{"id":50376,"date":"2019-02-27T11:03:22","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T09:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=50376"},"modified":"2022-08-07T11:01:34","modified_gmt":"2022-08-07T08:01:34","slug":"where-korach-was-right-and-where-he-was-dead-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/where-korach-was-right-and-where-he-was-dead-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Korach Was Right, And Where He Was Dead Wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[480,794,402],"acf":{"old_id":"50376","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33859,"related_cahpter":"133","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"He got the holiness of the people right, but was tragically misguided about the nature of leadership","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Korach was absolutely right about the nature of the Jewish people. They are all holy; the mitzvah of tzitzit just given testifies to that. In fact, when you look carefully, even the first test devised by Moses supports Korach&#8217;s thesis. You might have expected that the result of the test was supposed to be something akin to the result of the test of the staffs in chapter 17, in which Aaron&#8217;s staff is treated uniquely. Presumably, &#8216;the one whom God chooses&#8217; would be represented by the one for whom heavenly fire descends.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Truly, all the congregation is holy, and heavenly fire descends for all of them. And in the opening verses of chapter 17, God tells Moses that the frying pans used by Korach&#8217;s congregation need to be taken and made part of the altar, for <\/span><b>they have become <\/b><b><i>holy. <\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Apparently, even service by non-priests has religious significance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There was one small hitch, which cost the 250 holy Jews who offered incense their lives, as it cost the priests Nadav and Avihu their lives in very similar circumstances.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Korach was right about the people, but he was absolutely wrong about the nature of Jewish leadership, and this was a fundamental error he shared with Datan and Aviram. For them, leadership is above the people, it is a form of <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">serara<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>,<\/em> of lording over the people. The special privileges leaders receive are testament to this elevated stature.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The correct model is the exact opposite. As Rabban Gamliel expresses it when offering a job to two rabbis: &#8220;It is not lordship I offer you, it is servitude!&#8221; Of course, it is lordship as well; it is power, and privilege. But when that is a person&#8217;s goal, or if it turns into their primary motivation, leadership becomes self-destructive. Barely a week goes by without a headline which proves that, eventually, hubris brings this about even absent heavenly fire.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you read the text closely, you&#8217;ll notice that it never says that Aaron himself offers incense. When does he? Only when instructed by Moses to save precisely those people who were stubbornly insisting on their rebellion against these two leaders with the harshest of accusations. Offering incense for the sake of proving status would have killed Aaron as well, as his sons&#8217; tragic experience proved. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Privileges are granted to leaders <\/span><b>only<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by the merit of, and in the service of, the people.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":57693,"id":57693,"title":"isam12-leadership","filename":"isam12-leadership.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam12-leadership.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/true-leadership\/isam12-leadership\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"isam12-leadership","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":57690,"date":"2019-06-18 19:46:42","modified":"2022-08-07 08:01:32","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":268,"height":188,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam12-leadership-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam12-leadership.jpg","medium-width":268,"medium-height":188,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam12-leadership.jpg","medium_large-width":268,"medium_large-height":188,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam12-leadership.jpg","large-width":268,"large-height":188,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam12-leadership.jpg","1536x1536-width":268,"1536x1536-height":188,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam12-leadership.jpg","2048x2048-width":268,"2048x2048-height":188,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam12-leadership.jpg","post_full_size-width":268,"post_full_size-height":188,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam12-leadership.jpg","home_baner-width":268,"home_baner-height":188}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Where Korach Was Right, And Where He Was Dead Wrong","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"He got the holiness of the people right, but was tragically misguided about the nature of leadership","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":57693,"id":57693,"title":"isam12-leadership","filename":"isam12-leadership.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam12-leadership.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/true-leadership\/isam12-leadership\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"isam12-leadership","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":57690,"date":"2019-06-18 19:46:42","modified":"2022-08-07 08:01:32","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":268,"height":188,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam12-leadership-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam12-leadership.jpg","medium-width":268,"medium-height":188,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam12-leadership.jpg","medium_large-width":268,"medium_large-height":188,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam12-leadership.jpg","large-width":268,"large-height":188,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam12-leadership.jpg","1536x1536-width":268,"1536x1536-height":188,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam12-leadership.jpg","2048x2048-width":268,"2048x2048-height":188,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam12-leadership.jpg","post_full_size-width":268,"post_full_size-height":188,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam12-leadership.jpg","home_baner-width":268,"home_baner-height":188}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50376"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50376"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107043,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50376\/revisions\/107043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}