Kol Ramah

Parsha Talk, with Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Barry Chesler and Jeremy Kalmanosfky. Parashat Korach [Numbers 16-18] is the fifth of the ten weekly readings in the Book of Numbers. One of its distinguishing features is that it is named after a person, which happens 3 times in Numbers, as many times as in the rest of the Torah. The Korach in question is a first cousin of Moses and Aaron, but his appearance in the parashah is for political, not merely familial reasons, though the two are related. Korach takes umbrage at the concentration of power in the family of Moses and Aaron, and wishes for it to be diffused more widely, at least to him and his family. He leads a rebellion against the leadership of Moses and Aaron, which in our version in the Torah is combined with at least 2 or 3 other separate rebellions. Suffice it to say, none of them end well for the instigators. For a slightly different approach than our usual thematically based conversation, we began with the first verse and then made our way through