Korach, קֹרַח  "Korach"  Numbers 16:1-18:32

Korach: We Will Preserve The Name

Poetic notes on the parashat Korach*

When high aspirations

lead into a deep pit

Do not fault the aspirations

if the base of your ladder

is placed right at the mouth of the pit

A man and a woman

aspire to the pinnacle of love…

If a lover is an aggressor,

love kills love

Korach’s love aggressively pursued

the delicate Shechinah

And so he killed

his relationship with her

But still, we will preserve his name?

We will give the name of Korach a special place?

The heart of God is very tender

It is vulnerable to assault

An evil inclination took Korach by the throat of pride

How can we violate the open heart of God?

Will we not destroy our own soul?

Having taken liberties with God,

what remedy could Korach’s soul have?

Dathan and Abiram thought to dominate Moses

What reconciliation with the soul of Moses

could the souls of Dathan and Abiram find?

Who will find a way to preserve their names?

The firstborn who wildly offered incense

became like an incense offering themseves

Did the grace of Moshe’s prayer

entitle the children saved from slavery

to rebel from chastisement?

The rights of those firstborn were completely lost

How could its place even be saved for them by others?

Had the wise lost the wisdom

that converted their eyes to ears

and their ears to eyes at Mount Sinai?

Until the last days,

these firstborn would not stand again

shoulder to shoulder with Moses and Aaron,

unless some form of repentance 

could transform the wrong and make it right

But Korach chose defiance, autonomy and sedition

Out of aspiring love…

Out of righteous desire

to reach the pinnacle of spirituality,

equality and unity in the world,

his righteous desire ascended to Gan Eden

but did not return whole or holy,

because his righteous desire was blemished

Two hundred and fifty accepted the challenge

to enter into the heart of infinity like Nadab and Abihu,

but the name of none of them returned whole

Still, the sons of Korach will preserve his name

To know why, let us understand:

It may be you will cross along a narrow bridge

and come to a narrow path along a high cliff

and reach a precipice of faith,

where the faith of others before you has fallen,

and you must stand in that place

where looking up is like looking down

and looking down is like looking up,

and fear is a predator circling you,

until your heart is dizzy

You might get passed this precipice of faith

You might not

There is only one sure-footed way to go

You must look with a well-lighted mind

and a clear-hearted sight

directly at the danger you are in

Then your spirit will lean in one direction or the other

You will decide

On one side there is a step

that leads you to exist in a moral universe

On the other side there a step

that leads you to exist in an amoral universe

Your spirit will incline to one or the other

Your spirit will lead you to believe

that you exist in the one universe or the other,

but not because it has proof one way or the other

Your spirit will incline toward one step or the other

because of its own nature,  its own truth,

its own innermost eye, is moral or amoral

If your spirit is amoral in its deepest depth,

it will choose to incline decisively

toward the amoral step,

and your faith will fall from the precipice

For only a moral universe requires faith

An amoral universe will then appear to you

You will see in the dark

and only what you see will be truth to you

You will come to your end 

in the amoral universe that you see

Because you no longer will be able to see at all 

in the dark unknown

If your spirit is moral in its deepest depth,

because it desires to be able to see and know a universe

that is moral at its core and foundation,

Then you will incline decisively

toward the moral step

And even though the path at first

is so narrow that it is only one step wide,

you will not fall

For you will find there is a Hand guarding you

And though you cross a bridge so narrow

that you cling only to the skin of hope,

you will not fall

For you will find that there is

a moral and merciful God widening your path

You will go forward in faith,

and the precipice of faith will grow smaller

and smaller in the distance behind you,

until you reach the destination of hope and faith,

the dwelling place of love,

where you are going

Our earthen vessel is made for light

to contain the light of heaven

It was not made to be dragged down into darkness

through a fall of faith

Aspire to follow in the steps

of the narrow path over the narrow bridge of faith

Hope to receive guidance 

to the highest height of holy light

Say with the sons of Korach:

“My soul thirsts for God, for the living God

Deep calls to deep

All Your waves and breakers have swept over me

Though my soul was in the pit,

though my soul withered within me,

my hope is in God!”

What Korach did not percieve

was that Moshe and Mashiach were twins

He did not see Mashiach and Israel as one Adam,

standing with HaShem like his beloved twin

For HaShem calls Ephraim,

“My beloved son”

For a most loving father

feels himself to be a twin to his son

and his son to be a twin with him

This is the meaning of what is written,

"In the image of God he made Adam"

One Adam both male and female…

It is for this reason that the obedience of faith

within the divine relationship

is the essence of the Torah

And this was the error of Korach:

he did not seek equality in good faith

With repentance, I will yet ascend with the Shechinah

into God’s embrace

With humility, I will yet praise Him

My hope is in God

HaShem, Israel’s Loving Saviour, is my God