Korach 5786 | Rabbi Dani Zuckerman

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── Shiur Outline ──
(0:08) Opening: Parshas Korach and the puzzling Lo Na'aleh
(1:11) Rashbam’s view: ‘up’ as going to the Beit Din
(2:58) Rashi’s Midrash: Lo Na'aleh hints at a downward fate
(4:08) Ramban on the uniqueness of this rebellion’s punishment
(8:55) Rashbam’s literary structure: Lo Na'aleh at beginning and end

AI-Generated Summary (AI can be inaccurate. Check important information):

1. Terminology of rebellion — The choice of the word Na'aleh (go up) by Dathan and Abiram reveals the depth and nature of their defiance.
2. Elevated sacred spaces — According to the Ibn Ezra, the term reflects the physical reality that the Mishkan was situated on higher ground than the rest of the camp.
3. Legal jurisdictional refusal — The Rashbam explains that Aliyah refers to appearing before a Beis Din, indicating they rejected Moshe Rabbeinu's judicial authority.
4. Twisted friendly invitation — Rav Hirsch observes that Moshe Rabbeinu's initial call was a peaceful overture for dialogue, which the rebels cynically reinterpreted as an aggressive summons.
5. Self-incriminating prophecy — Rashi cites the Midrash that their own mouths tripped them up (pihem hichshilam), foreshadowing their descent into the earth.
6. Unique supernatural punishment — The earth swallowing the rebels was necessary because this was not a complaint about resources but a challenge to divine appointment.
7. Total authority challenge — Unlike the 250 men, Dathan and Abiram attacked the legitimacy of the Yetzias Mitzrayim itself and Moshe's status as a shaliach.
8. Rejection of the mission — The Ramban notes that by calling Mitzrayim a land of milk and honey, they were committing kefira against the divine plan.
9. Proof of agency — The miracle of the ground opening served as the ultimate proof that Moshe Rabbeinu acted lo milibi (not from his own heart) but as God's messenger.
10. The literary structure — The Rashbam identifies a klal u'prat u'klal structure in their words, emphasizing that their entire grievance was rooted in the exodus from Egypt.

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This week in חוץ לארץ,

כלל ישראל is reading פרשת קרח,

and one of the most fascinating elements in the episode of קרח and his

rebellion is a small statement that garners a lot of attention.

משה רבינו calls to דתן and אבירם in פסוק י"ב.

He calls to דתן and אבירם,

וישלח משה לקרוא לדתן ולאבירם בני אליאב.

And what is their response?

ויאמרו,

they said,

לא נעלה,

we will not come up.

And the question is what do you mean come up?

We would have expected that דתן and אבירם would say לא נלך,

לא נבוא,

we won't go,

we won't come.

But what is this up?

Where are they refusing to go up somewhere?

So כפשוטו,

there are a few possibilities.

The אבן עזרא and others say that לא נעלה is used because the משכן,

where משה רבינו was,

was at a higher elevation than the rest of the מחנה.

Just like ירושלים is at a higher elevation and ארץ ישראל is at a

higher elevation,

so places that are קדוש are meant to be at a higher elevation.

So the משכן was also at a higher elevation.

So they meant they're not going to come to the משכן and when one

goes to the משכן he goes up.

The רשב"ם and others say that the word לעלות is used sometimes in the

context of a court.

So for example,

in ספר דברים it says ועלתה יבמתו השערה,

when the יבמה goes to court to בית דין she goes up.

That's the word used when a person goes to the בית דין they go

up.

So they're saying,

דתן and אבירם were saying,

we're not going to go up to your בית דין משה רבינו.

Parenthetically,

רב הירש points out that based on the רשב"ם's פשט,

something very interesting about דתן and אבירם's response.

משה רבינו was not necessarily summoning דתן and אבירם to a דין תורה.

He sent messengers,

וישלח משה לקרוא,

he sent messengers to call them.

Maybe it could have been a very friendly invitation to dialogue.

רב הירש points out in other places where וישלח לקרוא,

that combination is used in a friendly manner.

For example,

in פרשת יתרו when יתרו calls people,

and in פרשת כי תשא,

in a bit of a sinister context,

the תורה says don't intermarry or be careful not to intermarry that the people,

you know,

your if your מחותן who's not Jewish calls you to invite you to a

סעודה of עבודה זרה.

So that's a friendly invitation.

So here as well,

רב הירש says משה רבינו was issuing a not a summons,

he sent a messenger to you know have a nice dialogue,

a calm,

friendly dialogue with דתן and אבירם to hear what's on their mind.

And their response is,

how dare you summon us to בית דין?

לא נעלה,

we're not going to appear at your summons,

right?

So they are immediately treating him with a lot of suspicion and accusing him

of you know wielding authority when he just wants to dialogue.

That's a parenthetical point.

רש"י,

however,

back on the לא נעלה,

רש"י says in מדרש context,

לא נעלה,

פיהם הכשילם,

their mouth messed them up.

אין להם אלא ירידה,

they're only going down.

So when they say we won't go up,

when we're not going to go up,

the מדרש is לכאורה bothered by the question we asked before.

Why didn't they just say we won't come,

לא נלך,

לא נבוא?

Why did they say we won't go up?

So מדרש says that this is a רמז to the fact that they're going

down.

They're going down,

where they're going down?

We know later in the story that דתן and אבירם at least and you

know perhaps others as well,

but certainly דתן and אבירם are swallowed up by the earth.

That is the you know most famous part of the story probably,

the punishment of being this unique punishment being swallowed up by the earth.

So it's very interesting that that punishment is hinted to at this early stage

in the story in this phrase לא נעלה.

So to understand why is that important to be hinted to here in this

phrase לא נעלה,

well we have to ask a different question which is why is it important

that דתן and אבירם and perhaps קרח as well and families were swallowed up

by the earth?

