Ari Levisohn: Welcome to Into the Verse, the parsha podcast where we dive deep into the verses to share new and unexpected insights, illuminating the parsha like you’ve never seen before. This week, we hear from Rabbi David Fohrman and Ami Silver. Here they are:

Rabbi David Fohrman: Delightful. I think this is the first time, Ami, that you and I have done this podcast so I'm looking forward to all the exciting ventures that will await us on our journey, and I understand that you have a bit of a journey for us.

Ami Silver: This week we're going to be looking at Parshat Korach, one of those really exciting Bamidbar parshas where stuff gets really messy and ugly really quickly. We know Korach has this big rebellion that he launches. He gets 250 people on his side and basically starts to stand up to Moshe and say, “Hey, who put you in charge?” So, Rabbi Fohrman, remind our listeners, what is that bizarre story of what ends up happening to Korach and his followers? Let's just jump to the end. What's their punishment?

What Happened to Korach and His Followers?

Rabbi Fohrman: They get swallowed up in the ground, among other things, but that's the one that gets the most press, I would say.

Ami: Right, so in reading through the Book of Bamidbar, there's actually a couple of things earlier on that I think give us a little more background to this story. One of the mysteries that the Rabbis discuss at length is, where did this whole idea for this rebellion come from? The parsha just starts off with Korach standing up to Moshe and this strange word, וַיִּקַּח קֹרַח, and they're not even sure what exactly it is that moved or drove Korach to fight against Moshe. What are some clues? What can we find out about Korach that might give us indication, you know, where is this guy coming from?

Rabbi Fohrman: Because his motivation isn't really absolutely clear. By the way, I would just say that it's not just you and I that are puzzled by it. If you look at...Moshe expresses a kind of frustration to God, which is that he just doesn't know where this is coming from. “Is there some sort of personal grudge here? I never did anything to these people. I never hurt them.” Moshe seems befuddled by what's happening here.

Ami: When we look at Korach, just his introduction here, what do we know about him?

Rabbi Fohrman: We know his lineage and we know his tribal affiliation.

Korach's Family Tree... Back to the Kohathites

Ami: Right, he's from the Tribe of Levi. He's from the family of Kehat and he's the child of Yitzhar. The thing is, if we go back a couple of chapters in Bamidbar to chapter 4, we actually hear some very specific things about the family of Kehat among the Levi’im.

Rabbi Fohrman: So in other words, what you're doing is you're looking back and seeing that it's not just any family, but it's a family that we know something about. There's a whole, almost, chapter of text that's devoted to this specific avodah service of this family and that might be of interest to us here.

Ami: Right, I mean, if we're asking the question, where is this guy coming from, biologically we know where he's coming from. Actually, the Torah tells us a bit of a story or a window into what that family's role was here in the desert. So if you don't mind just turning to the beginning of chapter 4 and maybe read the first couple of verses there describing what it is that Kehat does in particular around the Mishkan (Tabernacle).

Rabbi Fohrman: God speaks to Moshe and Aharon about the family of Kehat and says: נָשֹׂא אֶת־רֹאשׁ בְּנֵי קְהָת. So, נָשֹׂא there can sort of have two meanings. נָשֹׂא is one of those words whose meaning can sort of change based on context. It literally means “to raise up.” “Raise up the people of Kehat from among the Tribe of Levi.” Then the other possibility is נָשֹׂא, particularly in the beginning of Bamidbar, can also mean to count. Presumably, both are true. “Take a census of them because they have some sort of special job to do.” What's the job?

A Closer Study of the Duties of the Kohathites

זֹאת עֲבֹדַת בְּנֵי־קְהָת - This is their job. Their job is in the Ohel Moed (Tent of Meeting), Kodesh Kedoshim (Holy of Holies). Their job has to do with the part of the Mishkan which is the most sacred, sanctified part.

Now it's interesting also, if you think about the Kodesh Kedoshim, the only people allowed in the Kodesh Kedoshim is actually going to be Aharon, the very person that Korach is going to go up against, really. Aharon is the one who can alone enter the Kodesh Kedoshim. But interestingly, what you're about to see is that the children of Kehat have a special job with reference to the Kodesh Kedoshim. When it's being moved, that's when the children of Kehat jump into motion. They are the packers, the U-Haul movers, and that's what we're about to see. The specific ways that they pack everything up.

