ויקח קרח, “Korach took, etc.” Korach acquired people, sympathisers; which people did he acquire specifically?Datan and Abiram, sons of Eliav, as well as On ben Pelet, members of the tribe of Reuven, other discontents. The letter ו in the word ודתן is superfluous, but there are numerous such letters ו in similar situations.

Compare one in Genesis 46,9 ובני ראובן חנוך ופלוא. Pelet and Phalu are identical, Eliav being the son of latter. We know this from Numbers 26,8. Seeing that the Torah previously had written in Numbers 14,35: במדבר הזה יתמו ושם ימותו, “in this desert they will be consumed, there they will die,” the Torah here explains why some of them died as the result of other specific occurrences, not just the sin of the spies. These people were quite numerous, including the twenty four thousand who died during the last year of the wanderings at Shittim as a result of sleeping with Moabite women and having worshipped the deity, Baal Peor of those women. Not a single one of the adult males who had left Egypt and who were alive during that debacle survived the march through the desert. (Numbers 26,64)

ויקומו לפני משה, ”they orchestrated an uprising against Moses;” Korach’s specific complaint was that seeing that he was the firstborn of his father’s sons, (Exodus 6,21) Aaron instead had been given preferential treatment. Datan, Abiram and On were angry that their tribe had been deprived of the status that should have been accorded to the firstborn of Yaakov their founding father, and that status had been accorded to Joseph and his descendants instead. They believed that this was due to the fact that Joshua from the tribe of Ephrayim, Joseph’s son, had been chosen by Moses to be his closest disciple and valet, the whole tribe had been promoted to special status. They also considered that the leaders of the various tribes had been chosen as they were each firstborns, and that therefore it was clear that their tribe had been deliberately demoted. (Ibn Ezra) Proof that this was their complaint can be seen from Numbers 17,25, where the Torah reports that finally, when Aaron’s staff, i.e. a representative of the tribe of Levi, brought forth a bud that developed into almonds, the Torah reports that these kinds of complaints ceased. They finally realised that G-d had chosen the tribe of Levi rather that Yaakov’s firstborn son Reuven, i.e. that the system of allocating spiritual and material advantages to the firstborn had been replaced by a system of hereditary spiritual background, such as G-d’s having chosen the descendants of three proven patriarchs as His “firstborn” people, a message relayed to Pharaoh at the beginning of Moses’ career. [some of these words are mine. Ed.] On the other hand, Korach rebelled against what appears to be the message of Exodus 13,2, that all the firstborn are to be sanctified, i.e. they were not holy through birth, and he claimed that the entire people of Israel, ever since they had accepted the Torah had become holy, as all had participated in the revelation at Mount Sinai.

ואנשים מבני ישראל חמשים ומאתים, “together with another two hundred and fifty men from various sections among the Israelites.” He selected twenty three from each tribe excluding members from his own tribe; the reason that he chose the number twenty three was that that number constituted the number of judges required to deal with sins involving capital punishment. Each tribe had a high court comprising that number of judges. If you remove Datan, Aviram and On, you have a total of 253 rebels, not counting the leader. At this juncture, Rashi comments that all these men garbed themselves in prayer shawls made entirely of blue wool. They supposedly challenged Moses by asking if those prayer shawls required fringes, tzitzit. When Moses ruled that they did require fringes, they started ridiculing him and his Torah, by arguing that if a whole garment can be fit to wear by adding a single strand of blue wool, it was nonsensical to disallow these prayer shawls that consisted exclusively of blue wool. Some commentators claim that Korach used this commandment as it was the one most recently written in the Torah. Korach used that commandment as something to challenge Moses with. (Tanchuma Korach section 2.)

קריאי עדה, “elect men of the assembly.” They had been called out to serve in the Tabernacle.

כי כל העדה כולם קדושים, “for the entire congregation are all holy.” Korach was referring to the firstborn of each family. (Ibn Ezra). He based himself of Exodus 13,2. It follows that it is the firstborn who have the duty and the privilege to perform the service in the Tabernacle.

וישמע משה, “Moses heard;” he understood that Korach’s rebellion was aimed at usurping the position of his brother Aaron, the High Priest.

