TORAH SPARKS
Parashat Korach (Outside Israel) | Chukat (Israel)
June 24, 2023 | 5 Tammuz 5783
Torah (Outside Israel): Numbers 16:1-18:32
Triennial: Numbers 16:1-17:15 Haftorah: I Samuel 11:14-12:22
Torah (Israel): Numbers 19:1-22:1 Haftorah: Judges 11:1-33
Aaron s Flowering Staff
Bex Stern-Rosenblatt
Parashah
In response to Korach s rebellion, authority is reasserted in a number of dramatic ways. The earth opens its mouth up and swallows people, there is a great fire, there is a plague. But the final way that authority is restored is the weirdest. God tells Moses to have the head of each tribe bring his staff to the Tent of Meeting. Moses then moonlights as a camp counselor, labeling each head of tribe s staff so they don t get confused with each other. The staffs are left in the Tent of Meeting overnight. In the morning, Aaron s staff has blossomed, thus restoring authority to Aaron.
The incident of the blossoming staff could not be less like those of the fire and the plague and the earth-mouth. The others destroy, this produces. The others happen suddenly, with little or no warning. The staff is deliberate and planned out. Most strikingly, the others are meant to punish the community while the staff is meant to restore the community to wholeness.
Korach s rebellion is a rebellion of Levites. As Moses says to Korach, Listen, pray, sons of Levi will you seek priesthood as well? As Moses understands Korach s actions, Korach and the Levites are not content to be the ones serving the kohanim, they want to be equal to the kohanim. When we reach the incident of the blossoming staff, the Levites are put back into their proper place. It is Aaron s name which is written on the staff as the head of the tribe of Levi. In fact, that action alone seems like it should be enough to rectify the problems raised by the rebellion. It answers unequivocally the questions of whether the Levite tribe has a leader and if so, who that leader is. Aaron is the named leader of the Israelite tribe. With that being the case, the rest of the ritual seems unnecessary. Why must Aaron s staff bloom, proving that the Levites are special among the Israelites? Why must Aaron s staff blossom in the Tent of Meeting while the other staffs remain just sticks? Perhaps, this happens in order to forestall future rebellions. It is not enough just to remind the Levites, who have already rebelled, of Aaron s God-given authority. If the Levites, who are a specially chosen tribe, rebel against Aaron, how much more so might the rest of the Israelites choose to do so? The incident of the blossoming staff looks forward, confirming Aaron s eternal place within the Tent of Meeting for the Israelites.
The language used to describe the blossoming of Aaron s staff is striking. We read, Aaron s staff of the house of Levi had flowered, and it had brought forth flower and had burgeoned in blossom and had born almonds. Each of these words carries a wealth of meaning with it.
The root for had flowered is . This word shows up when flowers bloom, in metaphors for the righteous people succeeding (well-known to us from Psalm 92, tzadik katamar yifrach), and also (in identical form although perhaps from a that was vocalized differently) in Leviticus in reference to skin disease blossoming on people that the kohanim are required to diagnose. For Aaron s staff to bloom is for it to reveal its righteousness. Additionally, the association with skin disease reminds us of the specialness and the vitalness of the role of the kohanim. It also calls back the skin disease, white like snow, of Moses at the burning bush and of Miriam in last week s parashah. Instead of Aaron s skin blossoming with disease, Aaron s staff blossoms with a sign of his chosenness and righteousness.
The root of the word translated as burgeoned in blossom is . This word also refers to the frontlet of pure gold that the high priest wears, engraved with the words Holy to God. We read in Exodus 28 that the frontlet shall be upon his forehead constantly to make [the Israelites] favorable before God. When Aaron s staff puts forth a , it cannot help recall Aaron s own . Similarly, the words for flower and almond appear together in another place in the Torah, in the description of the menorah placed in the Ark. Aaron s blossoming staff confirms once again that Aaron is chosen and that only Aaron and his descendants have a right to lead the Israelites in cultic matters. But it is a gentle reminder of this, a promising and beautiful sign, meant to unite.
Dare to Look Us in the Eye When You Leave
Vered Hollander-Goldfarb
Haftarah
What standards should a leader hold himself to? Moshe toils at the often-thankless job of leading the people at God s instruction for about 40 years. It is sometime during that period that Korach leads a rebellion questioning Moshe s status. Moshe is willing to accept questioning of his position as leader of the people, but when Datan and Aviram seem to question his integrity Moshe turns to God I have not taken one donkey from them, nor have I hurt one of them. (Bamidbar 16:15).
A similar theme is running through both the parashah and the haftarah. But while Moshe is in the middle of his tenure, we meet Shmuel as he takes leave of the people. Who cares about the job when it is over? A person who values honesty.
This haftarah is on the seam between two periods: Ad hoc leadership until now as seen in the book of Judges, and kingship (and dynasties) from here onward. Shmuel was the last of the leaders that arose as they were needed. He saw it as his responsibility to travel far and wide to see that all were well. As age became an issue, he tried appointing his sons, but they did not follow in his path. The tired and frustrated people asked for a king, a symbol of continuity and stability. Shmuel balked, But the LORD your God is your king! (I Samuel 12:12). Nonetheless, God instructed Shmuel to anoint the chosen king, Shaul.
