I remember my horror, mouth open wide, when looking at this horrific illustration of people falling into a vast gaping hole in the ground, flames leaping out. I was 5 or so, staring at a full page illustration from our worn out ‘Bible Pictures for Children’ depicting a scene from the confusing chapter we are focusing on today. That book is still on my shelf and the horror I felt then also still lingers. I know much more about the context of this disturbing story now and am convinced that my initial reaction was exactly the author's intent - terror: Do not ever attempt to question Moses or God. At any age.
Continuing the thread of protests and rebellions, two more rumbles are thrown together in these chapters, edited by later voices to appear as one. The first is Reuben’s revolt. The heirs of Jacob’s firstborn son, the elder of the tribes who in the ancient world gets to carry on the mantle, try for the last time to assert their rights. Datan and Aviram of the tribe of Reuben bring a large entourage of notables to back up their claim for superior leadership rights. A brilliant article suggests that this is a much later story, echoing the cultural battle between Shepards and farmers, that already echoes in the Cain and Abel story.
The second rebellion is on similar but on more democratic grounds. Korach, one of the Levites, challenges the divinely commanded hierarchy of Aaron’s high priesthood into the ages, and the lower status of Levites such as he and his sons. Scholars clearly prove that these two different campaigns were later edited as one with glaring repetitions and glitches in the overall result, that still somehow evade most readers’ eyes. Perhaps that is because the horror of the punishment is still so vivid that any attempt to question the text’s authority and who the bad guys really are - then or now - is brushed aside.
The rebels rise together and the punishment is epic, mystifying and harsh. Moses warns them to back down or else a new form of crowd control will erupt, and as soon as he’s done speaking:
וַתִּפְתַּ֤ח הָאָ֙רֶץ֙ אֶת־פִּ֔יהָ וַתִּבְלַ֥ע אֹתָ֖ם וְאֶת־בָּתֵּיהֶ֑ם וְאֵ֤ת כׇּל־הָאָדָם֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר לְקֹ֔רַח וְאֵ֖ת כׇּל־הָרְכֽוּשׁ׃
“The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households, all Korah’s people and all their possessions.” (Ba. 16:32)
What’s the meaning of this punishing earthquake? Aviva Zorenberg pinpoints the meaning of the earth opening - uniquely here throughout the Bible - her mouth: “When does this moment of oral horror arrive? With precision, the narrative presents the timing: “Scarcely had he finished speaking all these words . . .” When Moses stops speaking, when he closes his mouth, the earth opens up its mouth and swallows. Speaking and eating— two oral functions—are in tension. As long as Moses speaks, the mouth of the earth remains closed. When it opens, it is not to speak but to consume. The terrible alternative to spoken words is the cataclysm of final and irrefutable revelations. Moses had, as it were, exhausted all the resources of language, so that nothing remained but the brute apocalypse. The limitation of human language, indeed, is that words can never achieve that finality, the last word, of the consuming earth”
Whatever the meaning of this macabre and mysterious myth - I think the mission is mostly accomplished. Generations have grown on the messaging, through text and image, sermon and whispers, that any challenge or protest against the authority of Moses and the authors of Torah will end up like Korach, more or less. But there’s more to say and question here, open our mouths and minds, earth-born creatures, curious about what’s at stake, courageous to ponder who’s to blame, and lean into the question of where is the love. The saga continues tomorrow..
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...but was it just "any" protest? This chapter was SO juicy that, heart racing, I had to skip ahead a few verses into the following chapter. And I offer this... previous protests started from the fringes. They had to do with physical needs, meat specifically. Or, born of fear, missing home, missing the familiar, afraid of the new. (Disenfranchised?) people not implicitly trusting leadership to take care of them, understandable given that leadership often forgets the fringes. Other protests were more like being "malcontent..." Or, resentment at not being part of the leadership team, not getting that promotion.
But THIS protest, started by a Kohathite--the inner circle, the elite--was much more calculated, specifically enlisting chieftains, this seemed more like a power grab. An insurrection. And what if they had won? Would the riffraff be taken care of? Or were these men trying to grab (more) power for for power's sake? How do we, humanity I mean, differentiate between listening to and addressing protests for justice, equal treatment, vegetables in "food deserts," climate change, and those people who just want power?