Choice of Symbols

Rashi quotes our Sages’ tradition that Koraḥ dressed his men in tallitot made entirely of t’chelet (the special blue dye) and asked: “is such a tallit obligated in zizit?”  When Moses responded in the affirmative, Koraḥ and his men mocked him, saying “if a single string of t’chelet fulfills the halachic obligation, all the more so a garment which is entirely t’cheklet  should exempt itself.”

Truthfully, Koraḥ’s question is a non-starter. The law of zizit is a divine decree, and thus not open to question.

However, the question does make sense from the perspective of Koraḥ himself. Koraḥ’s claim was that Moses acted on his own. Moses appointed himself leader, chose his older brother as high priest and passed over Koraḥ to appoint Elizaphan as head of the tribe of Levi. What Koraḥ refused to accept is that Moses acted in accordance with God’s will. 

If there is no divine element, then Koraḥ’s question is an excellent question: how is it possible that a single string of t’chelet will fulfill the requirement of zizit, while a garment entirely of t’chelet will not fulfill the requirement.

Koraḥ failed to distinguish between the garment and the zizit. The garment is that which man brings, the zizit are added in accordance with God’s command. In his claims against Moses, Koraḥ symbolically failed to distinguish between the garment and the zizit.  

Koraḥ chose t’chelet as his symbol. In his response, Moses chose the incense as his symbol.

            Koraḥ, self-righteously said to Moses “the entire congregation is holy and why do you (and Aaron) raise yourselves above the congregation of God” [Numbers 16:3]. As Rashi notes, Koraḥ’s true complaint was based upon his jealousy of Moses and Aaron and his feeling of personal slight in having been passed over for the position of head of the tribe of Levi.

Zizit are composed of strings of white and t’chelet. The t’chelet is wrapped around the white strings and is what holds them together. T’chelet thus symbolizes leadership. It is a leader’s job to unite his people. Koraḥ, in effect said to Moses: if a leader who is on the level of a single string of t’chelet is a good leader, then one who is entirely t’chelet, who raises himself above the people, is even better. Koraḥ saw himself as that “garment which is entirely t’chelet”. It is likely that Koraḥ’s claim that Moses raised himself above the congregation was a projection of what he would do if he were in a leadership position.

Moses responded with the incense. The incense is composed of eleven spices which are mixed together in such a way that none remains independently recognizable. This is Moses’ response to Koraḥ: true, a leader’s job is to unite his people, however, a real leader does not see himself as being separate from his congregation. An authentic leader sees himself as an inseparable part of his congregation (as the Halacha says “if the preparer of the incense omits even a single spice, he is punished by death”).

Through the incense, Moses countered Koraḥ’s false accusation by saying that he has not raised himself above the congregation, but rather has remained part of the congregation, which is the true approach to leadership.

In the end, Koraḥ sees leadership as privilege, while Moses sees it as obligation.