Edited 2025 FB post
The immensely powerful this-worldly life-saving effect of forgiveness and selflessly risking one's life for the benefit of others:
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Why is Ahron's action able to save the Jewish People from a divinely-instituted plague? (in this week's portion [in Israel], "Korach": Numbers 16,17,18)
How is it that Moses and Ahron try to stop a God-sent plague - how do they dare to interfere in God's Will?
Basically they were using God's 'midah kneged midah' against God's decree.
More explanation:
To understand the question consider the following: When Pharaoh askedf or the plagues to stop, Moses pleaded with God to stop it, Moses did not try to stop it himself. And this happened over and yet each time, even after seeing the God is anwering his requests, Moses never thinks he could somehow stop the plague himself, he continues to ask God that God should do it. Similarly, Moses split the sea, but at God's command that he lift his staff etc. And the same with the water from the rock etc. Always it is God of course carrying out the action directly or via Moses, but not Moses himself (with Ahron) as was the case here, certainly never Moses directly overturning a divine action.
Traditional sources critique Noah in comparison to Avraham, who prayed that God save at least the righteous of Sdom. So one could imagine Noah praying to God that there be no flood or that some others be spared, but not that Noah himself would imagine that he could himself somehow stop the flood waters from rising, when they were rising at God's behest!
Yet this is what effectively occurs in the story in our portion - Moses told Ahron to intervent directly to stop the divinely-sent plague!
1. How could they dare?
2. and why did they succeed?!
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Explanation of the scenario leading to the plague: Korach and his few hundred followers followers accuse Moses and Ahron of taking more honors for themselves than was appropriate, and gather the multitudes of the nation around them. Moses sets up a challenge, asking all to bring their incense pans to the mishkan to see by the next morning which will be answered by God, but when they bring it to the mishkan the glory of God appears and God tells Moses "all the people will die" (ie instead of the test [proposed by Moses). Moses stops God from this action by stating that those who were not directly involved should not suffer (similar to Abraham's plea re the righteous of Sdom).
Moses then implores the People to separate themselves from Korach (to indicate that they were not directly involved and should not die), and states that if a unique method causes Korach and his direct followers to die, if God creates a new phenomenon to cause their deaths, that the Earth should swallow them alive, then this is proof it is from God not coincidence and not a trick by Moses.
The Earth then swallows Korach and his group.
Perhaps one would think that the People would be convinced not to complain against Moses and Ahron anymore, seeing how it caused God's wrath, but later the People complain that Moses and Ahron killed Korach and his followers! (Even after having seen the miraculous manner in which the Earth swallowed them up.)
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So this was the second complaint-accusation against Moses and Ahron:
[i. first was Korach's complaint that Moses and Ahron were guilty of ego-driven honor-seeking;
ii. and now, even after seeing what happened to Korach and his immediate followers, the People as a whole - who were initialy providing some moral support to Korach but then moved away when Moses impored them to - are complaining that Moses and Ahron are causing people to die (when the truth is the opposite, it was Moses' intervention which prevented the deaths of all of the People, limiting it only to Korach and his immediate followers.]
As the People crowd closer in their complaint - and one senses that there is a threat to Moses and Ahron's safety - the cloud of glory of God descends on the temple (mishkan) and Moses and Ahron approach it.
God tells Moses that all the complaining thousands of people will be consumed. God tells Moses and Ahron to separate themselves from the multitude so that God can slay them all. This is similar to what Moses told the people,, to separate themselves from Korach since they were going to die.
And immediately the people begin to die in a plague. There's no opportunity given by God to Moses to pray to annul the decree.
Rather than being relieved at being saved from the angry mob, or being resigned to God's fait accompis, Moses decides to intervene - on his own, not at God's behest! - and instructs Ahron to enter amongst the dying people (with a sacramental element), and we are told dramatically but tersely in Numbers 17:13 that "Ahron stood between the living and the dying and the plague stopped".
In other words, instead of separating themselves from the masses so that God could consume them, they took did the opposite, Ahron actually entered into their midst while theplague was raging, taking upon himself an action to save the people.
It must have been extremely difficult for Moses and Ahron:
i. instead of resenting the people who have falsely accused them and are now physically threatening them, to overcome that resentment and actually want to stop a plague from striking the people threatenig them;
ii. to wade into the threatening crowd rather than run from it because they were potentially violent;
iii. to actually enter into the crowd and stand there while the plague is rolling through (I imagine it as walking from a safe spot on the land into the sea while a tidal wave is rolling in, drowning people as it rolls in, but nevertheless walking towards it, without having any known protection).
