Bulletin Korach

Welcome • ohtcv ohfurc
Shabbat Shalom • ouka ,ca
Shabbat Parshat Korach
Rosh Hodesh Tammuz
30 Sivan 5784 • July 6, 2024
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Yahrtzeiten
July 5
July 6
July 7
July 8
July 11
July 12
Anniversaries
Lynn Nemes, Ilya Prizel
Debra Antzis
Ellaine Rosen
Sima Bennett, Evan Kuperman, Samuel Levin
Elan Kuperman
Ezra Strobl
June 26 Sima & Jonathan Bennett (40)
vfrck oburfz
July 5 • 29 Sivan Joseph Miller – Husband of Roberta MIller
July 6 • 30 Sivan Dora Katz – Grandmother of Debra Silow
July 7 • 1 Tammuz Sylvia Rosenblatt – Mother of Susan Schehr
Joseph Hoffman – Father of Debra Silow
July 9 • 3 Tammuz Max Stein
– Father of Ralph Stein
Alfred Walpert – Husband of Ferne Walpert
July 9 • 3 Tammuz Max Stein
– Father of Ralph Stein
July 10 • 4 Tammuz Peter Portnoy – Father of Bernard Portnoy
July 11 • 4 Tammuz Thelma Erenstoft – Mother of Edward Margulies
Birthdays
jna `skuv ouh
Shabbat Kiddush Sponsored by:
Debra & Michael Silow
In loving memory of Debra’s father
Joseph H. Hoffman k ”z
cuy kzn

Torah & Haftarah Readings:
Shabbat Korach: Numbers 16:20–17:24 (Cycle 2) (Etz Hayim p. 863)
1. 16:20-27 2. 16:28-35 3. 17:1-5 4. 17:6-8
5. 17:9-15 6. 17:16-20 7. 17:21-24 M. Numb. 28:9-15 (p.
Haftarah: Isaiah 66:1–24 (p. 1219)
Torah Commentary
D’var Torah:
Choosing the System – Bex Stern-Rosenblatt
All the Israelites are chosen, but some are more chosen than others. It all started
back with Abraham and God’s promise, saying, “I will make you a great nation and
I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. And I will
bless those who bless you, and those who damn you I will curse, and all the clans
of the earth through you shall be blessed.” At that point, it was only Abraham who
had been chosen. Abraham, in the biblical text, had done nothing in particular
to deserve God’s attention, to deserve the status of having been chosen. Over the
course of Abraham’s story, we see that chosen status transferred to his son Isaac,
through no particular merit of his own. The status continues down the generations,
to Jacob and his sons, and through them to all of Israel.
In Genesis, chosenness and covenant are associated. The covenant God made
with Abraham and passes down through the generations is what it means to be
chosen. Moreover, Abraham and his descendants also engage in the covenant of
circumcision. However, there is almost no other behavior expected from us in
Genesis that would explain why we merited the status or how we might merit
keeping it. Our ancestors engaged in all sorts of questionable behavior, from
stealing birthrights, to trying to murder their brothers. It is not for their actions
that these people were chosen. God just chose them.
The covenant changes at Sinai. Demands are placed on us. As we read in Exodus
19, “If you will truly heed my voice and keep my covenant, you will become for me
a treasure among all the peoples, for mine is all the earth. And as for you, you will
become for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” In order to be in relationship
with God, in order for God to continue to choose each of us as individuals, we have
to choose God as well. When we do not, the covenant with Abraham still stands.
God still has chosen the Israelite people forever. But God does not choose those
individuals who do not choose God.
Within this framework, God chooses the Levites as distinctive among the Israelites.
We opened the Book of Numbers by trying to define the way in which they were
distinct in their chosenness: “And you shall give the Levites to Aaron and to his
sons, wholly given shall they be from the Israelites. And Aaron and his sons you
shall single out, that they keep their priesthood, and the stranger who draws near
shall be put to death… And as for me, look, I have taken the Levites from the midst
of the Israelites in place of every firstborn womb-breach of the Israelites, that the
Levites be mine.”

It is unclear whether the Levites are chosen because of who they are and what
they do, in a way similar to the Sinai covenant, or if they are chosen just because,
in a way similar to the covenant with Abraham. Having been chosen, they assume
special duties. But we are never told why they were chosen for their particular
role. Note also, that they are chosen to serve the Kohanim. They are chosen, but
not the most chosen.
Just two weeks ago, we read of Miriam and Aaron’s difficulties with the idea of
chosenness. They are as chosen as you can get without being Moses. And yet it is
not enough. Their complaint against Moses was in regards to Moses’s choices. If
the only thing our patriarchs in Genesis did that mattered for maintaining their
status was to choose wives, Moses seems to have failed on that front. It makes
sense that Miriam and Aaron would use his choice of wife to dispute his status as
most chosen. But there too, Miriam and Aaron are punished. It is not because of
what Moses does or doesn’t do that he is chosen. He just is.
In our parashah, Korah the Levite tries to understand the heart of chosenness.
He tries to make it make sense. He tries to force God to move from an Abraham
model to a Sinai model. Korah makes arguments about who he is and what
he does as proof that he deserves a higher chosenness status. Instead, Korah is
chosen to die.
Chosenness is at the root of our existence, of our identity. The Israelites would not
exist if God had not chosen us. From our perspective it is inscrutable. We cannot
make it seem rational. We cannot force a connection between our actions and
God’s actions. We are chosen into a system. That which we do not understand we
should not try to break.
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