Parashat Korach

פרשת קורח

This week, a Torah Place exclusive: “Ben Pelet’s Wife: Complexity and Hierarchy in the story of Korach”, by Dr. Ohr Margalit:

A study profiled in the Atlantic a couple of months back makes the controversial claim that men tend to view reality as black and white, while women are better able to grasp complexity.

The stories about Korach in this week’s parsha would seem, at first glance, to bear this out. Korach and his followers are portrayed by the (very male) Rabbis of the Talmud as the quintessential paradigm of illegitimate dissent. His evil subversion is contrasted in the Mishna of Avot with the admirable, worthy disagreements between Hillel and Shamai, and a clear distinction is drawn between “makhloket l’shem shamayim” – disagreement for the sake of Heaven – and malicious divisiveness.

A more nuanced portrayal of Korach’s reality is embodied, on the other hand, in the story of the nameless wife of On Ben Pelet. It takes it a woman, it would seem, to offer a more complex understanding.

Ben Pelet is listed among Korah’s supporters in the first verse of this week’s parsha, together with Dotan, Aviram and 250 unnamed dignitaries. The parsha later describes how Dotan and Aviram were swallowed up by the Earth and how the 250 dignitaries died either by fire or plague; but Ben Pelet isn’t mentioned again. Here is how Rav solved the mystery of his disappearance:

On Ben Pelet – his wife saved him.

She said to him: What are you going to get out of all this? If Moshe ends up being the master – you will be a student; if Korach ends up being the master – you will still be a student.

He said to her: What can I do? I was at council with the congregation of Korach and I took the oath of allegiance with them.

She answered: I know they are all a holy congregation, as it is written: “For the entire congregation, they are all holy”.

She said: Return and I will save you.

She wined him till his thirst was quenched and put him to bed inside, while she went and sat at the entrance of the tent with her hair undone. All who came to call for him and saw her thus went away. Meanwhile they were swallowed up by the earth.

This isn’t a story about ideal values, right and wrong, or black and white. It is about navigating the gray, murky waters of daily political life. Ben Pelet’s wife doesn’t try to convince him that Korach was wrong and Moshe was right. It’s not even clear she thought Moshe was any better than Korach. All she says is that Ben Pelet stands to gain absolutely nothing from taking sides. No matter who wins, he will remain a lowly pupil.

As a woman in a patriarchal world, Ben Pelet’s wife is an expert at short circuiting hierarchy. She knows how the system works, and as soon as her husband tells her he’s become entangled in a web of political intrigue, the tables are turned, and she takes the lead. “I’ll save you!” she exclaims. She then (very symbolically) gets him drunk and puts him to bed.

Ben Pelet’s wife knows what stands behind Korach’s claim that Moshe has no right to elevate himself above the people, that “the entire congregation is holy.” She understands that this beautiful proclamation is really nothing more than a thin cover for a political game. Korach pretends to demand democracy for all, but what he’s really after is high priesthood for himself. Ben Pelet’s wife, used to holiness being used as a pretense to keep women out of the public sphere, is then able to use the very same pretense to her advantage. Sitting at the entrance to her tent, on the very brink of immodesty, she uses the community’s own rules of “holiness” in order to keep her husband safe.

But wait a minute. This story may have been about a woman, but it certainly wasn’t told by her. It was brought by Rav, painted in the realistic grays of the Beit Midrash of his day – with Korach and Moshe as quarreling masters and Ben Pelet as the poor pupil caught in the middle. Rav, the patriarchal founder of the famous Talmudic yeshiva, was able to appreciate the grays from his place at the top of the rabbinic hierarchy.

So is it really an inherently male / female thing? Maybe, but there’s at least one other possibility: that individuals who have to navigate hierarchy on a regular basis learn to handle complexity in a way that other people don’t. Rav may have been a top Rabbi, but as leader of an ethnic minority in the Babylonian Empire he probably had to navigate some political hierarchies of his own.

So men may be from Mars, and women from Venus – but in the end, it’s probably a little bit more complex than that.

(Dedicated to the memory of my grandfathers Idel Yitzchak Margolis and Yehoshua Tzvi Shtadlan, whose yartzeits are this week. Thank you to the many women and men who I’ve had the zchut to discuss this little story with.)

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More Great Divre Torah for Parashat Korach:

Parashat Korach with Rashi’s Commentary in Hebrew and English

Ariel, R. Yaakov - The Basis of the King’s Authority in Israel