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So, now to repeat our question and move to the answer I am offering: If the plague was started by God, why were Moses and Ahron able to stop it - to intervent directly to stop that which was divinely-sent!
As I mentioned above, there are actually two parts to this question:
1. How could they dare?
2. What enabled them to succeed?!
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Answer: I believe the reason is as follows: All throughout his career Moses acts to save the people from the ramifications of their actions, at great self-sacrifice, and without thought of his own 'honor', or desire for his children to be kings instead of the others (as God had promised him would be the case if God destroyed the People for their transgressions).
Of course it was not that Moses was countering God's Will in these cases, but rather it was actually God's 'hope' that Moses would find a way to act to save the people - Moses and Ahron were like angels, ie channels for carrying out God's Will. They understood this, and so they 'dared' to 'thwart' God's plan.
I would propose as a sort of Principle of the operation of the divine-human interaction: that for Moses and Ahron to save the People, it was necessary for them to freely choose to take dangerous action, and specifically action which was the opposite of what they had been accused of - namely to act:
a. with egoless self-sacrifice (ie in order to do the opposite of the first complaint-accusation, that they were operating from ego, to get high positions);
b. to save the lives of the People (ie in order to do the opposite of the second of the complaint-accusations, that they were causing people to be killed.)
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This is a type of anti-karma; God's actions are 'mida kneged midah', divinely institued karmic reaction, and here we can see humans emplying a similar approach: we propose it as a type of Principle: They were able to negate the punishment of others for accusations of: a. ego-driven honor-seeking , and b.causing people to die, by doing exactly the opposite, thus neutralizing the accusation, and by their doing so they were indicating clearly that they forgave the people and wer einterested in saving them rather than the People being punished for their sak.
In this case, the self-sacrifcie involved wading into a hostile crowd through which God's wrath is acting, with people dying in a wave, so that by one's own self, one's body, one stops the plague from advancing (like Ahron saying to God "over my dead body!" without Aaron knowing that he would not himself come to harm by doing this).
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And why was it possible for humans to overcome a divine action, ie to stop the divinely-instituted plague? Because humans are at their core a soul from God, or "the breath of God", as described in Genesis, so when humans operate without ego, there is nothing to block that essence from shining through. This is the source of the power of egoless self-sacrifice. And this is why it is possible to intervene and seemingly counter God's will and succeed - because rather than their actions being 'acting against God's Will" it is in fact the divine essence now shining forth and acting, and this forgiveness by Moses and Ahron, and their direct action taken to save the People from annihilation is of course actually what God preferred should happen, but it required the tremendous ego-overcoming willingness by Moses & Ahron to self-sacrifice to save the lives of those who wanted to kill them.
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Message: Although one cannot demand of everyone this standard in reacting to unjust accusations - being willing to endanger one's life to try to save the lives of those who want to harm you - we can certainly all be inspired to try to emulate these true leaders and real heroic egoless individuals, who took bold self-sacrificing action - involving the negation of that for which they were accused - and doing so for the benefit of their accusers.
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A small defense of Korach and his followers: (there are Traditional sources which do so).
And if not a defense then at least a plea for not being quick to make negative judgements:
We read the story of Korach's rebellion against Moses in what we know is "the Torah which was transmitted via Moses", we even refer to it as "the five books of Moses", and so it is clear to all of us as we read the story that Moses was in the right and Korach in the wrong. However at the time of the events, obviously the Torah-account of Korach had not been given, and also: Korach had not grown up reading the "the five books of Moses" as we have!
So our understanding of Mses being in the right was due to circumstances not avaiable to Korach, and so we cannot simply assume that had WE been there (and not heard of the story as part of the books of Moses) that WE would have made the right choice - we can be more modest in our self-assessment and speculate that maybe WE would have been of the followers of Korach!
So let us always be cautious in judgement.
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Conclusion: Altogether, may we be blessed to pursue our goals in an egoless manner - especially in relation to achieving spiritual goals or fulfilling/religious obligations. When operating without the blinding effect of ego we are essentially acting as the 'breath of God' and will be able to more clearly sense the correct path, and when our free will is choosing to act according to God's Will we become as angels, which Rmabam (Maimonides) explains not exactly as beings but more as manifestations of the actuation of the Will of God acting in the physical realm.