Transition from one leader to another is always a delicate matter. It is emotionally difficult to relinquish a position, even if it is the right thing to do. Even if it is mandated by God and you are a prophet. Shmuel teaches us that before moving forward, we need to close potentially open matters. He gathered the people to confirm the appointment of the king and to hand over the reins.
Instead of a party Shmuel demands a time of reckoning. Before handing over the reins, Shmuel confronts the people: Here I am, [bear] witness against me before the Lord and before His anointed: Whose ox have I taken, or whose donkey have I taken, or whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed, or from whose hand have I received any bribe with which to blind my eyes? I will restore it to you. (12:3) Rather than thank the people for a lovely time, Shmuel demands to be held accountable for the period during which he led the people. His list of potential iniquities can be well understood by anyone who studies history or reads the newspaper. These are matters that a leader might convince himself that he is entitled to.
Shmuel had a message for all leaders to come. It is not only how you got your job, or your great historic achievements, what really counts is your integrity in the details. Perhaps Shmuel s demand of the people should be etched on the walls of government offices. The gold standard for both leaders and those electing them to office.
If You Didn t Make it to the Bris,
Have a Pidyon HaBen!
Joshua Kulp
The Halakhah in the Parashah
At times I am amused by how much I remember from what I learned in high school, especially when I compare it with how much I have forgotten from what I learned yesterday or the day before (a phenomenon I am sure familiar to many of you). This seems to be especially true of history, where we spent an inordinate amount of time in high school studying medieval Europe. One thing I remember clearly is that the first born son would inherit the estate and the second born son belonged to the priesthood. I was glad I was a first born son (unfortunately my father did not own a castle).
Jewish law works differently. On several occasions the Torah emphasizes that the first born of animals and of people both belong to the priest. This is presented in different ways in different places. For instance Numbers 3:12-13 explains that the Levites serve in the Temple in place of the first born, who due to God s saving them at the time of the plague of the firstborn in Egypt, all belong to God (see also Exodus 13:12-15) Theoretically, one might have thought that since God took the Levites, the first borns can just go on their merry way. But elsewhere in the Torah, including in our parashah, we learn that even after the substitution of the Levites for the first born, the first born still belongs to the kohanim. Numbers 18:15-16 offers the following instruction:
The first [male] issue of the womb of every being, human or beast, that is offered to God, shall be yours; but you shall have the male first born of human beings redeemed, and you shall also have the firstling of impure animals redeemed.
Take as their redemption price, from the age of one month up, the money equivalent of five shekels by the sanctuary weight, which is twenty gerahs.
Theoretically the priests should offer on the altar all first born mammals. But impure animals and human beings cannot be sacrificed, so in their redemption, the father (or in the case of impure animals, the owner) would pay a price to the priest, five shekels for a human child. This halakhah, that first born male children must be redeemed, was codified into Jewish law and remains in practice to this day. And since, unlike circumcision, one can do this on one s own, it is worthwhile knowing how it’s done.
First of all, the redemption can be performed only once the child is one month old, which usually is a few weeks after circumcision. This is calculated at 30 days, including the day of birth and the day of the redemption. It is not done on Shabbat, so if the 30th day falls on Shabbat (or a festival) the child cannot be redeemed until after Shabbat.
A slightly complicated issue is determining how much money must be given to the kohen to redeem the son. The Torah refers to twenty gerahs of silver, which according to rabbis is about 85 grams of silver. Thus whatever is given to the kohen must have the value of 85 grams of silver, and it’s probably worth rounding up to 100 (different authorities calculate biblical weights in different ways). In today s market, this is about 75 dollars, a bargain compared to what you re going to end up spending on your son. One can give the priest five coins that have in them 100 grams of silver or one can also give the equivalent in value. Many authorities do not think paper money should be used for this redemption. If you can find real silver coins, all the better!
For the ceremony one needs to find a kohen (according to the Tosafot it might be possible to give this to a bat kohen, a woman whose father is a kohen) and perform the ceremony which involves the kohen asking the father if he wishes to give the boy to the kohen or redeem him (this always draws a chuckle). And then the father recites two blessings, gives the money to the kohen and the kohen recites the blessing over wine and drinks a cup of wine. The kohen then blesses the son.
This mitzvah does not apply in all cases. First of all, the son must be the first born, so if there was a daughter born first, the mitzvah does not apply. If the mother had a post-third month miscarriage, then the first born son is not considered to have opened her womb and need not be redeemed. The mitzvah does not apply to children born from a cesarean section, since they did not open the mother s womb. Also if the father is a kohen or Levite or the mother is a daughter of one, then the son need not be redeemed.
I remember performing this for my son, Yadin, who is now almost 25 years old. His brit milah was on Shabbat and it was not possible to invite everyone we knew. He was born at the end of the summer, before the new crop of Conservative Yeshiva students arrived. The pidyon haben, which occurred after Rosh Hashanah and after the start of the year, was a special opportunity to welcome Yadin into a select group of B nai Yisrael, and to do so in front of a crowd different from those who had attended his brit. And while all my children are special to me, and we had ceremonies for our girls and boys, there is something special about a first born son. In terms of changes in life, I think the most radical change is to go from not being a parent to being a parent. Life has never been the same since. I m glad we had an opportunity to perform a special ritual that was just for him.