ויפול על פניו, “he fell upon his face;” he was ashamed and put his face on the ground in order to offer a prayer. He hoped to receive a revelation from G-d how to confront this challenge.

קחו לכם מחתות, “take censers for yourselves.” It did not occur to Moses that these rebels would take him up on this, after all it was well known to all that anyone offering incense who had not been authorised to do so would die at the hands of G-d, as had even Aaron’s own two elder sons. Seeing that Korach challenged Moses with uncalled for accusations pulled out of thin air, Moses retaliated with equally ridiculous sounding answers, answers that he thought would be challenged instead of being taken seriously.

ויאמר משה אל קרח, “Moses said to Korach, etc.;” his first words were addressed to Korach and his immediate followers, i.e. fellow Levites.

ויקרב אותך ואת אחיך, “and He has brought you near as well as your fellow Levites after you. Korach was a grandson of Kehat, who was one of the Levites charged with carrying the Holy Ark on their shoulders, a privilege reserved only for Kehat and his offspring but not for other Levites. They were also the head of the Levites performing the songs in the Tabernacle as spelled out in Chronicles I16,5.

ובקשתם גם כהונה, “and you also demand a share in the priesthood?”

לכן, “therefore,” i.e. since you have also demanded to have the status of priests;

הנועדים על ה, “you, the ones who have joined together against the Lord;” you have gathered today and you will see G-d’s response tomorrow;

כי תלונו, “because you have complained;” this word normally should have been spelled with the letter י instead of the letter ו in the middle. [Our author, when making these observations merely points out that the spelling is not a scribe’s error. He does not engage in speculations of why the Torah deviated from the norm. Ed.] The word is read as if it had been spelled: תלינו.

לא נעלה, “we will not go up [to face Moses]. This does not mean that Moses stood on an elevated platform, but is a standard expression when people are asked to appear before a judge or judges. Our author quotes Deuteronomy 25,7, as well as Judges 4,5, and Ruth 4,1, as proof of his interpretation. In each instance the verb עלה is used for people appearing at a court.

כי תשתרר עלינו גם השתרר, “but you have also imposed a dictatorship over us!” According to Rash’bam, the Torah uses the word גם, usually translated as “also,” both positively and negatively, i.e. as a continuation of something previous, or as an abrupt opposite of something previously stated. Our verse is an example of Datan and Abiram using it in the latter sense as if asking: “are you now going to also (even) act as dictator? Exodus 12,32 is such an example where the Pharaoh who had railed against Moses and Aaron all the time, suddenly makes a 180 degree turn by pleading for Moses to bless him also when offering sacrifices to the Jewish G-d. Numbers 22,33, is another such example where the angel who had not killed anyone tells Bileam that he would have killed not only his ass but also Bileam if he had been at liberty to do so.

העיני האנשים ההם תנקר, “will you gouge out the eyes of these men?” The verse is to be understood as a question, not as a statement, the authors expressing their astonishment that Moses hoped to get away with misleading the people with such trick. They themselves could certainly not be fooled by him, someone who had so utterly failed in his so-called mission up to now. They expressed wonder that the eyes of the Jewish people should have been fooled thus far, it looked to them as if these people had been blind all the time. [They were clearly the greatest demagogues up to that time! Ed.] Now, instead of making good on these promises, he had decreed that a whole generation of Israelites were to perish in this desert! They would not appear in front of him to be judged by him, he had lost all credence as a leader.

אל תפן אל מנחתם, “do not turn to their gift offering!” The reason why Moses cursed Datan and Abiram, by asking G-d not to accept their offering if any, was because even assuming, as he did, that they would not retract even if G-d were to say, as He did, that He had chosen Aaron and not Moses, they would still challenge the hereditary nature of the priesthood;Korach and his followers, on the other hand, by each taking the censers in which to offer incense outside the Tabernacle, did not challenge the priesthood itself, only Aaron’s appointment as High Priest. Therefore he did not ask G-d not to accept the incense of these 250 men.

לא חמור אחד מהם נשאתי, “I have not appropriated a single donkey from anyone of them;” this remark by Moses is relevant to verse three, when he and Aaron had been accused of having elevated himself above the people. The vocalization of the word חמור corresponds to the plain meaning of the verse, whereas according to Rashi’s interpretation the word echad should have been achad, “one of,” as in Genesis 26,10.