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In the merit of egoless action may we be guided to the right choices, and leverage the power of selfless action to the maximum when rising to the occasion and thereby achieve our true potential to become agents of the carrying out of God's Will.
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Separate commentary:
Edited 2025 FB post
"Strange Fire": Hidden hint in the Hebrew text? Speculative: For advanced readers
A's sons died bec of esh zarah, here says korach wanted ish zar, ktoret and esh.
Then: ה זִכָּרוֹן לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, לְמַעַן אֲשֶׁר לֹא-יִקְרַב אִישׁ זָר אֲשֶׁר לֹא מִזֶּרַע אַהֲרֹן הוּא, לְהַקְטִיר קְטֹרֶת, לִפְנֵי יְהוָה; וְלֹא-יִהְיֶה כְקֹרַח וְכַעֲדָתוֹ, כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר ה בְּיַד-מֹשֶׁה לוֹ.
Two 'strange' passages: Below are the two passage-segments which we will compare. Even without being able to read or understand Hebrew, you can see that the letter-shapes of the key words are the same. See at the end how it is written in the Torah scroll, parshat shmini, and then in parshat korach, where we circled in red the two key words.
1) Lev (Vayikra) 10:1-2: [parshat Shmini]: And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took each of them his censer, and put fire therein, and laid incense thereon, and offered strange fire = אֵשׁ זָרָה before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. And there came forth fire
אֵשׁ = esh = fire
זָרָה = zarah = strange
So two sons of Ahron bring אֵשׁ זָרָה and die in the resulting flash of fire.
Then a third son is tasked by God with what must have been a very fraught activity, as descrived in the second passage:
2) Numbers (Bamidbar) 17:2 , [parshat "Korach"]:
And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 'Speak unto Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, that he take up the fire-pans out of the burning, and scatter thou the fire yonder; for they are become holy;ב אֱמֹר אֶל-אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן-אַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֵן, וְיָרֵם אֶת-הַמַּחְתֹּת מִבֵּין הַשְּׂרֵפָה, וְאֶת-הָאֵשׁ, זְרֵה-הָלְאָה: כִּי, קָדֵשׁוּ.2
אֵשׁ = esh = fire ; זְרֵה = zreh = scatter
See the comma between the two words in the printed version of the Hebrew, corresponding to the meaning in the English translation
take up the fire-pans out of the burning, and scatter thou the fire yonder
better rendered for our purpose as: take up the the fire-pans out of the burning, and the fire [esh] (you should) scatter [zreh].
The Torah version is of course written without punctuaiton, no commas or 'vowel-dots', so the 2-word combination "strange fire" and "fire scatter" as written in these two portions are identical!
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I believe (I'll have to check what the Traditional commentaries might say about this) that the Torah is telling us that Eleazar was very aware of the similarity of the action he was asked to take and that which his brothers had taken, .... Elazar is being asked to take what looks like esh zarah, which killed two of his brothers!This is willingness for self-scrifice, lack of ego. His courage and faith in carrying out the task as commanded helped "fix what his brothers had broken", and this brought great merit to all. In particular, since this was at God's direct command, whereas what his brothers had done was on their own - unwarranted - initiative, it indicated to all that it was not the incense or fire which was dangerous, but rather taking upon oneself the prerogative of some new form of holy worship where this was not mandated by God, and this was meant to heal all from the trauma of seeing the two die that way, to reassure them that they could worship safely.
May we be blessed to have this type of spiitual faith and courage, and to know when to act and when not....
A small defense of Korach and his followers: (there are Traditional sources which do so).
And if not a defense then at least a plea for not being quick to make negative judgements:
We read the story of Korach's rebellion against Moses in what we know is "the Torah which was transmitted via Moses", we even refer to it as "the five books of Moses", and so it is clear to all of us as we read the story that Moses was in the right and Korach in the wrong; however we must keep in mind that at the time of the events, the Torah-account of Korach had not been given and Korach had not grown up reading the "the five books of Moses" as we have!
So we cannot simply assume that had WE been there (and not heard of the story as part of the books of Moses) that WE would have made the right choice - we can be more modest in our self-assessment and speculate that maybe WE would have been of the followers of Korach!
So let us always be cautious in judgement.
