Weekly Torah portion: Korah
“And Moses sent to call to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and they said, ‘We will not go up. Is it too little that you brought us up from a land flowing with milk and honey to put us to death in the wilderness, that you should also lord it over us? What’s more, to a land flowing with milk and honey you have not brought us nor given us an estate of fields and vineyards. Would you gouge out the eyes of these men? We will not go up!” (Numbers 16:12-14).
As Dr. Pnina Galpaz-Feller writes: “It is difficult to understand from their statement whether they do not wish to go up to the Land of Israel, or whether they are refusing to go up to the Tent of Meeting” (A Drasha for Every Portion (TALI Education Fund, 2007) p. 161).
Targum Onkelos (2nd cent. Aramaic translation of the Bible) translates the phrase ‘we will not go up’ literally, making no attempt to explain. As opposed to this, Targum Yerushalmi (Pseudo-Jonathan) suggests two different meanings for the phrase:
And Moses sent messengers to summon Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, to the great court, and they said, ‘We will not go up (i.e., to the court). Is it little that you brought us up from Egypt, a land that produces milk and honey to put us to death in the wilderness, that you should also lord over us? And you have also not brought us to a land producing milk and honey nor given us an estate and vineyards. Even if you were to blind the eyes of those people in that land and defeat them, we would not go there (i.e. to the Land of Israel).
Both Rashi and his grandson R. Samuel b. Meir (Rashbam) understand the phrase ‘we will not go up’ as referring to Moses’ summons. Rashbam explains that Dathan and Abiram repeat the phrase after explaining the reason for their refusal. As opposed to this, R. Meir Simhah HaKohen of Dvinsk (1843-1926) explains in his commentary Meshekh Hokhma that in saying ‘we will not go up,’ Dathan and Abiram were referring to Israel, stating the fact that neither they nor Moses would succeed in entering the Promised Land.
Dr. Feller summarizes:
This time, the allegations are directed solely against Moses’ leadership (as opposed to Korah’s allegations that are also directed against Aaron – A.S.): “Is it too little that you brought us up from a land flowing with milk and honey to put us to death in the wilderness, that you should also lord it over us?” The rebels use the depiction of the bountiful Land of Israel – a land flowing with milk and honey – to describe Egypt. They argue that not only did Moses tear them away from their true mother who supplied their needs, but he brought them to a barren wilderness; to a place of death rather than to the place of vineyards and fields that he had promised.
The Etz Hayim Torah and Commentary and Robert Alter’s The Five Books of Moses: A Translation and Commentary adopt a similar approach, viewing the rebellion of Korah and of Dathan and Abiram as aimed against the spiritual leadership of Aaron and the political leadership of Moses.
1. The description of Israel as ‘a land flowing with milk and honey’ did not originate with Moses. It first appears in God’s promise: “And the Lord continued: I have marked well the plight of My people in Egypt and have heeded their outcry because of their taskmasters; yes, I am mindful of their sufferings. I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey…” (Exodus 3:7-8). Might Dathan and Abiram’s use of the words ‘a land flowing with milk and honey’ therefore suggest that their rebellion is not directed solely against Moses?
2. This description of the Land of Israel also appears with the expression ‘will not go up’ in God’s response to the incident of Golden Calf: “I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites - a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go up in your midst, since you are a stiffnecked people, lest I destroy you on the way” (Exodus 33:2-3). Does this association strengthen the possibility that Dathan and Abiram declaration “we will not go up” may not have referred to Moses?
3. The story of Dathan and Abiram follows that of the spies. The ten spies who ‘spread calumnies’ about the Land of Israel said: “We came to the land you sent us to; it does indeed flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit” (Numbers 13:27). As opposed to this, Dathan and Abiram say: “you brought us up from a land flowing with milk and honey.” What does this juxtaposition tell us about the rebels?
Iyunei Shabbat is published weekly by the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary, The Masorti Movement and The Rabbinical Assembly of Israel in conjunction with the Masorti Movement in Israel and Masorti Olami-World Council of Conservative Synagogues.
Chief Editor: Rabbi Avinoam Sharon
