Korach or Korah ( Qoraḥ—the name "Korah," which in turn means baldness, ice, hail, or frost, the second word, and the first distinctive word, in the parashah) is the 38th weekly Torah portion (, parashah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the fifth in the Book of Numbers. It tells of Korach's failed attempt to overthrow Moses.
The parashah comprises Numbers 16:1–18:32. It is made up of 5,325 Hebrew letters, 1,409 Hebrew words, 95 verses, and 184 lines in a Torah Scroll (, Sefer Torah). Korach is generally read in June or July.
The Latin and other Christian translations have a different division of chapters and verses from that later adopted for the Hebrew, where the xvi chapter has fifty verses, until the Hebrew xvii:15, and the xvii chapter, starting from the Hebrew xvii:16, has only thirteen verses.
Readings In traditional Sabbath Torah reading, the parashah is divided into seven readings, or , aliyot.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, ed., 2007,The Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Bamidbar/Numbers, Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, pp. 112–32.
First reading—Numbers 16:1–13 In the first reading, the Levite Korah son of Izhar joined with the Reubenites Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On, son of Peleth and 250 chieftains of the Israelite community to rise up against Moses.. Korah and his band asked Moses and Aaron why they placed themselves above the rest of the community, for the entire congregation is holy.. Moses told Korah and his band to take their fire pans and put fire and incense on them before God.. Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram, but they refused to come..
Second reading—Numbers 16:14–19 In the second reading, the next day, Korah and his band took their fire pans and gathered the whole community against Moses and Aaron at the entrance of the Tabernacle..
Third reading—Numbers 16:20–17:8 In the third reading, the Presence of the Lord appeared to the whole community, and God told Moses and Aaron to stand back so that God could annihilate the others.. Moses and Aaron fell on their faces and implored God not to punish the whole community.. God told Moses to instruct the community to move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and they did so, while Dathan, Abiram, and their families stood at the entrance of their tents.. Moses told the Israelites that if these men were to die of natural causes, then God did not send Moses, but if God caused the earth to swallow them up, then these men had spurned God.. Just as Moses finished speaking, the earth opened and swallowed them, their households, and all Korah's people, and the Israelites fled in terror.. And a fire consumed the 250 men offering the incense.. God told Moses to order Eleazar the priest to remove the fire pans—as they had become sacred—and have them made into plating for the altar to remind the Israelites that no one other than Aaron's offspring should presume to offer incense to God.. The next day, the whole Israelite community railed against Moses and Aaron for bringing death upon God's people.. A cloud covered the Tabernacle and God's Presence appeared..
Fourth reading—Numbers 17:9–15 In the fourth reading, God told Moses to remove himself and Aaron from the community, so that God might annihilate them, and they fell on their faces.. Moses told Aaron to take the fire pan, put fire from the altar and incense on it, and take it to the community to make expiation for them and to stop a plague that had begun, and Aaron did so.. Aaron stood between the dead and the living and halted the plague, but not before 14,700 had died..
Fifth reading—Numbers 17:16–24 In the fifth reading, God told Moses to collect a staff from the chieftain of each of the 12 tribes, inscribe each man's name on his staff, inscribe Aaron's name on the staff of Levi, and deposit the staffs in the Tent of Meeting.. The next day, Moses entered the Tent and Aaron's staff had sprouted, blossomed, and borne almonds..
Sixth reading—Numbers 17:25–18:20
In the sixth reading, God instructed Moses to put Aaron's staff before the Ark of the Covenant to be kept as a lesson to rebels to end their mutterings against God.. But the Israelites cried to Moses, "We are doomed to perish!". God spoke to Aaron and said that he and his dynasty would be responsible for the Tent of Meeting and the priesthood and be accountable for anything which went wrong in the performance of their priestly duties. God assigned the Levites to Aaron to aid in the performance of these duties.. God prohibited any outsider from intruding on the priests as they discharged the duties connected with the Shrine, on pain of death.. And God gave Aaron and the priests all the sacred donations and firstfruits as a perquisite for all time for them and their families to eat.. God gave them olive oil, wine, grain.. The priestly covenant was described as a "covenant of salt",. but God also told Aaron that the priests would have no territorial share among the Israelites, as God was their portion and their share..
Seventh reading—Numbers 18:21–32 In the seventh reading, God gave the Levites all the tithes in Israel as their share in return for the services of the Tent of Meeting, but they too would have no territorial share among the Israelites.. God told Moses to instruct the Levites to set aside one-tenth of the tithes they received as a gift to God..
Readings according to the triennial cycle Jewish people who read the Torah according to the triennial cycle of Torah reading read the parashah according to the following schedule:See, e.g., Richard Eisenberg, 2001, "A Complete Triennial Cycle for Reading the Torah," in Proceedings of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement: 1986–1990, New York: The Rabbinical Assembly, pp. 383–418. Year 1Year 2Year 32023, 2026, 2029…2024, 2027, 2030…2025, 2028, 2031…Reading16:1–17:1516:20–17:2417:25–18:32116:1–316:20–2717:25–18:7216:4–716:28–3518:8–10316:8–1317:1–518:11–13416:14–1917:6–818:14–20516:20–3517:9–1518:21–24617:1–817:16–2018:25–29717:9–1517:21–2418:30–32Maftir17:9–1517:21–2418:30–32
In inner-biblical interpretation The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these Biblical sources:For more on inner-Biblical interpretation, see, e.g., Benjamin D. Sommer, "Inner-biblical Interpretation," in Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, editors, The Jewish Study Bible, 2nd edition, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), pages 1835–41.
