{"id":47599,"date":"2019-01-15T18:33:23","date_gmt":"2019-01-15T16:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=47599"},"modified":"2022-08-10T18:15:11","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T15:15:11","slug":"the-value-of-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-value-of-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"The Value Of Difference"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In this chapter, we learn that the Levites will have no land specifically assigned to them in the land of Israel. Instead, they will serve God in the Temple and God will be their portion. The people of Israel will bring them the sacrifices and the fruits of their assigned portions of land as gifts (18:20).<\/span><\/p>\n

Is this difference \u2013 this specific destiny \u2013 something to be celebrated by the Levites? Their closeness to God, the freedom from working the land and tending the livestock, their centrality among the children of Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Or is this difference something to be mourned? \u00a0No land that belongs to the Levites alone; none of the satisfaction in sowing and reaping, bringing first fruits; all the demands and the responsibilities attendant on the service of God in the Temple?<\/span><\/p>\n

Is this difference between the Levites and the other tribes merely descriptive, or is value-laden? What do we make of social difference?<\/span><\/p>\n

The last few chapters have been deeply concerned with differences and what they amount to. Miriam and Aaron speak about Moses, and God becomes angry, reproving them for not understanding that Moses is different, his order of prophecy is different, he cannot be judged as any other prophet.<\/span><\/p>\n

Korach and his party then come to challenge the authority of Moses but this time, the confrontation positions Aaron on the side of privilege and power, the very same Aaron who had just been positioned on the other side of this debate. \u201cThe entire assembly is holy,\u201d Korach argues, \u201cwhy are you elevating yourselves above them?\u201d (16:3) Why is it that Aaron should be High Priest and that the Levites have claimed such power for themselves?<\/span><\/p>\n

Abuses of power are one thing. Fair to say that they are wrong and should be curbed. But what if we are not looking at an abuse? What does it mean to be distinguished for a different path? To be selected for something? What does it mean not to be selected for something?<\/span><\/p>\n

Aaron asks this about Moses; then Korach turns around to ask it about Aaron. <\/span><\/p>\n

And we, the children of Israel, contemporary Jews, might ask it of ourselves. A people separated: what does this mean? What is to be celebrated? What is to be mourned?<\/span><\/p>\n

Does difference necessarily imply a dynamic of power in which to be different is to be less or to be more than another?<\/span><\/p>\n

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