Wool white and sapphire blue
Kora

by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

And Kora…and Datan and Aviram…gathered against Moses and Aaron; they said to them, ‘It is enough for you, since the entire congregation are all completely holy and in their midst is the Lord. Why do you lift yourselves up above the assemblage of the Lord?” (Numbers 16:2, 3)

Most biblical commentaries understand Kora’s challenge as a personal one against the leadership of Moses and Aaron; Kora waged a rebellion because he was desirous of becoming the leader. However, if that were the only substantive issue he were offering — a change in leadership — it seems incomprehensible that not even one Israelite would step up to stand on the side of Moses.

After all, memories of the miraculous plagues produced by Moses against the Egyptian enslavers and of the splitting of the Reed Sea, which brought the Israelites to safety while causing the Egyptian cavalry to drown, were still fresh in their minds. After all, those wonders had transpired only two years prior to Kora’s rebellion. Moses was the greatest liberator in world history, dwarfing the liberation activities of Abraham Lincoln for the American blacks and Nelson Mandela for the South African blacks combined. Does logic not dictate that many Israelites would defend Moses as their father figure and protector? It would seem, then, that Kora must have presented some alternate plan, one that would universally speak to the hearts and minds of the Israelites specifically after the scouts’ report, which we read about last week.

The classical commentary of Rashi (R. Shlomo b. Yitzhak, 1040-1105), in addition to describing the rebels as perennial anti-kehuna malcontents (either because they were Levites overlooked for the priesthood, Reubenites who never had grandfather Jacob’s favor, or first-born sons who had forfeited their initial leadership position by worshiping the golden calf), cites a midrash that provides a curious logical underpinning to Kora’s argument while linking it to last week’s biblical reading regarding the mitzvot of the tzitzit (ritual fringes):

“[Kora] stood up and gathered 250 heads of district courts, mostly from the tribe of Reuven and its neighboring tribes…and garbed them in robes that were wholly royal blue (t’helet). They came and stood up before Moses, saying, ‘Will not a robe entirely made of t’helet automatically be freed [of further obligation]?!’” (Rashi to Numbers 16:1)

The Netziv, 19th-century yeshiva head of the Volozhin Academy, explains the commandment of tzitzit in a novel and profound fashion that sheds light on Rashi’s explanation of Kora’s argument. In his commentary HaAmek Davar, the Netziv suggests that the essence of Judaism is to be found in the ritual of the fringes. The usual color of clothing worn in biblical times was white, since the white wool of the sheep provided ancient garments. Hence, the woolen white fringes represent the more physical and animalistic side of the human being, who shares many instinctive characteristics (e.g., a drive for food and sex) with the animal world.

The blue of the t’helet, on the other hand, is emblematic of the more ethereal and spiritual realm of the heavens, as the Bible teaches in the incident following the divine revelation at Sinai:

“And Moses and Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, and the 70 elders of Israel ascended [the mountain] and saw the God of Israel; under His feet was the likeness of the sapphire stone, like the essence of the heavens for purity.” (Exodus 24:10)

The Netziv suggests that Judaism is teaching the importance of unifying all aspects of our personality and our world, of bringing together the material and the spiritual, the physical and the sacred, in Israel’s mission of sanctifying a profane universe and perfecting an imperfect society. We must build the ladder that will connect heaven and earth, create the sanctuary that will enable the divine presence to dwell within, and completely suffuse with the sacred every aspect of our earthly existence.

This mission is to be realized in the Land of Israel, in which our Holy Temple will be built and from which peace and redemption will come to all nations. Such a mission requires military battles and ideological debates, back-breaking labor of land reclamation, and the dangerous activity of clearing toxic swamps. There is no pure garment of t’helet in the world as it has been created; we must find the spiritual potential even in the white wool of the animal and sanctify the sapphire blue of our heavenly Torah.

Datan and Aviram never wanted to leave the fleshpots of materialistic Egypt, not even when Moses slew the Egyptian taskmaster. They joined Kora’s rebellion and charged Moses with taking the Israelites “out of the land of milk and honey (sic: Egypt!) to die in the desert.” (Numbers 16:13) Many of Kora’s men were apparently in favor of going back to Egypt with a different leader and applauded Kora’s words. (Numbers 14:4)

Kora himself may well have wanted to remain in the desert — which appeared to be “wholly t’helet,” completely sacred. The desert Israelites subsisted on manna, moved their camp in accordance with divine direction, and — freed of the necessity of manual labor or military battles — could devote themselves to Torah study. This may have been what Kora had in mind when he said, “The entire congregation are all completely holy and in their midst is the Lord. Why do you lift yourselves up above the assemblage of the Lord?” and insisted on conquering Israel.

But this was not the divine wish. God never gave us t’helet on a golden platter. Then — and now — God expects us to join together the t’helet with the wool and sanctify the land and the world, understanding that this requires hard work, tough decision-making, and high risks. That’s what it means to strive to become “a holy nation and a kingdom of priest-teachers” for the world.