Korah: Rebellion & Divine Wrath

Numbers 16:1 - 17:15: Two Rebellions Intertwined

W. Gunther Plaut ,a leading figure in modern Reform Judaism talked on the issue:

Korah's argument turns on the eternal tension between authority and freedom. Like many demagogues after him, Korah offered himself as a fitting guardian of the spirit of freedom. But while the people might have accepted the offer of substitute leadership, God did not.

The argument Korah presented was not blotted out with the drastic divine response, and neither was Korah's name. His family continued to serve with high distinction; no less a person than the prophet Samuel was his descendant (I Chronicles 6: 16-18); ten psalms ? (should be 12 !) were composed by the sons of Korah; and his offspring functioned in the Temple courts. Like Korah's argument, they refused to disappear.

Korah was punished for his rebellion, but his questioning of the need for human rulers has remained a living issue for later generations to contemplate.

Yehonatan Chipman,an ordained rabbi,discussed“And the Sons of Korah did not die”quoted two sayings that shed some lights on the above puzzle:

Michael Goulder, says in his book on the Korahite Psalms

that they formed a liturgy for the days of the festival of Sukkot in the temple built by the northern tribes who constituted the kingdom of Israel

Jerusalem Torah teacher Aviva Zornberg has remarked that

these psalms seem to plummet to particularly great psychological and philosophical depths, to reflect a certain intensity of experience and emotion, as if written by people who have undergone a near death or other transformative experience