Parshat Korach, 5772/2012 second thoughts
Basics here. Original link-fest here.
Might as well start with this fine old post by DovBear. He's changed "comment providers" so often that, apparently, he's lost all his old comments :(, but he did an excellent job of illustrating what a mess the story of Korach's rebellion is.
Long story short: If Korach was at the entrance to the Ohel Moed/Tent of Meeting with his censer, as ordered, how could he have been swallowed up when the earth opened up near his tent?
My conclusion: With due respect to my more traditional readers, I'm calling "scribal error" on this one. Korach died with the other censer-carrying rebels at the entrance to the Ohel Moed; Datan and Aviram were swallowed up by the earth.
Haftarah:
The obvious parallel is that the people want to replace Shmuel/Samuel with a king, and, like Moshe/Moses, Shmuel protests that he's never taken anything wrongfully from anyone else. A less obvious parallel is the extreme manner in which Shmuel has the people punished--Moshe asks HaShem to open up the ground and swallow the rebels; Shmuel asks HaShem to send a thunderstorm that threatens to destroy the wheat-harvest (see 1 Samuel, chapter 12, verse 17-18). Those were rather nasty responses from two servants of HaShem, if you ask me.
Might as well start with this fine old post by DovBear. He's changed "comment providers" so often that, apparently, he's lost all his old comments :(, but he did an excellent job of illustrating what a mess the story of Korach's rebellion is.
Long story short: If Korach was at the entrance to the Ohel Moed/Tent of Meeting with his censer, as ordered, how could he have been swallowed up when the earth opened up near his tent?
My conclusion: With due respect to my more traditional readers, I'm calling "scribal error" on this one. Korach died with the other censer-carrying rebels at the entrance to the Ohel Moed; Datan and Aviram were swallowed up by the earth.
Haftarah:
The obvious parallel is that the people want to replace Shmuel/Samuel with a king, and, like Moshe/Moses, Shmuel protests that he's never taken anything wrongfully from anyone else. A less obvious parallel is the extreme manner in which Shmuel has the people punished--Moshe asks HaShem to open up the ground and swallow the rebels; Shmuel asks HaShem to send a thunderstorm that threatens to destroy the wheat-harvest (see 1 Samuel, chapter 12, verse 17-18). Those were rather nasty responses from two servants of HaShem, if you ask me.
posted by Shira Salamone at 12:27 PM
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