Parshat Korach (Numbers 16 – 18) begins with a puzzling Hebrew expression, ויקח קרח, literally, Korach took, without ever stating what he took. Commentators have suggested that Korach took himself to one side to separate himself from the community, or that he took or gained the favor of the men of the Sanhedrin (Rashi) or that he took for himself a bad purchase by using his money to gain influence and create a dispute (R Shimon ben Lakish, BT Sanhedrin 109b).

The Torah often plays Hebrew word games and sound games (take for example the Copper Serpent in Number 21:6-10). Here, in chapter 16 the letters ק ח recur frequently. First in Korach’s own name, and then in the word take (Kach).  Then in verses 6,17,18 all in reference to taking fire pans. Is the Torah telling us that Korach is a taker? Why are his followers taking fire pans?  Moses without any instructions from God has decided to use fire pans and burning incense in them to determine who is allowed to be priests. How did Moses know to use this as a means of determination? Why not use animal sacrifices, a far more common service of the priests? Eliahu used animal sacrifices in contest with the priest of Baal on Mt. Carmel (I Kings 18:20). So why not here also? And why did Korach and his entourage so readily agree.  Why didn’t they offer their own contest?

When is the incense offering offered normally? It is offered twice a day on the golden altar each time by a different priest (Mishna Tamid 5:2).  The priest burns this offering inside the Temple building in the Holy section without any other people present.  Once a year, on Yom Kippur the High Priest would burn the incense in the Holy of Holies, also alone. Due to its exclusive nature, the incense offering was seen as the paramount of holy devotion for a priest. Furthermore, when we compare the purified incense to a bloody animal it also seems to be more spiritual in nature.

Korach’s claim is that the whole community is holy and should be able to be priests. What better way to break down the hierarchical structure of the priesthood than to take the most holy of all the sacrifices and allow everyone to perform it?  It was the obvious way to demonstrate that all the people can approach God in the most holy way – the complete democratization of religion.  We noted earlier that it is unclear what Korach took, and that we see later in the verses a lot of taking of fire pans. If we use these later verses that contain the letters ק ח to explain the first verse of the parsha we can suggest that what Korach took right from the start was a fire pan for the burning of incense. This is why Moses suggested using fire pans to run the contest.  And this is why Korach agreed so readily, it was his idea in the first place!
Korach wanted all the people to have an equal share in the religious ritual and sacrificial rite. This seems like it should be a legitimate request. Any person in the faith should be able to come close to God and express his love and fear of God. In current times the desire to open up religious ritual and practice to all the community is the predominate sentiment.  But I want to explore the other side of the argument.  Is there any value in keeping certain areas of the religion off limits, or off limits to most member of the faith?

One justification would be that familiarity if it doesn’t breed contempt, at least is breeds familiarity! And familiarity has its down side.  A goal of religion is take people out of their normal existence, to experience something far removed. This requires specialness of place and time and limitation of access. In Judaism the Temple is mostly off limits and that creates a feeling of awe. In Islam, Mecca for example is a place most members of the faith only visit once in their lifetime. In Catholicism there is a special feeling created by the Midnight Mass, a feeling which would diminished if it would take place every night of the year.  In Judaism, part of the holiness of visiting the Kotel is in its very infrequency. Our feeling of inspiration is often linked to difficulty or rareness of a certain experience.  The Hassidic movement captured this idea in the seasonal visit to the Rebbe. Keeping some things in religious practice off limits serves to enhance meaningfulness of religious practice as a whole.

In the Temple there are two parts, the Holy and the Holy of Holies. The many daily animal sacrifices take place in front of and outside of the Temple.  The incense offering takes place in the Holy section of the Temple.  This represents a higher level of exclusiveness.  As we noted, only one kohen per day may do this service and only once in his life.  The Holy of Holies has even a higher level of exclusivity and holiness, it is visited only once a year. These different levels of separateness command higher levels of respect and awe, and create a sense of holiness.

There is a more prosaic reason for limiting who can officiate in the holy service. It prevents competition and resentment. When a certain position is open to everyone but only one person is chosen, those who are not chosen may feel resentment. Why wasn’t I chosen? He is no better than I am. But when the choice is made from birth, such as the selection of the King of England there is less resentment.  I was never in the running to be King of England so I don’t feel indignant that I was not chosen. This is the primary utility in a static hierarchy. It would have not been possible for all 600,000 (or more) Israelites to act as priests.  All Korach could have accomplished would have been to make everyone eligible to be priests.  When only some would be selected there would have been a lot of resentment. Aharon and his sons are a tiny fraction of the whole population.  By selecting them, God created a greater level of preeminence for them and an ensuing greater respect and awe for them.  And He also removed a potential for a lot of future disappointments and resentment.

What avenue do the faithful have today to approach the Divine? Prayer is our replacement for Temple Service, the service of the heart.  In our prayers there is one special time when we go to a holier place than even the High Priest on Yom Kippur goes to.  In the Kedusha prayer, we do not go to the Holy of Holies, but we go to the angelic place beyond that, the third level of holiness.  And we say, “Holy Holy Holy, Lord of Hosts, the whole world is filled with Your glory.”  And in this paradoxical statement we recognize that God is indeed separate (holy) but we also recognize that we can reach closeness to Him in any place in His world, ‘the world is filled with His glory’. Prayer is open to all people at all times.