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B) A small defense of Korach and his followers, or at least a plea for not being quick to make negative judgements:
When we read the story we need to remember that we are reading in the Torah which was transmitted via Moses, we even refer to it as the five books of Moses, and so it is clear to all of us that Moses was in the right and Korach in the wrong; however at the time of the events, the Torah had not been fully given and Korach had not grown up reading the "the five books of Moses" as we have, and so we cannot simply assume that had WE been there and not heard of the story as part of the books of Moses that WE would have made the right choice, maybe WE would have been of the followers of Korach, so we cannot judge (instead we can only rely on God's judgement).
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C) Swallowing:
Why did Korach and his followers die in this odd manner, and why was a special creation needed?
Connecting:
i) the cows of Pharaoh's dream swallowing the other cows;
ii) the staff of Moses swallowing the rods of the magicians;
iii) the waters of the Sea swallowing the Egyptians;
iV) the Earth swallowing Korach.
Creation & destruction:
The special creation of the Taninim hagdolim during the 6 days of creation;
the tanin of Moses which swallowed those of the Egyptian magicians;
the special creation which Moses summoned to swallow Korah and his followers
Interesting that Korach and his rebels trusted Moses and Ahron enough to agree to their test re the staffs etc. So there was clearly some element of common ground, belief in God and partially in Moses and Ahron.
Seeing Moses perform miracle of staff was asupposed to make Pharaoh remeber yosef and the Pharoah of then, to overcome "P didn;t remeber yosef", via the swallowing, like the cows!
Korach also: the BY were supposed to see it and remember how the sea swallowed pharaoh and then afterwrds everyone accepted Moses as God's emissary, as opposed ot the partial acceptance by Korah.
So the reason for this odd death was not only related to what Korach had done, but also the the effect of seeing it happen was meant to have on those watching - the rest of the jewish people. ie it was all a very public event, and therefore the effect on Korach was public and thus it was necessary for the 'punishment' to have a speficic effect...
seeing it happen was meant to remind them of 'tivlo'emo ka'kash'..and the feeling they had had of "vayaminu b'h uvemosho avdo", like swallowing staff was mant to remind pharaohh
briah....swallow ...earth covered korach as though never was, like sea, like staff swallowed taninim
vayivrah et ha taninim hagdolim, yehi tanin
“Taninim”
As is well known, in relating the creation account the Torah uses three terms: in order
of their implied significance they are:
‘bara’/created (from ‘nothingness’),
“yatzar”/fashioned (from a pre-existing substance)
“asah”/made.
As has been pointed out by the commentators the word for ‘created’ (bara) is used only
for:
Heaven and Earth
Humans
the ‘Tanninim Hagdolim’ (usually translated as “great sea serpents/monsters”
[dinosaurs?])
Heaven and Earth is the initial all-encompassing creation and so the term is appropriate
there. Humans are created in the divine image, unique, and so “creation from nothing”
is appropriate as well: why would this be appropriate for the “taninim”?
Furthermore, what are the taninim hagdolim: is any such animal known today?
Moshe Rabenu (Moses) appeared before Pharaoh during the initiation of the exodus; he
was to make his staff became a tannin, and when he did so it swallowed the ‘taninim’ of
the Egyptian magicians: ie Moses’ staff became “a large tannin”. The sages teach that
on “the sixth day” God created all the miracles used later: perhaps the tanninim
hagdolim were a special creation designed to pave the way for the possibility of Moses’
staff being able to swallow those of the magicians. 8
...
There are passages to support this possibility: eg re Korach: “Im briyah”, a miracle
which involved swallowing others. And creation (the taninim) and the exodus (Moshe
and the Egyptian magicians) are tied to each other: both reveal the glory of God to all,
both are the reason for the Shabbat.
:רמזים לדבר יש גם בפסוקים
שמות ז א: "ויאמר ה' אל משה ראה נתתיך א-להים לפרעה". זוהי אמירה חריגה אך מובנת לאור הנאמר
כאן שמשה משתמש בבריאה חדשה ולכן ה' אומר לו שהוא 'א-להים לפרעה'. (אצל קרח משה אומר "אם
בריאה יברא ה'..." הדבר נעשה על ידי ה' ואצל פרעה הדבר נעשה על ידי משה.)
