Korach ? 5779

Korach envisioned his descendent, Samuel the Prophet, and this led him to rebel against Moses. Let us examine this answer and see where Korach erred and how Samuel is related to this error.

What did Korach want? What did he want to change about Moses? leadership? Let?s listen to what he said:

They assembled against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “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?”

(Numbers 16, 3)

Korach wanted to open the temple to the masses, to liberate the nation from its dependence on Moses and Aaron, to determine new regulations that blurred the separation between the holy and the profane, between the temple and the camp, between the priesthood and the world outside it. The nation would take its fate into its own hands and would stop being led by Moses? prophecy. This was a rebellion against Moses, against prophecy, against national hierarchy. This was not a holy rebellion, but rather a rebellion against holiness!

The sages of the midrash who made the comparison between the Prophet Samuel and Korach expressed the understanding that in Samuel?s leadership, he took from Korach the positive aspects of the rebellion, but did not adopt its negative aspects.

Samuel was born in the generation of the Tabernacle ? situated then in Shilo and administered corruptly by Chofni and Pinchas, the sons of Eli the priest.

And Eli’s sons, unscrupulous men, knew not the Lord. And this was the due of the priests from the people?the servant of the priest would come?everything which the fork would pick up, the priest would take therewith?And he would say, ‘No, but now you shall give. And if not, I shall take by force.’ And the sin of the lads was great?they would lie with the women who congregated at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

(Samuel II 2, 12-22)

When Samuel grew up, he warned Eli in the name of G-d, ?I am about to execute judgment upon his household forever!? (Ibid 3, 13). Then we read the following verse that points even more in the direction of the rebellion that Samuel led:

And Samuel lay down until the morning, and he opened the doors of the House of the Lord. (Ibid, 15)


Samuel grew and became a leader of the nation. But he didn?t surround himself with servants, yes-men, and confidantes. Samuel busied himself with judgement but did not sit in an ivory tower expecting the simple citizenry to come to him. On the contrary, he hit the pavement and wandered around the cities of the Land of Israel offering his services to the nation ? for free.

Samuel opened the doors of the temple, went down to the people, and in this way reminds us of Korach who claimed ?the entire congregation are all holy?. But Samuel does not make Korach?s mistake and does not blur the distinction between the sacred and the profane. Korach, swept up in a rebellion against Moses and prophecy, lost the positive aspect of this but left it to his grandson, Samuel.