민수기 16:2의 주석

קריאי מועד, the ones who had been referred to in Numbers 1,16 as קרואי העדה. They would be invited to preside over litigation on the days appointed for this (מועד).

ויקומו לפני משה ואנשים מבני ישראל חמשים ומאתים, all these who ganged up on Moses and Aaron were from Korach’s own tribe, i.e. Levites. This is the meaning of Moses saying to them: “רב לכם בני לוי, “enough for you Levites, etc.” (verse 7), as well as when he again addressed them as בני לוי in verse 8, i.e. stressing that the people he was speaking to were all Levites. Perhaps these Levites had been under the impression that their whole tribe had been meant to be priests and that Moses had highhandedly decided to bestow this honour only on his brother Aaron.

V. 2. ויקמו לפני משה וגו׳. Die eigentümlich getrennte Aufeinanderfolge, in welcher die an dem Aufstande Beteiligten vorgeführt werden, bezeichnet wohl den verschiedenen Grad ihrer Beteiligung. Korach erscheint als der Anstifter des Ganzen, daher: ויקח קרח. Ihm schlossen sich als weitere Agitatoren für den Aufstand Datan, Abiram und On an. Diese vier traten vor Mosche auf, ויקמו וגו׳, nachdem sie noch zweihundertundfünfzig Männer aus dem Volke gewonnen hatten, die ihr Auftreten als aufrührerische Masse, ויקהלו על וגו׳, unterstützten.

ואנשים מבני ישראל חמשים ומתים, “and two hundred and fifty of the elite of the Children of Israel.” Who were the men whom the Torah referred to here as the “elite” of the nation? They were Elitzur ben Shdeyur, the leader of the tribe of Reuven and his companions. Even though the Torah did not name them here, it provided us with hints to their identity. We find the expression: ואנשים מבני ישראל, “and distinguished men from among the Children of Israel,” (Numbers 1,17) They appear here in 16,2 again almost referred to in identical terms. Our sages explain this in a parable. When a person up to that time respected for his absolute integrity, was found having stolen something in the public bath, and the owner of the stolen object did not want to embarrass the thief, he started throwing out hints, such as asking the thief: “who stole your robe?” He assumed that a person of high repute would realise that it was he who was referred to, and after the owner describing the thief in detail without mentioning his name, would give him a chance to return the stolen object, making some excuse. The Torah did something similar here by not referring to these rebels by name. (Tanchuma, section 2 on this portion) If you needed proof how serious the sin of Korach and his followers was, consider that as a rule the heavenly tribunal does not judge someone guilty until he reaches the age of 20, as we know from Yishmael in Genesis 21,17 where his prayer was accepted although he was already 16 or 17 at the time, whereas human tribunals hold people accountable already from the age of 13. In this instance, where Korach and followers were judged by a heavenly tribunal, even their infants were punished alongside their parents. The Talmud in tractate Baba Metzia, folio 87, learns from this that maintaining peace between human beings is so important that those who destroy it are judged and punished immediately regardless of age. (Compare author’s commentary on Genesis 18,13).

ויקומו לפני משה, ”they orchestrated an uprising against Moses;” Korach’s specific complaint was that seeing that he was the firstborn of his father’s sons, (Exodus 6,21) Aaron instead had been given preferential treatment. Datan, Abiram and On were angry that their tribe had been deprived of the status that should have been accorded to the firstborn of Yaakov their founding father, and that status had been accorded to Joseph and his descendants instead. They believed that this was due to the fact that Joshua from the tribe of Ephrayim, Joseph’s son, had been chosen by Moses to be his closest disciple and valet, the whole tribe had been promoted to special status. They also considered that the leaders of the various tribes had been chosen as they were each firstborns, and that therefore it was clear that their tribe had been deliberately demoted. (Ibn Ezra) Proof that this was their complaint can be seen from Numbers 17,25, where the Torah reports that finally, when Aaron’s staff, i.e. a representative of the tribe of Levi, brought forth a bud that developed into almonds, the Torah reports that these kinds of complaints ceased. They finally realised that G-d had chosen the tribe of Levi rather that Yaakov’s firstborn son Reuven, i.e. that the system of allocating spiritual and material advantages to the firstborn had been replaced by a system of hereditary spiritual background, such as G-d’s having chosen the descendants of three proven patriarchs as His “firstborn” people, a message relayed to Pharaoh at the beginning of Moses’ career. [some of these words are mine. Ed.] On the other hand, Korach rebelled against what appears to be the message of Exodus 13,2, that all the firstborn are to be sanctified, i.e. they were not holy through birth, and he claimed that the entire people of Israel, ever since they had accepted the Torah had become holy, as all had participated in the revelation at Mount Sinai.

Those who were called to meetings. Until now, they sat with Moshe and Aharon at any time they required advice.

ואנשים מבני ישראל חמשים ומאתים, “together with another two hundred and fifty men from various sections among the Israelites.” He selected twenty three from each tribe excluding members from his own tribe; the reason that he chose the number twenty three was that that number constituted the number of judges required to deal with sins involving capital punishment. Each tribe had a high court comprising that number of judges. If you add Korach, Datan, Aviram and On, you have a total of 253 rebels, not counting the leader. At this juncture, Rashi comments that all these men garbed themselves in prayer shawls made entirely of blue wool. They supposedly challenged Moses by asking if those prayer shawls required fringes, tzitzit. When Moses ruled that they did require fringes, they started ridiculing him and his Torah, by arguing that if a whole garment can be fit to wear by adding a single strand of blue wool, it was nonsensical to disallow these prayer shawls that consisted exclusively of blue wool. Some commentators claim that Korach used this commandment as it was the one most recently written in the Torah. Korach used that commandment as something to challenge Moses with. (Tanchuma Korach section 2.)

קריאי עדה, “elect men of the assembly.” They had been called out to assume a challenging position in front of the Tabernacle.