Ami: Also the image here that we're about to see and that you're describing, Rabbi Fohrman, it's almost if you can imagine a play. The only actor in the Kodesh Kedoshim is Aharon, but then there's stage crew. Those are the people who are packing and moving and setting everything up. That, as we're about to see, is going to be the job of the Leviim.

Let's see just a few verses describing the Kehat family's job there. Bamidbar, chapter 4, verse 5: וּבָא אַהֲרֹן וּבָנָיו בִּנְסֹעַ הַמַּחֲנֶה - When it's time for the camp to travel, Aharon and his children come. The first thing they do is, they take down this dividing screen that basically demarcates the place where the Kodesh Kedoshim begins, where nobody is allowed in except under special circumstances. וְכִסּוּ־בָהּ אֵת אֲרֹן הָעֵדֻת - They take that פָּרֹכֶת and they cover the Ark with it, and upon that they put another special kind of leather cover, וּפָרְשׂוּ בֶגֶד־כְּלִיל תְּכֵלֶת - and they spread out, above that leather covering, another “garment of all תְּכֵלֶת ”.תְּכֵלֶת is this special kind of blue, a kind of indigo-dyed fabric that was used in the Mishkan.

As we read through the next few pesukim (verses), I'm not going to read them inside, but basically we see a similar thing play out with the Shulchan HaPanim, the Table and the Showbreads, where the Showbreads are placed. They also kind of take that down and cover it with special coverings. They do the same thing with the Menorah and with the candle holders, and all of the different vessels that are in that most sacred space of the Mishkan, the kohanim are covering with special covers in order to prepare it for transport.

Rabbi Fohrman: I see where you're going here, if I can anticipate a very intriguing inference which you seem to be making with this בֶגֶד־כְּלִיל תְּכֵלֶת language. This interestingly resonates not with another parsha in the Torah, but with something that our Sages say, which is that the בֶגֶד־כְּלִיל תְּכֵלֶת, which you so aptly translated as the article of clothing which is complete תְּכֵלֶת. Remember that those from Kehat are using these תְּכֵלֶת, these blue coverings for all of the implements. They're using it for the Shulchan. They're using it for the Menorah. They're using it for the Ark. But the first time it's mentioned, and the first time it's mentioned only, it's called a בֶגֶד־כְּלִיל תְּכֵלֶת, a בֶגֶד that's all of תְּכֵלֶת. 

A very famous thing the Sages say about Korach, when they talk about a beged she’kulo t'cheilet, an article of clothing which is made completely out of תְּכֵלֶת. Fascinatingly, you're pointing out that they're not just taking something out of the air when Chazal (our Sages) talk about that. They're actually borrowing from the family lineage of Kehat. 

Ami: Since you brought it up, I'll just speak it out a little bit. The Rabbis say, on that strange, ambiguous, וַיִּקַּח קֹרַח...וְדָתָן וַאֲבִירָם - He took him and these other people and 250 members from the Tribe of Reuven. The Rabbis there say it wasn't just that he took himself or took nothing or took these people, but that he dressed them all in a garment that's all dyed indigo and says to Moshe, “Moshe, you taught us that if you have a four-cornered garment, you got to put tzitzit on it and there should be a כָּנָף פְּתִיל תְּכֵלֶת, there should be some kind of twist of תְּכֵלֶת on its corner. But what if the garment is made all of תְּכֵלֶת? Does it still need tzitzit there on the corners? Does it still need some kind of sign there on the corners?” Moshe says, “Yes, of course, it needs. A four-cornered garment still needs tzitzis.” And Korach says, “Moshe, that's ridiculous.”

So, this is one of the things that the Rabbis say Korach was arguing with Moshe about. But when we just read it, on the face of it, it's a Midrash that sounds a little bit strange and puzzling. Like, okay, he's...what? He's hung up on one kind of garment with tzitzis? It doesn't really make sense. Let's just have that hovering in the back of our minds, and let's read on a little bit more.

Rabbi Fohrman: Again, just to explain, the reason why you're saying it's haphazard, Ami, is because we're out of the blue. Pardon the pun.