כמו כן הבריאה המיוחדת אצל קרח הייתה בריאה של 'בליעה' וגם על מטה משה כתוב 'ויבלע'. גם לשון
בליעה הינה רמז להפיכת יש לאין כמו אצל חלומות פרעה שהשיבולים והפרות 'נבלעו' ונעלמו ללא שריד
וזכר. ההפך מבריאה יש מאין. ועוד כתוב: "כי ידבר אליכם פרעה... קח את מטך השלך לפני פרעה יהי
לתנין" (שמות ז ט) לא 'והיה לתנין' אלא 'יהי לתנין' לשון המזכיר את 'יהי אור' לשון מעשה בראשית.
(חרטומי מצרים הפכו מטיהם לתנינים גם כן אולי כחם נבע מכוח בריאת התנינים במעשה בראשית או
שהבריאה המיוחדת הייתה יכולת הבליעה ואת זה לא יכלו החרטומים לעשות.) יתכן שלכן כתוב 'התנינים
הגדולים' משום שיכלו לבלוע את התנינים הקטנים של החרטומים.
שבת הינה זכר למעשה בראשית וגם ליציאת מצרים שהרי דרך הנסים ביציאת מצרים ידעו כל הגוים
שקיים א-להים בורא עולם. חלק חשוב בידיעה זו הייתה הכרתו של פרעה ועמו בה'. הכרה זו באה בחלקה
במעשה התנין של משה שבלע תנינם של החרטומים ואזי שבת הינה גם זכר לנס זה. וזה מקשר בין התנין
שהיה חלק ממעשי בראשית והתנין במצרים ומצביע על הסיבה שהתנין במצרים היה כל כך חשוב שהיה
ראוי לברוא אותו בבריאה מיוחדת במעשה בראשית והיה ראוי להיות נמנה בפירוט מבין הברואים בסיפור
בראשית.
After Korach and his followers accuse Moses and Ahron of taking more honors for themselves than was appropriate, the Earth swallows them (and a fire from God kills some) and then the People complain that Moses and Ahron killed them (so there now two complaint-accusations: ego-driven honor-seeking and causing people to die).
As the People crowd closer in their complaint (and one senses that there is a threat to Moses and Ahron;s safety), the cloud of glory of God descends on the temple (mishkan) and Moses and Ahron approach it.
Via this (revelation), Moses is given to understand that God decided to strike down all the complaining thousands of people with a plague. As they begin to die, rather than being relieved at being saved form the angry mob, Moses instructs Ahron to enter amongst them (with a sacramental element), and we are told dramatically but tersely in Numbers 17:13 that "Ahron stood between the living and the dying and the plague stopped".
It must have been extremely difficult to want to stop a plague from striking down those who are threatening you, and particularly scary to actually wade into the threatening crowd, and to actually stand there while the plague is rolling through (I imagine it as walking from the land into the sea while a tidal wave is rolling in)
Why was the plague stopped this way?
It would seem that it was necessary for Moses and Ahron to take action which was the opposite of what they had been accused of - egoless self-sacrifice to save the lives of the People as the opposite of the two complaint-accusations of ego-driven honor-seeking and causing people to die. In this case, it involved wading into a crowd through which God's wrath is acting, with people dying in a wave, so that by one's own self one stops the plague from advancing (without knowing that this would be the result and that it would not harm him)
Although ordinary people are not expected to react in this way to unjust accusations, we can all be inspired at how these true leaders and real heroic egoless individuals defused the perils caused by an unjust situation by taking bold self-sacrificing action which involves the negation of that for which they were accused.
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Korach:
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MR & A took shelter in the anan (!), but then MR tells A to leave the safety and go to the plague and take ktoret/esh (dangerous!) and A stood between the dead and living and the plague stopped, so A was ready to sacrifice his life for the people who were claiming he had taken the kehuna for ego reasons! this is lack of ego on A's part! so that is how the plague was stopped. And here too Elazar his son is being asked to take incense and enter where the fire was, so it is a willingness to take fraught-seeming action at God's behest
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Korach: Hashem speaks to both M"R and A, like a joint-nevuah, and indeed they repsond as one! do they both say the exact same thing?!:
ס} כ וַיְדַבֵּר ה, אֶל-מֹשֶׁה וְאֶל-אַהֲרֹן לֵאמֹר. כא הִבָּדְלוּ, מִתּוֹךְ הָעֵדָה הַזֹּאת; וַאֲכַלֶּה אֹתָם, כְּרָגַע. כב וַיִּפְּלוּ עַל-פְּנֵיהֶם, וַיֹּאמְרוּ, אֵל, אֱלֹ-י הָרוּחֹת לְכָל-בָּשָׂר: הָאִישׁ אֶחָד יֶחֱטָא, וְעַל כָּל-הָעֵדָה תִּקְצֹף. {ס}
[It is an oddly-abrupt story, truncated (and enclosed by two spaces, 'samech', making it a separate story) , no response form God, almost as if it is saying 'ok, this happened so many times, you already know how it went'.....]
