Of Children Who Merit When Fathers Do Not

Parshat Pinchas

by Rabbi Avi Billet

Before Parshat Pinchas buries itself in the special sacrificial order for each holiday (what becomes the “maftir” reading for these special days), we hear the story of Tzlafchad’s daughters. Without rehashing old ideas that have been addressed here and here, suffice it to say Tzlafchad’s personal story is quite unclear and can’t be pinned on any single identification pointed his way in the words of the sages. What is odd, however, is that his daughter’s make the claim that “he was not part of the Korach group…”

Of all things to say, isn’t that obvious? The worst offenders in the wilderness were from the tribes of Reuven (Datan and Aviram crowd) and Shimon (Zimri crowd), as well as the followers of Korach, who may have been from different tribes (though this is not delineated) or from the greater family of Yitzhar, Korach’s father – in other words, frustrated Levites. All of these groups lived south of the Tabernacle.

It is these episodes that provoked the Rabbis to proclaim, “Oy larasha oy lishcheino – woe is to the wicked one and woe is to his neighbor” (Bamidbar Rabba 18:5), suggesting that bad neighbors are a bad influence on those closest to them

But Tzlafchad was from the tribe of Menashe, safely hidden between Ephraim and Binyamin, somewhat away from the revolutionaries, west of the Tabernacle.

Moreover, at the beginning of the chapter preceding the Tzlafchad tale, we are given a rundown of the major families of every tribe – and a summary of who was part of the Korach group (26:9-11), as well as an out-of-place shout out to Tzlafchad and his daughters when the family of Chefer, Tzlafchad’s father, is mentioned (26:32-34). There is clearly no correlation and no connection between Tzlafchad and Korach.

So why mention it?

The Talmud (Baba Batra 118b) notes that the terminology utilized by Tzlafchad’s daughters actually refers to three groups – the “eidah” refers to the spies, “who protested against God” refers to the complainers of the Korach story (or perhaps the post-Korach story), and “the Korach group is self-explanatory” (those who challenged Moshe and Aharon). The Talmud notes that these groups all lost their merits to owning property in the land, which is why the daughters wanted to rule out any argument that their family was undeserving.

Which is fine – things work out relatively well for Tzlafchad’s daughters – despite their ending up having a limited pool of potential suitors. (See Bamidbar 36)

Let’s go back to the depiction of those who were destroyed in the Korach story. “Datan and Aviram were the communal leaders who led a revolution against Moses and Aaron as part of Korach's rebellion against God. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and Korach when the [rebellious] group died and fire annihilated 250 men. This involved a divine miracle. The sons of Korach, however, did not die.” (26:9-11)

When reading that story in Chapter 16 it seems plainly clear that there are two groups. Datan and Aviram complaining about Moshe being an ineffective leader, and Korach and company complaining that Aharon should not be the High Priest because others are equally worthy. Besides, Amram’s family has enough power with Moshe at the helm of the people; why does Aharon also merit a leadership position?

The fact that there are also two punishments – the ground swallowing up Datan and Aviram on the one hand, and fire consuming those using the firepans on the other - leaves us wondering about Korach's particular fate. Even though the Torah says it and Midrash indicates he was consumed by the ground (“Moshe is true, and his Torah is true!”) the people who burned the ketoret with him were burned with a fire - so which fate did he suffer? (Though see 26:10 which seems to clarify this point)

And now we are told that Korach’s children did not die! In Bamidbar 16:32-33 we were told that “earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them and their houses, along with all the men who were with Korach and their property. They fell into the depths along with all that was theirs.” This is followed by 16:35 – “Fire then came down from God, and it consumed the 250 men who were presenting the incense.”

How did Korach's sons escape?

Rashi says at the final moment they had pangings for Repentance. But Rashi also says this merited them a higher place in purgatory – closer to earth than those completely swallowed by the ground. But the verse says “they did not die!” Rashi’s explanation is troubling. More inline with the text, Ibn Ezra notes that the prophet Samuel descended from Korach, as did the authors of the Psalms that bear their names.

Targum Yonatan goes in a completely different direction saying they followed the teachings of Moshe, and not their father, and were not subject to the ground opening, the fire consuming, or the plague that followed.

While there is much to think about in that Korach’s sons seem to be heaped together with Tzlafchad in terms of the fates that they did not share, I think the lesson learned from Korach’s sons is that (at least in a free society) no one shapes your destiny but you.

And the same is true for Tzlafchad. Whatever his “sin” was, which may or may not have caused his death, it wasn’t of the magnitude that brought him out of deserving a portion of the land. As such, he should not be judged, and certainly his children should not be judged negatively on account of whatever it was.

In all likelihood, each of us has our own “little sin” that prevents us from being as complete as we would like to be. Maybe we’re not careful about a certain mitzvah, or maybe we succumb to a certain “minor” sin. Hopefully we can merit to pull ourselves out, like the sons of Korach, and hopefully in our efforts to do better we too will merit that our children (and we, if we repent!) should never suffer on account of our own misdeeds.