Torah Portion: Korach, Numbers 16:1-18:32

When I was a junior in college, I spent a year abroad in Israel.  I took an amazing class on biblical studies at Hebrew University, and one of the passages we studied was actually this week’s Torah portion, Korach.  The Torah describes not one, not two, but multiple groups of rebels who stand up and openly resist Moses’ leadership and God’s rule.  They are led by Korach and his family, two other men named Datan and Aviram, and a group of 40 elders of the tribes.  If you sit down and just read the portion, it seems like this was one mass rebellion led by multiple people, but I learned at Hebrew University that the Torah is reflecting multiple rebellions occurring at different times for different reasons.  The Torah conflates them all into this one portion! 

I remember when I learned this in class that I—and most of my classmates—felt a bit confused.  Some of my more traditional friends and classmates actually rebelled against our teacher, insisting that the Torah came exactly as it was written, to Moses from God on Mt. Sinai.  Other classmates argued with these students, saying that tradition’s answer ignored archeology, academia, and other proofs that countered their belief.  My professor inadvertently brought us into a discussion of faith vs. reason.  At the time, the question that concerned me most was, “Which story is true?”  This question demands an either-or/yes-no/black-white answer.  Today, however, my question is different.  Today, I ask, “What is most spiritually meaningful?”  This question does not have a black-white answer.  Instead, I find the most spiritual meaning by dwelling somewhere in the middle, believing that the Torah was woven together by people over a long period of time into the beautiful, holy, challenging text we read today.  AND I believe that what we read today is the text given to us by God on Mt. Sinai.  As a modern person, I simply cannot read texts about the adulterous wife’s trials and not acknowledge that it came from a certain cultural milieu.  As a religious person, I cannot simply dismiss the power, meaning, and utter holiness of the Torah—I believe God’s words are infused throughout.  So I am stuck in the middle ground, balancing between two opposite beliefs.  I know this is not intellectually consistent, but it is always spiritually meaningful.  Which explanation is the most spiritually meaningful?  The answer is, both.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Annie