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· Korach re kovod/ga'avah though doesnt use this word, is there a different relvant keyword used? or in another story. look in concordance.
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The spiritual power of selflessly risking one's life for the benefit of others:
Why is Ahron's action able to save the Jewish People from a divinely-instituted plague (in this week's portion [in Israel], "Korach": Numbers 16,17,18)
To explain the question, consider the following: When Pharaoh asked for the plagues to stop, Moses pleaded with God to stop it, Moses did not try to stop it himself. And this happened over and yet each time, even after seeing the God is anwering his requests, Moses never thinks he could somehow stop the plague himself, he continues to ask God that God should do it. SImilarly, Moses split the sea, but at God's command that he lift his staff etc. And the same with the water from the rock etc. Always it is God of course carrying out the action directly or via Moses, but not Moses himself (with Ahron) as was the case here, certainly never Moses directly overturning a divine action.
Another exmaple: Traditional sources critique Noah in comparison to Avraham, who prayed that God save at least the righteous of Sdom. So one could imagine Noah praying to God that there be no flood or that some others be spared, but not that Noah himself would imagine that he could himself, acting on his own, somehow stop the flood waters from rising, when they were rising at God's behest!
Yet this is what effectively occurs in the story in our portion - Moses told Ahron to intervene directly to stop the divinely-sent plague!
1. How could they dare?
2. and why did they succeed?!
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Explanation of the scenario leading to the plague: Korach and his few hundred followers followers accuse Moses and Ahron of taking more honors for themselves than was appropriate, and gather the multitudes of the nation around them. Moses sets up a challenge, asking all to bring their incense pans to the mishkan to see by the next morning which will be answered by God, but when they bring it to the mishkan the glory of God appears and God tells Moses "all the people will die" (ie instead of the test [proposed by Moses). Moses stops God from this action by stating that those who were not directly involved should not suffer (similar to Abraham's plea re the righteous of Sdom).
Moses then implores the People to separate themselves from Korach (to indicate that they were not directly involved and should not die), and states that if a unique method causes Korach and his direct followers to die, if God creates a new phenomenon to cause their deaths, that the Earth should swallow them alive, then this is proof it is from God not coincidence and not a trick by Moses.
The Earth then swallows Korach and his group.
Perhaps one would think that the People would be convinced not to complain against Moses and Ahron anymore, seeing how it caused God's wrath, but later the People complain that Moses and Ahron killed Korach and his followers! (Even after having seen the miraculous manner in which the Earth swallowed them up.)
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So this was the second complaint-accusation against Moses and Ahron:
[i. first was Korach's complaint that Moses and Ahron were guilty of ego-driven honor-seeking;
ii. and now, even after seeing what happened to Korach and his immediate followers, the People as a whole - who were initialy providing some moral support to Korach but then moved away when Moses impored them to - are complaining that Moses and Ahron are causing people to die (when the truth is the opposite, it was Moses' intervention which prevented the deaths of all of the People, limiting it only to Korach and his immediate followers.]
As the People crowd closer in their complaint - and one senses that there is a threat to Moses and Ahron's safety - the cloud of glory of God descends on the temple (mishkan) and Moses and Ahron approach it.
God tells Moses that all the complaining thousands of people will be consumed. God tells Moses and Ahron to separate themselves from the multitude so that God can slay them all. This is similar to what Moses told the people,, to separate themselves from Korach since they were going to die.
And immediately the people begin to die in a plague. There's no opportunity given by God to Moses to pray to annul the decree.
The intervention: Rather than being relieved at being saved from the angry mob, or being resigned to God's fait accomplis, Moses decides to intervene - on his own, not at God's behest! - and instructs Ahron to enter amongst the dying people (with a sacramental element), and we are told dramatically but tersely in Numbers 17:13 that "Ahron stood between the living and the dying and the plague stopped".
In other words, instead of separating themselves from the masses so that God could consume them, they did the opposite, Ahron actually entered into their midst while the plague was raging, taking upon himself an action to save the people.