Ami: "Out of the blue."

Rabbi Fohrman: Right. He’s coming up with this little magic trick of getting everybody dressed up in this all blue garment. But once you see that that was his family's job, that this was the family heritage, this בֶגֶד־כְּלִיל תְּכֵלֶת, this בֶגֶד made entirely out of blue.

Ami: As we read on now, back in chapter 4, when we hear about the job of Kehat, we're going to see really what the function of this blue garment was. I mean, so far, we're seeing the kohanim come in, and they cover all of those holy vessels in the Kodesh Kodashim. All of those really special vessels get covered with this בֶגֶד תְּכֵלֶת.

Come with me to verse 15 there: וְכִלָּה אַהֲרֹן־וּבָנָיו לְכַסֹּת אֶת־הַקֹּדֶשׁ - Aharon and his children complete the job of covering all of the holy vessels, all of the area of the Kodesh and of all of the holy vessels. And it's only after the kohanim, Aharon and his children, cover all of the holy vessels of the Mishkan that Kehat steps onto the scene. Then they come in to carry all those vessels. וְלֹא־יִגְּעוּ אֶל־הַקֹּדֶשׁ וָמֵתו - They won't make contact with the Kodesh. They won't touch it, which would cause them to die.

Rabbi Fohrman: Is that because of the בֶגֶד תְּכֵלֶת? Is that the reason they're not touching it?

Ami: What it sounds like is that the kohanim are covering all of the holy vessels with different things, right? The leather and the תְּכֵלֶת. And only then, the Kehatim can come and carry those vessels. Remember, they're carrying this...Kehat, in particular, carried these vessels on their shoulders. They're coming into close physical contact with all of these sacred vessels. But, somehow, if they were to touch them directly, the Torah seems to be implying that they would die.

Rabbi Fohrman: So, basically, what you're saying is that when the Mishkan is in service, so the only one who is allowed in the Kodesh HaKodashim is Aharon. Then there is this transition period, which is taking the Mishkan out of service and carrying it. They could affect this transition by spreading this בֶגֶד תְּכֵלֶת over all of the things. And only then can the movers come and do their job, which is the people of Kehat whose job it is לָשֵׂאת, to carry.

Ami: And somehow, their job is really dangerous. And the Torah, a couple of pesukim later, actually seems to emphasize the danger of their job. If you don't mind reading a couple pesukim down. Yud Chet, verse 18 there.

Rabbi Fohrman: אַל־תַּכְרִיתוּ אֶת־שֵׁבֶט מִשְׁפְּחֹת הַקְּהָתִי - Do not cut them off, מִתּוֹךְ הַלְוִיִּם - from among the Levi’im. You should do this for them so they should live and not die when they come close to the Kodesh Kodashim. They had to take special precautions. Skipping: וְלֹא־יָבֹאוּ לִרְאוֹת כְּבַלַּע אֶת־הַקֹּדֶשׁ וָמֵתוּ - They cannot go and see. Now, what does כְּבַלַּע mean there? It's a strange word.

Ami: Well, it sounds to me like the verse is saying, the family of Kehat will not come to see כְּבַלַּע אֶת־הַקֹּדֶשׁ - when the Holy is swallowed, וָמֵתוּ - which would kill them.

Rabbi Fohrman: It's interesting because it's almost like there's this degradation that happens to the Holy of Holies, in the sense that everyone sees and relates to the Holy of Holies with awe and with fear and with trepidation when it's in service. Yet, what's happening is that it's just being packed up like so many boxes that go in a U-Haul, which is almost like a “swallowing.”

Ami: Just imagine, the most sacred thing that the whole camp is built around and centered around. Nobody can walk in there. God's cloud hovers there. God speaks to Moshe there. Then, all of a sudden, it's like, "Okay, pack up." Now it's just wood and beams and gold and sticks. And, like you're saying, pack it up in the U-Haul.

Rabbi Fohrman: All right, Ami, very interesting. How do you tie all this together with a bow? Where are you going with this?

Ami: Okay. So now look at that last really strange word, "dissolving" or "swallowing" the Kodesh. What does that remind us of in the story of Korach?

