What is the source of holiness? And how do we lead with holiness at a time of deep divisions, divisiveness, and disinformation? In this week’s Torah portion, Korach, a nobleman and cousin of Moses, challenges Moses’ authority to lead and rebukes him publicly, accusing him, “You have gone too far! For all the community are holy, all of them, and God is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above God’s congregation?” (Numbers 16:3)
Has Moses been acting “holier than thou”? It would seem that Korach is taking advantage of a general resentment among the people concerning Moses’ leadership. What gives him the right to lead the people? Certainly, he has not been elected. Or, it could be that Moses isn’t sharing the responsibilities of leadership as well as he might, or is holding onto more power than was divinely and rightfully assigned to him. Korach’s charge to Moses echoes, cleverly, God’s recent injunction to the Israelites to “be holy, for I, your God, am holy.” (Leviticus 19:2) If God isn’t holier than anyone else, by what authority does Moses govern?
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In a superficial sense, Korach is right. In Judaism, no person is considered “holier” than anyone else. We are each created b’tzelem Elohim, “in the image of God.” (Genesis 1:27 and 9:6) One doesn’t gain access to God or salvation through any intermediary, nor through a hierarchical structure of holiness (as in the Catholic church). This has been a core tenet of Judaism from biblical times until today.
The point Korach misses entirely is that holiness isn’t simply something one has merely by virtue of existing. Holiness, as Leviticus 19 tells us, is something we must continually cultivate, much like embers we must not allow to extinguish. Over time, especially as Jews were dispersed throughout many lands, we have developed a structure by which we might nurture and strengthen holy connections across time and space. When we pray, we face East, toward Jerusalem and the Holy of Holies. And we do so at certain times, on holy days, in a minyan, so that our combined holy energies are focused and stronger.
I think of it like a cosmic fiber-optic cable network. We, each of us individually, contain Divine sparks of holiness, but if our thoughts and actions aren’t directed toward holiness and channeled toward a redemptive vision, toward something larger than ourselves, then our sparks don’t connect and align.
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Korach was wrong, of course, on many levels, but within his challenge was a grain of truth. Perhaps this is why Moses “fell on his face” (Numbers 16:4) when he heard Korach’s rebuke, recognizing that indeed he was out of step with the rest of the people. Perhaps Moses had fallen into the trap of thinking that his authority came through his deep and unique connection with God. Perhaps Moses had come to believe that his strong morality and faithfulness (as opposed to someone like Korach, who was born into privilege) underpinned his authority. But this account reminds us that Moses’ holy power truly came when he led the people by walking with them on a holy path, their intentions aligned in holy service.
We discover our true holiness through relationships that challenge us and humble us. Holy power is not derived from our privilege or our connections, nor is it found solely through our goodness, our Torah learning, or even the strength of our faith. Holiness is found in our striving and our struggle as part of a people, a community of seekers. Sometimes it is found in sublimating our lesser needs or desires in pursuit of a larger vision of justice, beyond the individual self. But it always begins with the self, from the spark within each of us that remembers its Creator, each one calling out, “Holy, holy, holy!”
Rabbi Anna Boswell-Levy wrote the first “Torah from T’ruah” (now called “(M)oral Torah”) for Shavuot 2014. She has served as the spiritual leader of Congregation Kol Emet, a Reconstructionist community in Yardley, PA, for the past twelve years. She was on the T’ruah board from 2005-2016 and served as its board co-chair from 2013-2015.