Numbers chapter 16 In Numbers 16:22, Moses interceded on behalf of the community, as Abraham had in Genesis 18:23, when Abraham asked God whether God would "sweep away the righteous with the wicked." Similarly, in Numbers 16:22, Moses raised the question of collective responsibility: If one person sins, will God punish the entire community? And similarly, in 2 Samuel 24:17 and 1 Chronicles 21:17, David asked why God punished all the people with pestilence. Ezekiel 18:4 and 20 answer that God will punish only the individual who sins, and Ezekiel 18:30 affirms that God will judge every person according to that person's acts.
Numbers chapter 18 In Numbers 18:1 and 18:8, God spoke directly to Aaron, whereas more frequently in the Torah, God spoke "to Moses" or "to Moses and Aaron."See, e.g., , , .
1 Samuel 2:12–17 describes how (out of greed) priests who were descended from Eli sent their servants to collect uncooked meat from the people, instead of taking their entitlement in accordance with Numbers 18:8–18.
The description of the Aaronic covenant as a "covenant of salt" in Numbers 18:19 is mirrored by the description in 2 Chronicles 13:5 of God's covenant with the Davidic kings of Israel as a "covenant of salt."
Tithes, which are addressed in Numbers 18:21–24, are also addressed in Leviticus 27:30–33, and Deuteronomy 14:22–29 and 26:12–14.
In early nonrabbinic interpretation The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these early nonrabbinic sources:For more on early nonrabbinic interpretation, see, e.g., Esther Eshel, "Early Nonrabbinic Interpretation," in Adele Berlin and Marc Brettler, editors, Jewish Study Bible, 2nd edition, pages 1841–59.
Numbers chapter 16 Pseudo-Philo read the commandment to wear blue tassels, or tzitzit, in Numbers 15:37–40 together with the story of Korah's rebellion that follows immediately after in Numbers 16:1–3. Pseudo-Philo reported that God commanded Moses about the tassels, and then Korah and the 200 men with him rebelled, asking why that unbearable law had been imposed on them.Pseudo-Philo, Biblical Antiquities 16:1.
Josephus wrote that Korah was an Israelite of principal account, both by family and wealth, who was able to speak well and could easily persuade the people. Korah envied the great dignity of Moses, as he was of the same tribe as Moses and he thought he better deserved honor on account of his great riches.Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews book 4, chapter 2, paragraph 2 .
Josephus wrote that Moses called on God to punish those who had endeavored to deal unjustly with the people, but to save the multitude who followed God's commandments, for God knew that it would not be just that the whole body of the Israelites should suffer punishment for the wickedness of the unjust.Josephus, Antiquities book 4, chapter 3, paragraph 2 .
In classical rabbinic interpretation The parashah is discussed in these rabbinic sources from the era of the Mishnah and the Talmud:For more on classical rabbinic interpretation, see, e.g., Yaakov Elman, "Classical Rabbinic Interpretation," in Adele Berlin and Marc Brettler, editors, Jewish Study Bible, 2nd edition, pages 1859–78.
Numbers chapter 16 Like Pseudo-Philo (see "In early nonrabbinic interpretation" above), the Jerusalem Talmud read the commandment to wear tzitzit in Numbers 15:37–40 together with the story of Korah's rebellion that follows immediately after in Numbers 16:1–3. The Jerusalem Talmud told that after hearing the law of tassels, Korah made some garments that were completely dyed blue, went to Moses, and asked Moses whether a garment that was already completely blue nonetheless had to have a blue corner tassel. When Moses answered that it did, Korah said that the Torah was not of Divine origin, Moses was not a prophet, and Aaron was not a high priest.Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 10:1.
A midrash taught that Numbers 16:1 traces Korah's descent back only to Levi, not to Jacob, because Jacob said of the descendants of Simeon and Levi in Genesis 49:5, “To their assembly let my glory not be united,” referring to when they would assemble against Moses in Korah's band.Genesis Rabbah 98:5.
A midrash taught that Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and On all fell in together in their conspiracy, as described in Numbers 16:1, because they lived near each other on the same side of the camp. The midrash thus taught that the saying, "Woe to the wicked and woe to his neighbor!" applies to Dathan and Abiram. Numbers 3:29 reports that the descendants of Kohath, among whom Korah was numbered, lived on the south side of the Tabernacle. And Numbers 2:10 reports that the descendants of Reuben, among whom Dathan and Abiram were numbered, lived close by, as they also lived on the south side of the Tabernacle.Numbers Rabbah 18:5; see also Numbers Rabbah 3:12. Similarly, a midrash taught that because Reuben, Simeon, and Gad were close to Korah, they were all quarrelsome men; and the sons of Gad and the sons of Simeon were also contentious people.Numbers Rabbah 3:12.