Korach Gets Swallowed by the Earth

Rabbi Fohrman: There you go with the earth again. Right, because the earth swallows these people alive. That's kind of what you opened this podcast with. That really strange thing that God creates out of nowhere. The swallowing of these people alive sort of evokes the swallowing of the Kodesh. The swallowing of the Holy Ones.

Of course, what does Korach want to be? He wants to be the Kadosh, which, strangely, is exactly what Moshe calls him, right? The whole argument is about, “What's the Kadosh, what's the Kadosh? What’s the Holy Ones?” As Moshe says: וְיֹדַע יְקוָה אֶת־אֲשֶׁר־לוֹ וְאֶת־הַקָּדוֹשׁ - God will select the one that is holy for Him (Numbers 16:5). He's going to be that leader, he's going to be that Aaron. And fascinatingly, the Kadosh gets swallowed in the story of Korach as well as in their death. Ami, this is terrific. You get a prize. Give that man a free donut.

Ami: I want to also just read out the textual echoes in the Korach story. Because when Korach and his band of 250 men stand up to Moshe: וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֲלֵהֶם רַב־לָכֶם - They say, “You've got too much going on, Moshe. The entire people, the whole nation are all kedoshim, they're all holy,” וּבְתוֹכָם יְקוָה - God is within them. Those words also, בְתוֹכָם יְקוָה, kind of remind us of the Mishkan as well. God says, וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם - I want to dwell in My Mishkan, in my holy place, among the Children of Israel (Exodus 25:8).

Rabbi Fohrman: Which, by the way, suggests that in the ideal world, God isn't just shochein (dwelling) within the abode of the Kodesh Kodashim. Somehow, through that vicariously at least, He is shochein within all of the people, and it's that sort of democratic egalitarian vision that, at least on the face of it, Korach seems to be trying to uphold, or if not uphold, at least hide behind.

Ami: Right. He's using these words, "We're all kedoshim." Moshe sets up a test for God to show us who's the Kadosh, who's the true Kadosh here, and what happens is that Korach's “kedoshim”, so to speak, get swallowed. וּבָלְעָה אֹתָם וְאֶת־כׇּל־אֲשֶׁר לָהֶם...וַתִּבְלַע אֹתָם. It's that same language of swallowing up. So where we first encounter Kehat's job, we're shown a warning: “Don't let them come so close to the Holy of Holies so that they'll see the Holy being swallowed up and they'll die.”

Rabbi Fohrman: And ironically, once the child of Kehat seeks to become the Holy, then what happens to him is what the job of his family was supposed to do to the Kodesh, to be there to carry it after it is swallowed. He becomes swallowed.

Ami: He becomes the one who's swallowed.

Rabbi Fohrman: If you choose to become the Holy, then what's going to happen to you is you're going to get boxed up in the earth this time and swallowed.

Ami: So we're seeing, here, these...the first time we see Kehat's job there in the Mishkan, they're warned that they should not come to see the Kodesh being swallowed. Then when we see what happens with Korach, the descendant of Kehat, he himself says, “We're the kedoshim, we're the holy ones,” and he gets swallowed. So it's a bit bizarre, it's a bit strange. What are we supposed to make of this? I'm just wondering, do you have any thoughts here, Rabbi Fohrman? Any direction we can go with this?

Rabbi Fohrman: I mean, it's the first time I've seen it, so any thoughts I have are very tentative. It seems like a little bit of a mystery to me, but it feels to me, sort of instinctually, that to understand the resentment of Korach, which, as you say, on the face of it comes from nowhere, it seems like it comes from somewhere. His resentment seems to be linked to the family of Kehat.

Understanding Who Are the Kohathites in the Bible

Rabbi Fohrman: Now, the question is what the nature of that linkage suggests. What light does that shed on his resentment? Is he resentful because he feels that his family has been shortchanged? Is that he feels that the job of being the packers of the Mishkan is somehow inherently problematic and degrading when everyone should be kadosh, when there's this great Holy of Holies which is exclusive and it's our job to take that exclusive thing and make it normal for everyone, the kind of thing that could just be carried around in a box?

