פירוש על במדבר 16:22

אל אלהי הרוחות O GOD, THE GOD OF THE SPIRITS [OF ALL FLESH] — i.e., “[O God] who knowest the thoughts of every man”. Thy nature is not like that of human beings: an earthly king against whom part of his country commits an offence, does not know who the sinner is, and therefore when he becomes angry he exacts punishment from all of them. But Thou — before Thee all human thoughts lie open and Thou knowest who is the sinner (Midrash Tanchuma, Korach 7).

האיש אחד יחטא, by having assembled a whole congregation against us? (verse 19)

ויאמרו קל אלוקי חרוחות, They said: "O G'd the G'd of the spirits of all flesh, etc." The reason Moses used the name קל for G'd was that he realised that the attribute of Justice was in the ascendancy. By invoking the attribute קל Moses hoped to counterbalance the attribute of Justice with the attribute of חסד, loving kindness.

א-לוהי הרוחות, You are conversant with all spirits and hearts, knowing which of the people did not have a share in this sin.

Knower of thoughts. But not “the God of the souls” as would be understood from the word “spirits.” For what would its relevance be here, and what would be the reason for afterwards saying “if one man sins.” Rather, this means “Knower of thoughts” and thus You are able to know who the sinner is.

'ויאמרו, א-ל אלוקי הרוחות לכל בשר וגו, G’d immediately informed Moses that He did not intend to wipe out the nation but only the congregation of Korach. This is why I explained that the words הבדלו, etc. referred only to that Moses and Aaron should put distance between themselves and the congregation of Korach as well as between themselves and Datan and Aviram (compare verse 24). He repeated this instruction in verse 24, hoping that possibly, when the people observed how Moses and Aaron put space between themselves and the insurgents they would follow suit and do the same.

V. 22. אל אלקי הרוחות וגו׳ .ויפלו וגו׳. Du weißt, wie leicht die Geister einer Volksmenge durch blendende Behauptungen und Vorspiegelungen eines geistig überlegenen und bis dahin unangetastetes Vertrauen genießenden Mannes, wie Korach, zu einer Verirrung hingerissen werden können. Wenn Massen zu Verbrechen aufstehen, liegt in der Regel die wahre Schuld auf einigen wenigen höherstehenden Agitatoren. Bei menschlichem Einschreiten blutet gar oft dann die weniger schuldige, nur irregeführte Menge und die Verführer, die eigentlichen Schuldigen bleiben frei. Du aber, אל אלקי הרוחות לכל בשר, als אל, als Allmacht kannst du jeden erreichen, den du als Schuldigen erkennst, und als אלקי הרוחות לכל בשר weißt du genau die wirkliche Schuld eines jeden zu ermessen. האיש אחד וגו׳. Es ist doch nur Korach der Schuldige, und das Volk, als die bloß Verführten, dürfte deiner Milde sich erfreuen. Wir haben schon wiederholt bei ähnlichen Ereignissen zu bemerken Gelegenheit gehabt, wie durch Hervorrufen seiner Fürbitte Gott in Mosche die Einsicht in die Motive seiner Waltung weckt und seinen Geist gleichsam zum Mitdenken der göttlichen Waltungsgedanken erhebt.

אלוקי הרוחות לכל בשר, “O G-d, Spirit of flesh, etc.;” Moses refers to the fact that G-d has knowledge of our innermost thoughts at all times. As a result, He surely knows who is guilty and who is not. G-d tells him that he is quite correct and that is why He tells him now for the innocent to stand back and demonstrate their innocence. All he had to do is to tell people to remove themselves from Korach’s tent.

האיש אחד means, THE ONE MAN IS THE SINNER, and על כל העדה תקצוף YOU ARE ANGRY WITH ALL THE CONGREGATION?! Whereupon the Holy One, blessed be He, replied, “You have spoken well; I know and shall make known who has sinned and who has not sinned” (Midrash Tanchuma, Korach 7).

Has sinned will You… Because the Torah does not refer to one who will sin in the future, rather to the dispute in which Korach had already sinned. However the word תקצוף (“shall you be angry”) is understood according to its plain meaning (in the future tense), because He had not yet become angry, rather He was about to do so.

