Korach 5771 Kabbalat Torah Class 2011 Adam Gibbor, Annabel Marmor, Billie Hubble, Helen Aaron, Josh Powell, Lauren Keiles, Sydney Levy and Xander Mindel 25 June 2011

This week’s parasha, Korach, tells of the rebellion of Korach, Dathan and Abiram, together with 250 other leading Israelites, against the leadership of Moses and Aaron. They accuse Moses and Aaron of lording over the community. Moses then tells them to bring fire pans and incense to the tent of meeting and to allow God to decide who is meant to lead the Israelites. They all go to the tent of meeting with fire pans full of incense. God then speaks to Aaron and Moses and tells them to step away from the congregation so that God can destroy them.

There are two main disputes in this parasha. The first dispute is between Korach and Aaron the priest. Korach and Aaron are both Levites and therefore Korach feels that he should be entitled to the same benefits as Aaron, such as speaking with God and performing sacrifices. He also feels that Aaron has been chosen as priest by Moses only because he is his brother. Although on the surface it may seem as though Korach is looking for equality within the community, in reality he is looking to undercut Moses and take the priesthood for himself. The second dispute comes from Dathan and Abiram against Moses. They accuse him of bringing the Israelites out of a land flowing with milk and honey to die in the wilderness. Although these two disputes are very different- Dathan and Abiram wanting to overthrow Moses (the political leader) and Korach wanting to overthrow Aaron (the spiritual leader)- they both show the same intent to stir up a rebellion and to force a change in leadership.

Whilst this portion gives reasons for why Korach, Dathan and Abiram rose up against Moses and Aaron there is still one question left. Why did the 250 chieftains, respected leaders, join the rebellion? The most likely answer comes from Psalms 106:16-18 where it tells that there was envy of Moses and Aaron in the camp, and jealousy caused the 250 to rise up against Moses and Aaron.

So a core message of this portion is the danger of being power hungry and the corruption of jealousy within a community. Korach was jealous of Aaron’s position and wanted it for himself. If Korach had not rebelled against Moses and Aaron, would Dathan, Abiram and 250 of the chieftains still have risen up? However, was it better that they rise up now than allow jealousy to grow over the years? Perhaps then there would have been a much larger, more aggressive rebellion that would have been much harder to stop and could have done real lasting damage to the community.

Perhaps this Torah portion teaches us to recognize that everyone in our community has a very valuable role to play. This includes accepting that it is necessary to have a leader, someone to turn to, who takes this vital responsibility in leading and guiding our community. Without a leader the community would be in chaos, there would be too many conflicting ideas for any decisions to be made. A leader is a vital part of a community, but although they make important decisions, they are still no more important than the rest of the community.

Korach would not be a good community leader, he was too ambitious and greedy. By starting a rebellion against the leaders and not simply going over to talk to them he shows that he is only looking out for himself and not for the rest of the community - like a true leader should. His ambition is worrying about whether being a Levite is not enough. If he were to become priest, what next? Surely his ambition and lust for power would mean that he would never stop seeking more power, and as we see countlessly repeated in history, this never ends well.

We must also make sure that we all help to keep our community alive, that we value each and every member and their contributions, and that we support those in need. We must also respect every member and recognise the vital role that we all play. This is very much the case in our KT group and one of the main reasons why we chose community as the theme for our KT service. We define community as a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests and goals. The sense of a community can be provided by a religious organization and this is strongly illustrated in our Shul. As with any community, in our small KT community we have distinct roles.

Sydney is the butt of all the jokes in our class. She is always late but always makes an entrance. She is also asks the questions that no one else would ever think of asking.

Annabel is the girly girl of the group. Always giggling, always happy and always holding a Costa. She is Sydney’s sidekick in crime.

With Lauren synagogue is always a cabaret. With her showbiz personality she is a ray of sunshine to the group. Lauren can always make everyone laugh and she is a great friend to us all. If you ever need someone to cheer you up, give Lauren a call! 

Adam, over the many years we have known you, you have become more and more confident and as a consequence of this, we have found you more and more funny.

Xander: the adventurous one of the group, always listening to his iPod, he takes on the role of being the rapper of the group. Always friendly, Xander you’re a great part of our group.

Josh: what can we say? You’re the best at Hebrew, the best in class, and the glue who holds us all together. You are forever cracking jokes and always the only one laughing at them.

Billie: you’re clever, dramatic and always smiling! Although you joined late, you slotted in perfectly and are now a vital member of ‘our KT’ community.

Helen: in our group we have never met a more passionate person and we love you for this. You have a strong sense of right and wrong and you always speak up for the rights of animals and people. This personality is enhanced by your sarcastic sense of humour which is constantly making us laugh.

We feel that these roles bring us closer as a group and have made us enjoy coming to cheder and KT every Saturday morning for the last 10 years. Over our Kabbalat Torah year we have seen our community grow. First of all we have our teachers Rabbi Aaron, Rabbi Hillel, Rabbi Sandra, Dalya Manches and our Jewish Studies GCSE teacher Lorna Pearl. Together they have slaved away trying to get us ready not only to lead this service, but a Friday night service and two GCSE exams!

During this year we also had the pleasure of going away to Prague and Amsterdam. Here we added other members to our community. During the trip to Prague we had the pleasurable company of the South Bucks KT group and Rabbi Rachel, who for many of us was the assistant rabbi here when we went to the Gan. This trip was very emotional as we visited sites such as Terezin, the ghetto in Kolin and most importantly the Jewish cemetery where we could remember all our ancestors that were murdered in the Holocaust.

In Amsterdam we were joined by the Kt class of Brighton and their Rabbi Elli Tikvah Sarah. We travelled around Amsterdam and visited some of the most interesting and thought provoking sites in Jewish history. In particular Anne Frank’s house was a very emotional experience for everyone, seeing the cramped conditions that she and a few other families endured for years.

As the last words of our KT year we turn to the words of our emeritus Rabbi who manages to sum up a community: ‘For it is in relation with others that we discover ourselves, and in making common cause with a group larger than ourselves and our immediate family that we find meaning, purpose and happiness. Let us then strive to strengthen our sense of community, with our own people, the House of Israel, and with the larger human family.’