So it's almost like our job was to make it normal for everyone. Our job was to make it this thing that everyone could access, that you could just carry, that wouldn't hurt you. So maybe that's the ideal form of the Kadosh. Maybe it's almost an elevating of the role of his family, that what we're doing is the real kedusha (holiness) and what Aharon is doing is fake. He's just one guy in the middle of the Kodesh Kodashim. What we're doing is democratizing everything. What we're doing is taking it, and it's a box, and you can touch it, and you can't die, and it's still the Kodesh and it's still this Godly thing.

Maybe that becomes the paradigm for what the Mikdash really should be, and if you take that out of the Mikdash and transfer it to people, then that means that there's a kind of democratization not just in the structure of the Mishkan but in those who serve the Mishkan.

Ami: So what I hear in that is along the lines of Korach's claim, like the democratization of holiness. Everyone is holy. “Look at me. You think the Mishkan is so holy? I pack it up in a box and carry it on my shoulder. Everyone can have equal access to this.”

Rabbi Fohrman: Well, I wouldn't say that. In other words, that's not a denigrating of the holiness of the Mishkan. It's a...transmogrifying the understanding of holiness. As he says: רַב־לָכֶם כִּי כׇל־הָעֵדָה כֻּלָּם קְדֹשִׁים, that holiness has to be understood in a democratic purview, otherwise it's not holiness. And therefore, the true holiness is the holiness of the U-Haul, not the holiness of the Mishkan as it functions. Because only there does the Godly thing become egalitarian and democratized and available for everyone without dying. Maybe.

Ami: So I'm curious, going back to those original pesukim about Kehat. Why is it dangerous to touch the Kodesh? Why is it dangerous to see the Kodesh get covered? What's the big danger there?

Rabbi Fohrman: What it seems to evoke is that – and again, this maybe is beyond the scope of our talk – but, you know, there's that famous Ramban, Nachmanides, that suggests that the entire enterprise of the Mishkan is a recreation of the Sinai experience. What the Mishkan is fundamentally is a recreation of the mountain, but whereas the mountain was a work of God, the Mishkan was a work of man.

We talked about this length, or I talked about this at length, in an Aleph Beta extended audio course that I recommend to you guys: The Golden Calf, Shattered Tablets and a Calf of Gold. It's a 13-part lecture series with a 250-element chiasm that spans the entire second half of the Book of Exodus at the last three lectures of it, the last three hours of that.

The climax of that chiasm is the link between the mountain and the Mishkan; the man-made structure evokes the God-made structure of the mountain and is even more holy than the mountain. But back at the mountain, you had language too. You had to be careful not to touch lest you die.

So what happens is that the mountain becomes God's embassy in the world. Now, the tricky thing about an embassy is that the embassy looks -- an embassy in New York of Uruguay, it looks like it's a part of New York. It has the same grime of New York. It has the same subway entrance next to it in New York, but it's not a part of New York. Legally, it's a part of Uruguay. That's the way embassies work.

The same thing with the mountain. The mountain looks like a mountain, it feels like a mountain, it touches like a mountain, but if you touch the mountain, you die because it's not part of the world of space and time. It's a world beyond space and time. It's God's embassy in this world.

So God says, "This is really dangerous. In the Mishkan, you can't trust your senses. It looks like regular gold, it looks like regular wood, but you touch it and you die because it's the mountain on wheels. So be really careful.”

The role of Kehat is supposed to be the role of the people who are the most connected to this, who sense the danger of that transition and need to be sensitized to it. Korach is degrading that and instead saying, "No, what this is all about is that it can't hurt you and it shouldn't hurt you and it's best when it doesn't hurt you." It's almost a misunderstanding inversion of his family's heritage.

Ami: So I would say along those lines, Kehat actually is in the most dangerous position of anybody, because Kehat actually carries the Aron HaKodesh (Holy Ark) on their shoulders. Kehat touches the most sacred Kodesh HaKodashim, the Holy of Holies, and they run the biggest risk of the whole thing losing its special, unique status.

So the one thing that keeps them separate from the Kodesh HaKodashim are these bigdei techeilet, this whole ritual of the kohanim covering things so they don't see it. On some level, if you violate that fundamental boundary between human beings and holiness, there's something destructive about it. That boundary needs to be maintained, and Kehat's job is to maintain that boundary. It seems to be exactly that boundary that Korach is railing against.

