[Avodah] Korach Question

[Zvi Lampel]

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 Richard Wolberg<cantorwolberg at cox.net>  asked:

Also, wasn't Korach present at Har Sinai?  Didn't all the people hear/and or see the actual voice of HaShem for the first 2 Commandments? So how could Korach, after witnessing this, deny it?

My answer:

The Rambam Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah) 8:1) states that Moshe Rabbeynu's 
miracles of the desert were performed to solve problems, not to prove 
his prophecy (i.e., not to prove that anything he would ever report as 
being said by Hashem actually was).*

Yet, one of the examples the Rambam himself brings seems to directly 
contradict his thesis: Korach's assemblage denied Moshe---i.e., denied 
Moshe's proclamation that it was Hashem Who dictated the appointment of 
Aharon as Kohen Gadol, and accused Moshe of fabricating the claim. And 
to stop the rebellion and prove that he was indeed merely transmitting 
Hashem's dictation, Hashem caused the earth to swallow them up. As the 
Torah says: Moshe declared, "By this you will know that Hashem sent me 
to do all these things; that it is not from my mind" (B'Midbar 16:28).

So the miracle */was*/ performed to prove his authenticity as a prophet! 
How can the Rambam maintain his thesis in face of this fact, not to 
mention cite it as an example?

Answer: The Rambam ends this passage as follows:

* *

And where is it stated that the revelation at Mt. Sinai was the sole 
proof that Moshe' prophetic messages were true beyond all 
doubt?---"Behold I come to you in a thick cloud for the purpose that the 
nation will hear My speaking with you, and will believe also in you 
*forever.*" It is therefore implicit that before this thing, they did 
*not* trust in Moshe with a trust that stands forever, but with a trust 
that carries afterwards second thoughts.

The Rambam all along was talking about the trust in the authenticity of 
Moshe's prophecies that is /forever enduring/, not a belief that lasts 
for only a short while. The fact the verse says that now the people will 
trust in Moshe /forever /means that until now--such as when the verses 
said that at the splitting of the sea "and they believed in Hashem and 
in Moshe His servant"--the emunah referred to was not an emunah 
*l'oloam__.** Only when we ourselves heard Hashem assigning Moshe 
Rabbeynu the role of conveying His Will, we /knew directly/ that /from 
then on, /whatever Moshe would say in Hashem's name was authentic. 
Proofs that a prophet is authentic based on miracles alone, however, 
does not provide enduring trust in that prophet, because miracles carry 
the suspicion of trickery.

But /Maamad Har Sinai/ did not remove free-will from humans. One is 
still free to allow his desires---a desire for honor, in Korach's 
case---to overcome his reason. Hashem's guarantee that whatever Moshe 
would say in His name is indeed His will, was a fact sincere reason 
could not deny. The problem was Korach's influence on the people to 
disregard the fact their reason told them to accept Hashem's will 
conveyed by Moshe Rabbeynu. This was a need that had to be addressed by 
the dramatic, miraculous punishment brought upon Korach and his 
followers. This miracle, as all others, had neither the ability nor the 
purpose of proving that Moshe Rabbeynu's prophetic instructions were 
always authentically from Hashem; the miracle was merely a quick fix to 
restore the people's clear thinking.

By strict logic, the miracle was a weak substitute for* _indirectly_* 
demonstrating what the people themselves had already _*directly_* 
witnessed. At best, it could prove that this particular decree of Aaron 
being the Kohen Gadol was indeed Hashem's will. But it could not 
elicit---in the absence of /Maamad Har Sinai/---the enduring trust that 
_*whatever_* Moshe would ever report in Hashem's name was indeed what 
Hashem said. Indeed, as pointed out by my son Yehoshua, the lesson did 
not last more than one day: And all the congregation of the Bnei Yisroel 
complained the next day against Moshe and against Aharon, saying: Why 
are you killing the People of Hashem?" (Bamidbar 17:6).

* The Rambam specifies the miracles of the desert, excluding those of 
Egypt, probably in view of the three miracles (staff to snake, water to 
blood, pure hand to leprous) Hashem told Moshe to perform to prove his 
credentials as a prophet to the Israelites. However, even these miracles 
could not serve to prove that Moshe Rabbeynu would never lose his status 
as a true prophet. A true prophet is capable of becoming corrupt, as did 
happen with Yeravam ben Nevat, for example. (Indeed, according to Rabbi 
Akiva, it is to such a corrupt prophet that the Torah refers when it 
speaks of a false prophet who [had previously] established himself as 
authentic through the performance of miracles.)

** The Torah used "emunah" to mean temporary belief, and had to modify 
it with "l'olom" to designate permanent belief. The Rambam thereon used 
the unmodified term "emunah" to mean a permanent belief, and when 
referring to non-permanent belief modified it as "an emunah that stands 
forever and carries no second thoughts afterwards*.*

  Zvi Lampel


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