Korah Takes His Prayer Shawl and Stirs Israel to Revolt

"Now Korah took" (Numbers 16:1). What he took was his prayer shawl, and he went to take counsel from his wife. When the Holy One, blessed be He, said, "Take the Levites from among the children of Israel and purify them. And thus shall you do to them to purify them," and "they shall pass a razor over all their flesh" (Numbers 8:6–7), Moses immediately did so to Korah. He began to go around among all Israel, but they did not recognize him. They said to him, "Who did this to you?" He said to them, "Moses. And not only that, but they took me by my hands and by my feet and waved me about, saying to me, 'Behold, you are pure.'" And he brought Aaron his brother and adorned him like a bride and seated him in the Tent of Meeting. Immediately the enemies of Moses began to incite Israel against him, and they said, "Moses is king, and Aaron his brother is High Priest, and his sons are deputies of the priesthood. The heave-offering goes to the priest, the tithe of the tithe goes to the priest, the twenty-four priestly gifts go to the priest!" Immediately "they assembled against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, 'You take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them; why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?'" (Numbers 16:3). Rabbi Levi said: At that hour Korah gathered his company and said to them, "You have heaped upon us a burden greater than the bondage of Egypt. We were better off under Egypt than under your hand, for every year fifteen thousand and forty-five of us die." And they sought to stone him. Therefore "Moses heard and fell on his face" (Numbers 16:4). Moses said to them, "I do not seek kingship, nor does Aaron seek the High Priesthood," as it is said, "And Aaron, what is he that you murmur against him?" (Numbers 16:11). Moses said before the Holy One, blessed be He, "Master of the universe, did you not command me thus: 'And you shall bring near to yourself' etc. (Exodus 28:1)? Yet they have risen up against us to kill us." He said to him, "In the morning the Lord will make known" etc. (Numbers 16:5). What does this mean? Rabbi Nathan said: The Holy One, blessed be He, said: If all the magicians of the world gathered and sought to turn the morning into evening, they could not. And just as I separated between light and darkness, so have I set apart Aaron to sanctify him as a holy of holies. Immediately "Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, but they said, 'We will not go up'" (Numbers 16:12). "We will not go" and "We will not come" are not written here, but "We will not go up." "The mouth of a fool is his ruin" (Proverbs 18:7). They opened their mouth about going down, saying that going up was not for them. Just as they spoke, so did they die: "And they went down, they and all that belonged to them, alive into Sheol" (Numbers 16:33). Moses said, "Since they did not wish to come, I will go to them; perhaps they will be ashamed and turn back," as it is said, "And Moses rose up and went to Dathan and Abiram" (Numbers 16:25). When they saw him, they began to reproach and revile, as it is said, "And Dathan and Abiram came out standing" (Numbers 16:27). Do people come out sitting, or kneeling, or falling? Rather, they came out reproaching and reviling. "Coming out" and "standing" are stated here, and "coming out" and "standing" are stated below concerning Goliath the Philistine, as it is written, "And the champion came out" etc., "and the Philistine drew near morning and evening and took his stand forty days" (1 Samuel 17:4, 16). Just as the "coming out" and "standing" there were reproaching and reviling, so too the "coming out" and "standing" here were reproaching and reviling. Therefore Moses opened and said, "If these die the common death of all men" etc., "and the earth opened its mouth" etc. (Numbers 16:29–30). Come and see how harsh is dissension, for everyone who aids in dissension, the Holy One, blessed be He, destroys his memory, as it is said, "And fire went out from before the Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty men" (Numbers 16:35). Rabbi Berekhyah said: How harsh is dissension! For the court above does not impose a penalty except from twenty years of age, and the court below from thirteen years of age, yet in the dissension of Korah day-old infants were burned and swallowed up into nethermost Sheol, as it is written, "and their wives and their sons and their little ones" (Numbers 16:27), "and they went down, they and all that belonged to them, alive into Sheol" (Numbers 16:33). Therefore it is said, "Now Korah took."