נשאתי, an expression meaning “I have taken.” It occurs in this sense also in Samuel II 5,21: וישאם דוד ואנשיו, “and David and his men took them.”

ולא הרעותי את אחד מהם, “and I have not done wrong to a single one of them.” Moses referred to the fact that Datan and Abiram had betrayed him to Pharaoh for killing the Egyptian who had first killed an Israelite without provocation. (Exodus 2,112,15)

ואכלה אותם כרגע, “so that I may consume them in a moment;” if you were to ask that we have a rule that punishment must not be meted out unless preceded by a warning, Moses had warned them in the name of G-d when he had said to them to come up for judgment in the presence of the Lord on the following morning together with Aaron in verse 16. However, Korach had not complied. This is why G-d could be angry at them without delay, seeing that Korach. instead of complying with G-d’s instruction had assembled the whole congregation as per verse 19, in order to get the maximum publicity value out of his rebellion. As a result, G-d was justified in carrying out sentence immediately. The participants and guilty people had already all been warned. (17,10)

אלוקי הרוחות לכל בשר, “O G-d, Spirit of flesh, etc.;” Moses refers to the fact that G-d has knowledge of our innermost thoughts at all times. As a result, He surely knows who is guilty and who is not. G-d tells him that he is quite correct and that is why He tells him now for the innocent to stand back and demonstrate their innocence. All he had to do is to tell people to remove themselves from Korach’s tent.

האיש אחד יחטא, shall one man sin, etc.;” the letter ח in the word אחד has the vowel kametz, to teach you that it is not something unusual for a human being to commit a sin; if there was something surprising here, it was that apparently G-d would therefore be angry at the whole congregation that man was a part of.

בכל חטאתם, “in all their sins.” A better translation would be: “on account of their many sins.”

לעשות את כל המעשים האלה, “to perform all these works.” I have tested them by the manner in which they related to the incense, as I have said, when I gave you a chance to compete against Aaron, each of you with his own censer. An alternate interpretation: to show if the priests could be exchanged for the Levites. (Ibn Ezra)

ואם בריאה יברא ה, “but if the Lord will create a new phenomenon, etc.;” these words do not refer to “earth,” seeing that since the first six days of creation, according to our sages (in Avot 5,6) no such new phenomenon had been created. Scripture itself is witness to this statement when the Torah wrote in Numbers 16,30 in our chapter that the earth, i.e. an existing phenomenon, would open earth, i.e. an its mouth. Furthermore the Torah had written already in connection with Kayin (Genesis 4,11) that the earth did open its mouth. This is clear proof that the “mouth” of the earth and its function already existed. What Moses meant was the following: if a new phenomenon which had never been observed until now, namely the descent of fully alive human beings into the bowels of the earth, will occur, this will be proof, etc.

ואת כל האדם אשר לקרח “and any human being siding with Korach, etc.” the expression: כל האדם, is somewhat puzzling at this point. It cannot refer to adult members of Korach’s family, as these had repeatedly been referred to as איש; we must therefore assume that it refers to his wife and minor children as well as to his servants and entourage. The Torah states specifically that Korach’s sons (adults?) did not die; compare Numbers 26,11.

וירדו הם, “they descended, they;” the reason that these people, not Korach’s family or household members, but sympathisers, over and beyond the two hundred and fifty people mentioned at the beginning of this episode. descended into the bowels of the earth also. The word: הם is a limitation, excluding the two hundred and fifty men who had offered incense, seeing they had done so at the invitation of Moses. Although they had been totally wrong, their motivation was noble so that they died by being burned on the spot, but presumably were buried with honours, just as their censers were used as covers for the altar subsequently. (Numbers 17,3) The people who had not followed Moses’ advice, were the ones that descended into the bowels of the earth. [Actually, of Datan and Aviram the Torah reports that they were burned to death (and that they descended into the bowels of the earth. Deut. 11.6)

נסו לקולם, “they fled when hearing their sounds”. This is a reference to the outcries of the people being swallowed by the earth. We know of a parallel in Jeremiah 49,21: מקול נפלם רעשה כל הארץ, “at the sound of their downfall the whole earth will shake.”