This strange punishment.

The רמבן over there in פסוק כ"ט asks this question,

he says,

you know we have other unfortunately we have other examples of rebellions in the

מדבר,

we have other examples of clashes between משה רבינו and individuals or groups of

כלל ישראל,

sometimes even all of כלל ישראל,

and we never have such an extreme punishment.

What's unique here?

So רמבן says and others say as well that this is a different type

of rebellion because in this case it was not just a matter of we

don't have water,

we don't have food,

this weekend in ארץ ישראל we're reading חוקת and we have two examples of

rebellions where people used pretty similar language.

למה,

why'd you take us out of מצרים?

We're not even ארץ ישראל.

The same kind of טענות that דתן and אבירם are making we find in

חוקת,

and yet in חוקת,

you know,

there's punishment.

not pretty,

but nothing of the nature,

nothing of the sort like the ground opening up and swallowing anybody.

רמב"ן says the difference is that here דתן and אבירם particularly,

we actually don't see it as much in the words of קרח,

but we see particularly in the words of דתן and אבירם.

That דתן and אבירם were not just voicing any old complaint.

They were undermining the very authority of משה רבנו.

They were questioning whether he was a divinely inspired leader in the first place.

דתן and אבירם,

if we go back to our פסוקים right after they say לא נעלה,

they say it's not enough that you took us out of ארץ זבת חלב

ודבש מצרים,

it's not enough that you didn't bring us to ארץ ישראל to a place

of a real ארץ זבת חלב ודבש,

but you're even תשתרר עלינו גם השתרר,

you even dare to lord over us.

דתן and אבירם are questioning what they're saying is that unlike קרח and the

250 men who joined him,

they're not complaining about the religious authority in כלל ישראל or which part of

שבט לוי should get the נשיאות.

They're saying our complaints משה רבנו,

they go back to your leadership in מצרים.

We don't think that you have been a correct leader for us all the

way since מצרים.

And that,

says the רמב"ן,

that's כפירה because משה רבנו was appointed by הקדוש ברוך הוא Himself.

Where does רמב"ן see this in the פסוקים?

When משה רבנו says,

when he introduces this supernatural,

the supernatural punishment of the ground swallowing,

he says בזאת תדעון כי ה׳

שלחני,

that ה׳

sent me לעשות את כל המעשים האלה,

כי לא מלבי.

This will prove that ה׳

sent me to do all these things,

that I didn't כי לא מלבי,

this is not my individual choice.

רש"י says which מעשים are we talking about?

The מעשים of אהרן being a כהן גדול,

and אהרן's children being כהנים,

and אליצפן being the נשיא,

right?

Responding to קרח's טענות.

רמב"ן says כפשוטו no no no,

that's not what משה was talking about.

He's talking about taking us out of מצרים.

The לשון of שליחות,

כי ה׳

שלחני,

we find that all over the place in reference to משה רבנו as the

שליח of הקדוש ברוך הוא to take us out of מצרים,

all the way back to פרשת שמות,

זה לך האות כי אנכי שלחתיך,

right?

ה׳

says to משה,

the sign that I sent you,

or וישלח מלאך ויוצאנו ממצרים,

ה׳

sent a מלאך,

he sent משה רבנו to take us out of מצרים.

Or at the very end of the תורה,

in the הספד for משה רבנו,

אשר שלחו ה׳

לעשות בארץ מצרים,

ה׳

sent משה רבנו.

That שליחות,

that unique status that משה רבנו has,

that he was a שליח of הקדוש ברוך הוא to take us out of

מצרים,

to bring us to הר סיני,

to give us the תורה,

to be the agent of תורה שבכתב,

תורה שבעל פה,

everything.

That is what משה רבנו is defending.

And who accused him of never being a divinely appointed leader?

דתן and אבירם.

דתן and אבירם,

they're the ones.

קרח maybe got dragged along by them into the ground,

if he did,

if he went into the ground,

it was because he was dragged along with them.

They're the ones who were most deserving of the supernatural punishment to demonstrate that

their טענה against משה רבנו was completely unfounded.

Which words subtly hint to the point that דתן and אבירם were challenging משה's

leadership from the very beginning?

לא נעלה.

When they said לא נעלה,

perhaps as רב הירש says,

they're saying to לא נעלה,

they're saying who are you to summon us to a בית דין?

Are you the leader of כלל ישראל?

Who appointed you?

From the very beginning we question your leadership,

all the way back from the time you took us out of מצרים.

The רשב"ם,

we'll end with this,

the רשב"ם says that there's a כלל ופרט וכלל,

right?

Something we find in halakhic contexts.

רשב"ם finds here in this story.

כלל,

לא נעלה.

פרט,

כי העליתנו ארץ זבת חלב ודבש וכולי.

And what's the חוזר וכולל at the end of פסוק י"ד?

לא נעלה.

So they begin and end their טענה with לא נעלה,

and in the middle they say because you took us out of מצרים.

We're not going to respond,

so what are they saying?

We're not going to respond to your summons because you took us out of

מצרים?

They're undermining,

they're trying to undermine משה רבנו's leadership from the very beginning.

And that is why the מדרש says לא נעלה,

פיהם הכשילם,

אין להם אלא וידוי.

You see from their words לא נעלה that they are questioning משה רבנו's leadership

from the very beginning.

They're not like קרח.

They are trying to argue that משה רבנו is not a divinely appointed שליח

in the first place,

and for that,

and we see that from the way they say לא נעלה,

and from that,

the מדרש foreshadows that eventually they will have to be punished in a unique

way.

אין They have to disappear entirely from the face of the earth because because

it has to be so clear to us forever and ever the authority of

משה רבינו as הקדוש ברוך הוא'ס שליח.