LEADER AS SERVANT By Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Korach had a point. “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the L‑rd is with them. Why, then, do you set yourselves above the L‑rd’s assembly?”1 At the heart of his challenge is the idea of equality. That surely is a Jewish idea. Was not Thomas Jefferson at his most biblical when he wrote, in the Declaration of Independence, that “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”?
Of course, Korach does not mean what he says. He claims to be opposed to the very institution of leadership, and at the same time he wants to be the leader. “All are equal, but some are more equal than others” is the seventh command in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, his critique of Stalinist Russia. But what if Korach had meant it? If he had been sincere?
Korach had a point. “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the L‑rd is with them. Why, then, do you set yourselves above the L‑rd’s assembly?”1 At the heart of his challenge is the idea of equality. That surely is a Jewish idea. Was not Thomas Jefferson at his most biblical when he wrote, in the Declaration of Independence, that “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”?
Of course, Korach does not mean what he says. He claims to be opposed to the very institution of leadership, and at the same time he wants to be the leader. “All are equal, but some are more equal than others” is the seventh command in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, his critique of Stalinist Russia. But what if Korach had meant it? If he had been sincere?
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