{"id":83202,"date":"2020-11-10T17:27:18","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T15:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=83202"},"modified":"2020-11-10T17:27:18","modified_gmt":"2020-11-10T15:27:18","slug":"the-sons-of-korah-were-saved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-sons-of-korah-were-saved\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sons of Korah Were Saved"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/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":[],"acf":{"old_id":"83202","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":46656,"related_cahpter":"609","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"And good thing too!\u00a0\r\n\r\n","content":"

Psalm 42 marks the first of a series of psalms attributed to the sons of Korah. We mostly know of Korah\u2019s family through the episode, related in the Book of Numbers, of Korah\u2019s failed attempt to overthrow Moses. The outcome of that failed rebellion was that Korah and 250 of his followers were swallowed up by the earth and consumed by fire. But we are told in Numbers 26:11, that \u201cKorah\u2019s sons did not die.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Our sages are split on precisely when Korah\u2019s sons were saved. Some, including Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch, contend that they broke ranks with their father before the definitive acts of rebellion that ended with the earth opening, and they were completely spared of that fate. Rashi on the other hand, as well as the Talmud (Megillah 14:1) hold that Korah\u2019s sons did accompany their father into rebellion, were swallowed up by the earth, but \u201cnot entirely\u201d. According to this account, it was at that moment that the sons experienced perfect clarity, cried out in anguish, and were saved by the hand of God.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rabbi Shmuel Silber (Institute for Jewish Continuity), in his explanation of\u00a0 Psalm 42, points to the Rambam\u2019s teaching that the first step to repentance is \u201c<\/span>hirhur teshuva<\/span><\/i>\u201d, the cognitive, emotional and spiritual process of recognizing that something, even if you can\u2019t articulate what that something is, needs to change. Something is not right. That, says Rambam, is what Korah\u2019s sons experienced on route to the fiery pits of the earth.<\/span><\/p>\n

Malbim posits that this psalm is thematically about exile, a key cause of which is divisiveness, and that Korah\u2019s sons\u2019 revelation was a recognition of where divisiveness, in this rebellion and in the future, would lead the Jewish nation. They may have had their moment of <\/span>hirhur teshuva<\/span><\/i> too late to stop the attempted overthrow (which, it turns out was fine because God took care of that), but not too late to change the course of history.\u00a0 Says Rabbi Hirsch, \u201cThis seed of Korah produced some of the most forceful and brilliant supporters and advancers of the work begun by God through Moses, which Korah had intended to destroy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This psalm is classified as a <\/span>maskil <\/span><\/i>(42:1), which, according to Hirsch, indicates that it contains a message of enduring importance. The sheer power to change the world, in recognizing and articulating that something is not right, and change is needed, whether personally or nationally, as demonstrated by the sons of Korah, is indeed a message of enduring importance.<\/span><\/p>\n

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