Shabbat- KORACH

Today was 57 years of reading Korach, since my Bar Mitzvah parsha (I may have missed reading for a few years). As is always said about Torah, we read something different each time we re-read a portion, influenced by what lines we may be focused on and where we are in our lives each year as it returns. Korach provides lessons of hope, fairness, leadership, negotiation, conflict resolution and collective punishment. This week, I studied some Sources I’ve not seen before and focused a little less on the rebellion and the fight for power and more on the miracle of the blossoming of the staff and the selection of Aaron (see previous post).

I subsequently read that when thinking of Aaron, be reminded of Elijah’s experience with God's presence. A furious wind split mountains and shattered rocks in the presence of the Eternal, but the Eternal was not in the wind. An earthquake … but the Eternal was not in the earthquake. A fire …but the Eternal was not in the fire. After the fire, a still, small voice" (I Kings 19: II-12). Thinking of the song written (and given permission) by Ken Isman, an old friend of mine.Read more