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The Book of Numbers- ‫ספר במדבר‬

Torah Portion Korach

Torah portion Korach opens with the verse:

"And Korach the son of Yitzhar, the son of Kehat, the son of Levi, took himself,
and and Datan and Aviram the sons of Eliav, and On the son of Pelet, sons of
Reuven." (16:1)

Many ask: the verse speaks of a number of people – Korach, Datan and Aviram,
On. Why then is "he took" written in the singular rather than in the plural?

Rabbi Tzvi Kalischer writes that the Torah is here hinting that the Korach’s men
were not united in the dispute against Moshe and Aharon. Each one of them
thought only of himself.
The Malbim explains that the men of Korach opposed each other. Korach wanted
to be a priest. Datan, Aviram and On were from the tribe of Reuven, and argued
that because Reuven was the firstborn, their tribe should be the important one, and
not the tribe of Levi. The two hundred and fifty men of the congregation said that
the leaders of the congregation should receive the important positions.
It is interesting to note that the Mishnah in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers)
writes of two types of disputes:

 The dispute of Hillel and Shammai* – this is a good dispute
 The dispute of Korach and his whole congregation – this is not a good

dispute
Why does the Mishnah say "the dispute of Korach and his whole congregation"?
After all, it was Moshe whom Korach disagreed with! It should have rather said
"The dispute of Korach and Moshe". After all, each dispute has two sides.
In the dispute of Hillel and Shammai, Hillel indeed stands against Shammai (there
are many areas of Jewish law where Hillel and Shammai did not agree). This is a
good dispute because the goal of each side in the dispute is to find the truth.
In contrast, the dispute of Korach and his congregation was in essence an internal
clash between all the people of the congregation of Korach.
Therefore the Mishnah calls this dispute "the dispute of Korach and his whole
congregation".

* Hillel and Shammai were two scholars who lived during time of the Second Temple. The

Talmud includes many disputes between them and also between their disciples.

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