It must have been extremely difficult for Moses and Ahron:
i. Not resenting the people who have falsely accused them and are now physically threatening them;
ii. Not just to overcome that resentment but to actually want to stop a plague from striking the people threatenig them;
ii. To wade into the threatening crowd rather than run away because they were potentially violent;
iii. To actually enter into the crowd while the plague is rolling through (I imagine it as walking from a safe spot on the land into the sea while a tidal wave is rolling in, drowning people as it rolls in, but nevertheless walking towards it, without having any known protection).
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So, now to repeat our question and move to the answer I am offering: If the plague was started by God, why were Moses and Ahron able to stop it - to intervent directly to stop that which was divinely-sent!
As I menitoned above, there are actually two parts to this question:
1. How could they dare?
2. What enabled them to succeed?!
Answer: I believe the reason is as follows: All throughout his career Moses acts to save the people from the ramifications of their actions, at great self-sacrifice, and without thought of his own 'honor', or desire for his children to be kings instead of the others (as God had promised him would be the case if God destroyed the People for their transgressions).
Of course it was not that Moses was countering God's Will in these cases, but rather it was actually God's 'hope' that Moses would find a way to act to save the people - Moses and Ahron were like angels, ie channels for carrying out God's Will. They understood this, and so they 'dared' to 'thwart' God's plan.
I would propose also that for Moses and Ahron to save the People, it was necessary for them to freely choose to take dangerous action, and specifically action which was the opposite of what they had been accused of - namely to act:
a. with egoless self-sacrifice (ie in order to do the opposite of the first complaint-accusation, that they were operating from ego, to get high positions);
b. to save the lives of the People (ie in order to do the opposite of the second of the complaint-accusations, that they were causing people to be killed.)
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God's actions are 'mida kneged midah', divinely institued karmic reaction, and here we can see humans understading this and therefore employing a thematically-similar approach. In order to negate the divinely-ordained punishment of others for accusations of: a. ego-driven honor-seeking and b.causing people to die, the accues - Moses and Ahron - do exactly the opposite, thus neutralizing the accusation. In this case, it involved wading into a hostile crowd through which God's wrath is acting, with people dying in a wave, so that by one's own self, one's body, one stops the plague from advancing (like Ahron saying to God "over my dead body!") without Aaron or Moses knowing that they would not themselves come to harm by doing this. As with the plague of the firstborn in Egypt, the Jews were bidden by God to hide indoors lest they too be smitten, even though the plague was intended to help them by killing those who were opressing and enslaving them! Noone is totally blameless, and in times when divine judgement is meted out, it is best to not assume one is fully rigthous enough to merit escaping what is befalling others. So too Moses and Ahron were being saved from a hostile mob via plague from God, and they certianly could not assume that the wrath that had been unleashed would not consume them as well.
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And why was it possible for humans to overcome a divine action, ie to stop the divinely-instituted plague?
Firstly, because God was causing them to die for flasely accusing Moses and Ahron, and it was therefore given to Moses and Ahron to defuse that punishment - and they did this by countering accusations of selfishness by taking selfless action to benefit their accusers!
Secondly: Because humans are at their core a soul from God, or "the breath of God", as described in Genesis, so when humans operate without ego, there is nothing to block that essence from shining through. This is the source of the power of egoless self-sacrifice.
And this is why it is possible to intervene and seemingly counter God's will and succeed - because rather than their actions being "acting against God's Will" it is in fact the divine essence now shining forth and acting.
And of coursethis action taken to save the People from annihilation is of course actually what God preferred should happen, but it required the tremendous ego-overcoming willingness by Moses & Ahron to self-sacrifice to save the lives of those who wanted to kill them.
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Message: Although one cannot demand of everyone this standard in reacting to unjust accusations - being willing to endanger one's life to try to save the lives of those who want to harm you - we can certainly all be inspired to try to emulate these true leaders and real heroic egoless individuals, who took bold self-sacrificing action - involving the negation of that for which they were accused - and doing so for the benefit of their accusers.
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Conclusion: Altogether, may we be blessed to pursue our goals in an egoless manner - especially in relation to achieving spiritual goals or fulfilling/religious obligations. When operating without the blinding effect of ego we are essentially actng as the 'breath of God' and will be able to more clearly sense the correct path.
In the merit of egoless action may we be guided to the right choices, and leverage the power of selfless action to the maximum when rising to the occasion, and thereby achieve our true potential to become agents of the carrying out of God's Will.