democratization as a rationale, a big part of his claim to leadership is his membership in the tribe of Levi and in his close family ties to the Moses-Aaron-Miriam leadership team. In other words, the Tradition see his efforts as a power grab intended for illicit gains and in direct disobedience to God’s stated wishes. Thus could he be characterized as one “who spurned the Lord.”
I can understand the Orthodox anger at Reform Judaism: we do reject their understanding of God’s wishes. However, our rejection or rereading is based on high-level academic and spiritual study of the traditional texts. We do not disagree with the special relationship we Jews have with God. We do not spurn God. Indeed, all of our efforts were and are intended to enhance our relationship with God and to heighten the quality of our devotion. Our disagreement with the Orthodox is with their claim that Orthodox Judaism is exactly what God commanded us back some 3000 years ago at Mount Sinai. We believe that Judaism is a progressive and continually developing religion that fell into a stultifying rut in the second half of the last Millennium—that Judaism once again needed the kind of reforming that it has undergone several times in our distant past.
Our Reforms were not to “spurn the Lord,” but rather to make our relationship with the Lord more healthy, more honest, and more spiritual. Our Reforms were a kind of liberation struggle, working to throw off the chains of religious teachings and customs that are, according to the Pittsburgh Platform (the founding document of American Reform Judaism), “entirely foreign to our present mental and spiritual state,” and favoring instead Judaism’s “moral laws, and…only such ceremonies as elevate and sanctify our lives.” It was a matter of purging our precious religion from observances that were “apt rather to obstruct than to further modern spiritual elevation,” and choose those parts of the Tradition that can help us be closer to God.
Was/is Reform Judaism a greedy, self-aggrandizing power-ploy—a Korach, or is it a sincere and more accurate reading of Jewish Tradition that seeks to improve Judaism and our relationship with God? I understand the Orthodox position, but I disagree with it. We are not Korachs. We have given Judaism new life and an expansiveness that enhances God’s position in the world. Our motivations are not only pure, but also they are well-informed, spiritually motivated, and continually reconsidered. Reform Judaism and its sisters in Jewish Modernity, Conservative Judaism, Reconstructionist Judaism, and Jewish Renewal, have breathed new life in our ancient and continuing Jewish Tradition.