Holy nation and biblical interpretation

The episode of Korach’s insurrection against Moshe and his authority provides a platform for Rabbi S. R. Hirsch to analyse the concept of the Israelites as a “holy nation” – a point emphasised by Korach:

"the entire congregation are all holy and have God in their midst, and why have you elevated yourself over the community of God?"

Rav Hirsch suggests that it was an unwillingness to submit to the authority of Moshe and his hierarchical structure that lay at the heart of Korach’s rebellion. Korach’s error was to confuse destiny with reality. The Jewish people had certainly been spoken of as “anshei kodesh” – a holy nation, but this meant only that they had been set aside for a holy purpose, to aspire and raise themselves towards holiness by dedicating themselves to God and His Torah. In this light it is important that the Torah writes “anshei kodesh tiheyun li” and kedoshim tiheyu – you shall be holy rather than are (kedoshim atem). Judaism represents a mission and instruction to use the tools which we have been granted to become holy rather than being a statement of fact that we are automatically and inherently superior.

As well as the implications of this teaching for the question of how the Torah views the differential between Jews and non-Jews (a topic I plan to return to next week), the claim that the entire nation is equally qualified as holy represented a serious threat. Midrashim hint to this by depicting Korach as challenging Moshe on details of commandments such as tsitsit and mezuzah:

Korach sprang forth and said to Moshe: ‘if a garment is entirely colored with sky-blue tekhelet dye, is it or is it not exempt from the obligation of tzitzit?’ Said Moshe: ‘it is nevertheless obligated in tzitzit!’ Korach then retorted: ‘if a garment that is colored entirely with sky-blue tekhelet dye cannot exempt itself, shall four small threads then exempt it?!’

As I point out in Judaism Reclaimed, the sort of details chosen by the Midrash are those which do not appear in the simple peshat reading of the passage. Moshe has already been promised at Sinai that “they will believe you forever” so it is unlikely that Korach is challenging the authenticity of the basic laws taught by Moshe.

Rather they belong to the second, interpretative layer based on logic of the interpreter and hermeneutic tools. The sort of details that, as Rambam teaches in his introduction to the Mishneh, were delegated to the sages of each generation to legislate through the Sanhedrin. What Korach is challenging according to this approach is the fundamental question of authority over the oral tradition and legal interpretation of the Torah – a claim which was repeated in different form by the Sadducees centuries later. Asked what would become of the Torah if the Sanhedrin and its sages are destroyed, the Sadducee responds: “‘it is rolled up and lying in the corner: whoever wishes to study. Let him go and study!’” [Kiddushin 66a]

What the author of the midrash may be conveying is that, if Korach were to have his way and the entire congregation viewed as equally holy, this would mean that they are all uniformly entitled to interpret the written Torah to produce laws as they see fit. In this view, Korach’s assertions drew an emphatic response from God: a miraculous phenomenon to demonstrate unambiguously that his claims were unfounded and that, in the words of Moshe “the one chosen by God - "he is the holy one".

First posted on Facebook 26 June 2022, here.