Our Rabbi's Message
June 11th 2010
By Rabbi Aaron KriegelKorah was a misguided leader. When he looked at the world, he only saw benefits that would accrue to him. He had little concern for the majority of people who were the generation of the desert. He was not concerned with their struggle for freedom. He did not care about their desires to reach the Promised Land. He had one interest, and that interest was himself.
Korah wanted the power that Moses had. He wanted to be in charge. He wanted to give the orders. He never presents us with a new idea. He never details what he thought Moses was doing, which was wrong. He never speaks of the purpose of the wandering in the desert for forty years. What Korah does speak about is the prize of leadership. He wanted to take Moses' place as the leader of the people and he wanted to make that change for nothing but selfish reasons.
That kind of leadership is the rot in modern society. We see it on every level. It is a reason why so many are disillusioned with our elected officials in Washington. It was evident in the plans and the response of BP to the tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico. We see the evidence of bad leadership in many of the lackluster professional sports teams. We saw it in GM and in Lehman Brothers.
It can be found in small institutions and even in families where a spouse or children are abused. It is an endemic problem.
The Torah story disappears the problem. Korah is swallowed by the earth that event his diabolic and selfish plans are resolved. Miracles like that do not happen in the world today. We have no simple solutions except to recognize bad leadership, to challenge it and to remove it.
Such is the modern resolution to an age old problem.
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