By referring to G'd as the "G'd of the spirits of all flesh," Moses used an argument that always evokes an echo from G'd as He wants that all spirits accept His Kingdom while they are still flesh, i.e. alive in this world. By saying הרוחות, Moses indicated that he referred to something spiritual, i.e. the G'd of thoughts and ideas. We find something parallel in Ezekiel 20,32 והעולה על רוחכם היו לא תהיה, "what enters your thoughts it shall not be!" Moses argued that though the judgment which G'd planned to perform through annihilating the whole people instantaneously was fair, the fact remained that to the outsider the impression this would create would be that G'd killed the whole people on account of the rebellious act of an individual. After all, it was clear that this rebellion did not involve the whole community! If G'd would proceed with what He had planned, the human mind would be so appalled by this that it might forever reject acknowledging such a G'd.

האיש אחד יחטא, shall one man sin, etc.;” the letter ח in the word אחד has the vowel kametz, to teach you that it is not something unusual for a human being to commit a sin; if there was something surprising here, it was that apparently G-d would therefore be angry at the whole congregation that man was a part of.

The Holy One Blessed is He, said “You have spoken well.” (Divrei Dovid) This language implies that Hashem agreed with them. However, this would certainly pose a difficulty, since it is incongruous to say that Hashem would change His mind due to a person’s statement. It appears to me that [to answer this difficulty] one has to preface with the saying that “Anyone who profanes the Name of Heaven in secret will be made to pay for it in public, whether it was done unintentionally or intentionally” (Avot 4:4). This raises a difficulty: Why is the same punishment given for the unintentional and the intentional? Does this make sense? It seems to me that the answer is as follows: If one sins in secret and is punished [in public] by Hashem for this, it will lead to a profanation of Hashem’s Name. Others will not know about the sin and will say that this person was punished for nothing. Therefore, Hashem arranges for the person to sin in public so that people will say that Hashem’s justice is fair. Consequently, when we say that one who profanes the Name of Heaven in secret will be made to pay in public, means that it will be [Heavenly] arranged that he will profane Hashem’s Name a second time in public. Then after he does so a second time, whether unintentionally or intentionally [he will be made to pay in public]. In this vein, Rashi answers that in truth Yisroel were liable. Rashi explains that the phrase, “[Korach] congregated against them” (v. 19) teaches that he enticed them. Thus they were liable in thought, because one who disputes with his Rabbi is like one who disputes the Divine Presence and so they were liable for disputing against Hashem. In response Moshe and Aharon said “If one man sins” meaning that they sinned in secret and it was only known to Hashem. Thus, “shall you be angry with the entire congregation” causing a desecration of Hashem’s Name. Hashem replied “You have spoken well” because I know who sins in secret. This meant that Hashem would arrange a second sin for them, as indeed happened. The people later complained saying “you have killed the people of Hashem” (17:6) and in response Hashem said “I shall annihilate them” (17:10) because their sin had now been revealed.

Moses also intended that his words should have a calming effect on G'd, making Him better disposed towards the Jewish people. He did so by reminding G'd of a variety of creatures who did not only recognize His sovereignty but paid tribute to it such as the angels, the souls of the righteous who have already departed from this earth, as well as the righteous souls who have not yet been assigned bodies to inhabit. We know that there is a store of such souls from Yevamot 62 where we have been taught that the Messiah cannot come until that store of souls has been emptied and all the souls therein have been asssigned bodies to inhabit. All of these souls acclaim and praise the Lord as we know from Proverbs 16,4: "G'd has made everything to serve Him." The songs of praises recited by the souls which inhabit bodies in this world are still more precious to G'd. Why would G'd do something which would make it difficult or impossible for these souls to praise Him if they went to their graves prematurely? By consigning them to death G'd would make it impossible for these souls to grow to love Him! The Zohar elaborates on the theme of how important it is to G'd for man to grow to love Him.

Considering all this, Moses was very astute in using the appellation אלוקי הרוחות לכל בשר, implying that G'd wants that all spirits would acknowledge, praise and love Him while they were still fused to the flesh. Killing them all at once would thwart G'd's desire. It was not reasonable then to allow the attribute of Justice to remain in the ascendancy.

The reason Moses referred to G'd's anger was to demonstrate that though G'd was perfectly aware that this particular rebellion was started by a single man, the punishment it provoked was only due to G'd's anger, i.e. תקצף.

האיש אחד יחטא, "shall one man sin, etc.?" Why did Moses phrase this in the future tense? He should have said: האיש אחד חטא? He referred to the fact that as long as Korach had not actually presented his incense he had not yet challenged Aaron's priesthood except with words. All he had been guilty of so far was ridiculing the system. If he were willing to retract, it would not be too late to save him.