I have some thoughts about this past week's Torah portion, Korach, that I wanted to share. We are told that the firepans used by the 250 chieftains who rose against Moses and Aaron were sacred and Eleazer was to "[Remove] the fire pans of those who have sinned at the cost of their lives, and let them be made into hammered sheets as plating for the altar — for once they have been used for offering to the Lord, they have become sacred — and let them serve as a warning to the people of Israel" (Numbers 17:3). There have been a number of things in the past couple of portions that I felt have related back to the Golden Calf episode, and the firepans in Korach seem especially connected. We know that after the Israelites fashion the golden calf and Moses descends Mt. Sinai to admonish them "he took the calf that they had made and burned it; he ground it to powder and strewed it upon the water and so made the Israelites drink it" (Exodus 32:20). The rebellion of the golden calf is one that can only be remembered through passing the story down from generation to generation, or until it is written down. The story of Korach's rebellion, however, will be remembered because there is now a physical reminder of the rebellion to the Israelites. Just as the people are evolving, so is their relationship with God, and perhaps God's understanding of what they still need. R. Kook views the fire pans as a symbol of the "role played by skeptics and agnostics in keeping religion honest and healthy" (Etz Hayim commentary). He goes on:
Challenges to tradition... are necessary because they stand as perpetual reminders of the danger that religion can sink into corruption and complacency.
As I read this and another commentator's reasoning behind the now-sacredness of the fire pans ("because the men... were not really rebels and sinners, but people with a yearning for the opportunity to be close to God") I couldn't help but think of the Nadav and Avihu and the "strange fire" that they offered. A couple of years ago I came across a modern midrash online that was basically a long conversation between God and Nadav and Avihu. I remember crying after reading it, because the author had reasoned that Nadav and Avihu had approached the sacrifice not out of greed or need for power, but because they yearned to be close to God, and in the midrash, God recognized this. The conversation that the author imagines is touching and I only wish I still had the link, because it makes you understand both sides of it. So here, with the explanation above about the 250 men yearning to be close to God, it can be understood why the firepans are holy and why the Israelites were to use them as a remembrance. The gold calf was not holy; it was a desperate measure taken by desperate and scared people. But, by Korach's rebellion the people had felt God's presence, accepted His commandments, and heard that they all are to be a holy people. How could they NOT want to be closer to God? I think it is very interesting that the 250 are not swallowed up by the earth, but rather are consumed by fire, just as Nadav and Avihu.
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