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 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

The heart of God is very tender

It is vulnerable to assault 

The evil inclination took Korach

And Korach took liberties with God

How can we violate the open heart of God

and not destroy our own soul?

What remedy could Korach’s soul then have?

What reconciliation with the soul of Moses

could the souls of Dathan and Abiram find?

Who will find a way to preserve their name?

The rights of the firstborn were lost

The place of the firstborn was lost

Did the grace of Moshe’s prayer

entitle the saved children

to rebel from chastisement?

Had the wise lost the wisdom

that converted their eyes to ears

and their ears to eyes at Sinai?

Until the last days

the firstborn would not stand again

shoulder to shoulder with Moses and Aaron

unless 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

in the world

his righteous desire ascended to Gan Eden

but did not return whole

Two hundred and fifty accepted the challenge

to enter into the heart of infinity with Nadab and Abihu

but none returned whole

Our earthen vessel is made for light

to contain the light of heaven

If it is not prepared

surely it will shatter

Aspire to receive 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

I will yet ascend with the Shechinah

into God’s presence

I will yet praise him

My hope is in God

My Saviour and my God

*Being a meditation on a Torah class based on the parashah Korach, delivered by Rabbi Baitelman of ChaBaD Richmond, B.C., based on the series, Torah Studies, by Rohr Jewish Learning Institute. Neither Rabbi Baitelman nor the JLI have reviewed or approved of the content of this post.