Numbers Cycle Six Korach

 Korach

When I think of Korach I think of one of my favorite songs by the Beatles: Come Together.

I mean the lines are so Korach.

Got to be a joker he just do what he please.

One thing I can tell you is you got to be free.

He got feet down below his knees. Hold him in your arms you can feel his disease. Come together right now over me. 

You may think I’m not taking this seriously enough. Korach is a serious problem though. It seems we have this condition to mistake holiness…our innate God-vision…with the behavior that brings our holiness into a place of intimacy and prophecy. Oh yes, everyone is holy! Of course everyone is holy! But does everyone access that holiness to become as painfully and frighteningly as close to God as humanely possible? Looking at the world today I think not.

In fact so many of us just settle-in with our past intimacy with God and use that as our holy excuse. Oh, we say, I prayed a month ago. I went to temple as a child. I don’t need to pray now! Or even better: I used to meditate years ago. I became so enlightened I don’t need to anymore. This is a Korach-like mentality. So then, whether we do that gnawing inner work day in and day out or not…we have the nerve to feel we are equal. We are equal in holiness. How true. But we are not equal in intimacy. And thank God for the various vibrations. For without them there wouldn’t be a covenant. Korach isn’t necessarily evil. He serves a very important purpose. Side point: Think of the rainbow.

 Rashi and Nachmanides agree with much of this if we look at their like analysis of line 16:5 that reads:… v’yadah Adonay et asher lo v’et asher hakadosh….God will make known who is His and who is Holy. They say that God is to make known if the first born or the Levites were now “His”. Being “holy” here refers to the Priesthood (the Levites). Earlier God had said that he would exchange the first born for the Levites. 

How does this emphasize my point?  The first born, by their very definition, would not have to work to belong to God. The Levites, by the very description of their service, do have to work. We don’t become intimate with God, in other words, just by being here first.  It takes work. Yet the people refuse to accept this.

How does God deal with this? Well  He quickly gets rid of Korach.  That takes 35 lines. For the next 60 lines He then helps the people to see that…oh of course…there are vibrations of closeness with God.   In other words there are people who zero-in on holiness and use their potential to grow in intimacy.  Some of us actually are closer not because we have more potential but because of the work we have done now and in the past. Then he shows the people how to deal with these prophetic or non-prophetic folks.  He shows us how to deal with our inner urge for intimacy. 

This is how:

The animal part of us…our nefesh bahama…is simply to bring to our nefesh elohim….the Godly piece of us…gift after gift after gift. There needs to be an organized and set way of honoring our inner soul and an all important vision of the absolute inter-connection of souls being to being.

As the Beatles sing in describing Korach:

Come Together over me.

As the Jews  sing in describing God:

Come Together over me. 

This is important. What’s super-important is to realize that facing Korach is just the first step. There’s much more we need to accomplish…detail after detail after detail….within ourselves. So I guess the way we want to think about it is this: Have we dealt with the Korach in our heart…buried him in the earth for now? Yes? Oh good! Then let’s see the miracle of God…really see the blossoming miracle…and let’s begin the action of holy behavior! Let's help each other instead of hurting each other.  Let's just imagine.