Rabbi Fohrman: By the way, it's interesting that the תְּכֵלֶת should be the boundary coverer. Do you remember what the Rabbis tell us about the תְּכֵלֶת?

Ami: תְּכֵלֶת...so the Gemara, I believe it's in Menachos, says, “The blue indigo dye is similar to the sea. The sea is similar to the firmament, the Heavens, the sky. And that blue of the sky is somehow similar to God's Throne of Glory (Menachos 48b).”

Rabbi Fohrman: Do you see how that is so evocative, in light of everything that you're talking about here? תְּכֵלֶת is the thing that somehow touches both imminence and transcendence. 

If you look at the snail, there's an interesting thing about it. When you look at it – they have these snails, actually, that you can see in an aquarium – is that they're perfect, perfect camouflage with the sand, which is that you can't distinguish them from the sand. The dye of the chilazon (snail) comes from the dirt in the sand and you just can't tell the difference between that and the earth. Somehow, once you excrete the dye, then the dye magically looks like the ocean which the snail is in, and then that looks like the sky and that looks like the firmament and that looks like the Throne of Holiness.

So what is תְּכֵלֶת ?תְּכֵלֶת is the transition color between the transcendent world and dirt, just regular dirt of our world, the earthy, human, frail existence of dirt and of water and of very, very physical stuff. Therefore, תְּכֵלֶת becomes that which you cover this Ark in, and the Ark, again, is this thing that comes from the transcendent world and is right here and is in our world and it gets covered with תְּכֵלֶת.

Somehow, here are the children of Kehat, lifting up this תְּכֵלֶת and aggrandizing and saying this תְּכֵלֶת is what it's all about, that ability to make that transition and somehow not die. Somehow, there's something in there that leads to Korach's downfall.

Ami: I want to go back to that other Midrash Chazal that you mentioned, that the Rabbis say Korach dressed everyone up in 250 garments of all תְּכֵלֶת. Where did Korach get 250 garments of תְּכֵלֶת from in the desert?

Rabbi Fohrman: Probably from all these בֶגֶד תְּכֵלֶת in the family heirloom. Picking up on that thought, it's almost like, Ami, what did the people of Kehat have their most direct contact with, the Kodesh or the תְּכֵלֶת?

Ami: The תְּכֵלֶת, really.

Rabbi Fohrman: It was the תְּכֵלֶת. So what was the most kodesh thing that they were directly in contact with? The תְּכֵלֶת. So it's almost like they were looking at that and saying, “That's the most amazing thing. That תְּכֵלֶת, that's the most fantastic thing there is. Here, look at this תְּכֵלֶת. Dress everybody up in these robes. Isn't that תְּכֵלֶת the most amazing thing in the world, that thing that can cause this transition from sea to sky to light? That's the best thing in the world. Who cares about the thing that the תְּכֵלֶת covers?” 

So, Ami, you and I have begun...I mean, you've begun to uncover something magnificent here. What it means, I think you and I have just begun to uncover. But I think, with careful sifting, more clues will come. The meaning of the Torah seems to be getting across to us will, again, sort of emerge out of that water and into the sky and take the shape of some sort of Throne of Holy Glory as we begin to see it.

But I think it requires patience, and I would actually offer our listeners out there in Aleph Beta Land, you know, what do you guys think? Look this over, look at the text carefully. Are there any clues that Ami and I have missed? Are there more pieces to this puzzle? There usually are. Let us know what you think.

Ami: Thank you, Rabbi Fohrman. This was a great exploration to do with you.

Rabbi Fohrman: Thank you. Ami, I really have to hand it to you. You're on to something amazing. Beautiful, magnificent, Ami. Thank you so much. 

Credits

This episode was recorded by Ami Silver together with Rabbi David Fohrman. 

When this episode originally aired on Aleph Beta, it was edited by Rivky Stern. 

Into the Verse editing was done by me, Ari Levisohn.

Audio editing was done by Shifra Jacobs.

Our managing producer is Adina Blaustein

Our senior editor is me, Ari Levisohn. 

Thank you so much for listening, and we’ll see you next week.