Korach: How Did Korach and His Followers Think They Could Get Away With It?

Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 6/19/26 titled: Korach: How Did Korach and His Followers Think They Could Get Away With It? Korach and his men claim to be chosen by Hashem. Moshe says, "Let's test it." Korach agrees. They fail the test. One cannot help but wonder: What did they EXPECT to happen? Abravanel offers an answer.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, I'm Rabbi Matt Schneewiss, and this is the audio version of the two-page article I wrote and published on my Substack at rabbi Schneewiss.substack.com on June 19th, 2026. This is an edited version of an article I originally wrote and published on my old blog on July 8th, 2016. Note the original version of this article was bookended with a political commentary on the then upcoming U.S. presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. I decided to omit that framing for my republishing. For better or for worse, the last decade has provided no shortage of real-world examples. Take your pick. The article is titled Korach. How did Korach and his followers think they could get away with it? Korach and his followers, Dasan, Aviram, On, and the 250 princes of the congregation, assemble against Moshe Rabinu and Aaron Akohin, accusing them of making an illicit power grab. Moshe responds by putting their claim to the test, leaving the matter to be resolved by Hashem. Quote from Babidbar 16, 5 through 7, he spoke to Korach and to his entire assembly, saying, In the morning Hashem will make known the one will make known to the one who is his own and the holy one, and he will draw him close to himself, and whomever he will choose, he will draw close to himself. Do this. Take for yourself fire pans, Korach and his entire assembly, and put fire in them, and place incense upon them before Hashem tomorrow. Then the man whom Hashem will choose, he is the Holy One. End quote. The men do as they are told. What happens? Quote, from Bamidbar 1635, a flame came forth from Hashem and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering the incense. End quote. Haharon is proven to be Hashem's chosen one. The Abravanel, in his commentary on 16.1, question number six, raises a glaring question, quote, How did Korah and his assembly agree to the test of the incense? Did they not remember the great things that they had seen? Didn't they know that Nadav and Avihu were burned when they brought the incense in Vyikra 10 II? How did these men not fear for their lives? Behold, Moshe Venu said to them in his warning, uh barring non-Kohannim from the temple service, quote, a stranger, i.e., a non-Kohin who approaches shall be put to death. End quote. To state this question bluntly, what were they thinking? Korach's rebellion might have raised doubts in the minds of the people, but surely Korach himself and his closest followers knew that Hashem had not chosen them. And if they genuinely bought into their own reasoning, wouldn't they have at least been a little frightened? Why would they agree to Moshe's test? Why not refuse to comply and find some other way to double down? The Bravenel, in his commentary on 16.5, provides the following answer Without a doubt, if Moshe had explained to them the reality of this test and how it would be, namely that the chosen one would be chosen and the incense would be accepted from him, and the others would all die and be burned there, they would not have agreed to the matter. But he didn't explain to them how the selection and how the non-selection would be. Also, they, in their foolishness, didn't ask him about it. They thought that the fire would come down from the heavens onto the chosen incense, and they and that they would all stand joined together so that each one of them could say that the fire descended upon his offering. This is similar to what happened to the prophets of Baal with Eliyahu. When Eliyahu proclaimed to them the test of the fire, they responded in one Malachim 1824, the proposal is good, because they thought that they would make their altars and their sacrifices joined with the altar of Eliyahu. They reasoned that inevitably either the fire would neither descend upon his nor upon theirs, and they would all be equal, or else the fire would descend, and they would say, The fire descended for us. And Ilihu would say, It descended for me, and the matter would remain in doubt in the eyes of the people, and Iliahu's words would not be verified. Iliahu saw that this was their plan. After they had agreed and accepted upon themselves this test, he said to them in 1825, choose for yourself for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are the many. In other words, he told them that they would not be doing all of their offerings together, but the prophets of Baal would do it first. Through this their evil was exposed. For the fire did not descend upon their offering. And that is what happened. Afterwards, Eliyahu did his offering, and the fire descended upon his altar. In the very same way it happened to Mosher Banu with Korah and his assembly. End quote. But, as Shlomohamek said, pride goeth before the fall, which originates from Mishlay 1618. They were so confident in their ability to trick the populace that they walked right into the trap of letting their opponents, i.e. Moshe and Eliyahuanavi, set up the terms and conditions of the test, thereby precluding the possibility of their devious schemes. So great was their foolish arrogance that it didn't even occur to them to clarify how exactly the test would take place. If they had, they wouldn't have agreed to it in the first place, out of fear for their lives. One of the more amusing examples of this mistake is the amazing Randy's debunking of famous psychics and practitioners of the occult. Randy's $1 million paranormal challenge promised $1 million to anyone able to demonstrate paranormal powers under pre-established scientific criteria. According to Wikipedia, over a thousand people applied for this challenge, but no one succeeded. Some of the applicants went so far as to be tested by Randy on live TV. For example, James Heydrich claimed to be able to move everyday objects, for example, a pencil and pages of a telephone book, using only the power of his mind. You can watch a clip of Heydrich demonstrating his powers without Randy's conditions, followed by a second attempt under Randy's conditions. Note that this was back when the challenge was only worth $10,000. Randy suspected that Heydrich was moving the objects by secretly blowing on them. To test his theory, Randy sprinkled foam packaging peanuts on the ground, sorry, not on the ground, on and around the telephone book and asked Heydrich to repeat the demonstration of his powers. Under these conditions, Heydrich would be unable to move the objects without revealing his trick. Surprise, surprise, Heydrich suddenly found that he was unable to do it. In fact, he tried for an hour and a half on live TV, but didn't succeed. At the time, he blamed his failure on static electricity generated by the foam and the lights. But this excuse didn't fool anyone. He was exposed as a fraud, and his career as a psychic came to an abrupt end. Randy similarly debunked the even more famous psychic Uri Geller on the Today Show in 1973. To the clear-thinking observer, it seems like a ludicrous move for fraudsters like Heydrich and Geller to submit themselves to a public test under the conditions set by a professional skeptic. And yet they agreed and put their careers on the line. Why? Because they were seduced by their pride into believing that they could hoodwink the observers with their trickery and that they were impervious to failure. The same is true of Korak's followers and the prophets of Baal. They knew their claims were bogus and they knew that Moshe and Eliahu were the real deal, but they still managed to delude themselves into believing that they could pull a fast one and spin the test results in their favor.