PARASHAT KORACH*
Korach’sargument reflects the initial disingenuousness of Communist leaders, and ofmany politicians in the West, as well. They publically advance an egalitarian argument based upon an intuitivesense of fairness: everyone deserves an equal share of power. Their actualgoal, however, is to usurp the power from the present officers, with thesupport of the masses, and then arrogate that same power – if not more – tothemselves.
Inother words, he is presumably arguing against the need for a king altogether,yet - as Moshe is quick to point out - he is not objecting to his own or hisfamily’s existing position of leadership.
Arethey arguing, for the sake of mustering popular support, for an anarchic reality,i.e., that no positions of political power and leadership should exist at all?The royal blue fringes, jutting out from the actual garment, marginal yetinherently connected, symbolize a connection with God. This symbol arguablybecomes redundant if the garment itself is totally royal blue.
Analogously,a mezuzah - marginal to that room but still attached to it - endows anotherwise secular space with sanctity, i.e., with God-directedness. A roomfilled with sifrai Torah, however, already exists as a sacred, God-directedapace by dint of those seforim which it contains, making the mezuzah redundant.
Notmerely redundant, but, more to the point, also insulting, insofar as itpresupposes the spiritual inadequacy of the royal blue garment and the roomfilled with sifrai Torah.
RabbiSoloveitchik explains Korach’s argument as representing a “common sense critiqueof Judaism, a willingness to judge the divinely mandated order on basis of away of thinking which is different from its own inherent categories andmethodologies.
*Writtenfor the Cleveland Jewish News