APPLICATION FOR CLEMENCY
KORACH BEN ITZAR BEN KOHATH
BEFORE THE COURT OF HISTORY – YEAR 2024, original plea was 2021
I am Korach….Korach Ben Itzar, in the line of Kohath, in the line of Levi.
I am a Levite, one of the many Levites in the Bible who are known for their work in lieu of military service and who are unlanded by designation in the Bible.
We distinguish ourselves by loyalty to the Temple. And before the times of the Temple, to the Mishkan….the traveling Sanctuary of Divinity.
I am assigned, by virtue of my clan, to carry the Holy Objects of the Mishkan; and, as is my Blessing, to carry the Menorah of Gold. I am a Porter, in the line of the class of porters, whose eternal order of duties will never change.
I am born into my clan, my duty is, as will be the duty of my offspring, to carry the Menorah in its holy wrapping as part of the Holy Objects of the inner Sanctuary of the Mishkan, the dwelling place of Divinity. In the eternal Order, I carry, but never see, the holy Menorah, whose Light is also eternal. One could say I carry the Illumination of Creation on my back and shoulders, close to my heart.
I do not complain of this task; it is my Blessing.
I did speak out on one occasion where I spoke for the voiceless….those soldiers, chieftains of tribes and their families who were ordered by Moses , in the words of Divinity, to stand down from further duty….to live out their lives in the desert and die there…in view of the Promised Land across the Jordan River. For the record, Moses acted out of a deep caring for all of the community of the Israelites; and also out of his own deep connection with Divinity with whom he shared a lifetime of closeness.
So I did not speak out against Moses as a leader; nor out of jealousy of my first cousin Moses, son of Amram, my uncle.
No, I spoke to a notion of Justice that cried out to be heard. I was there and vividly remember the cries of anguish of the soldiers, begging to return to Egypt or at least die out in the desert; there were words of Fear. Fear, that most human trait, felt in the middle of the night, Fear of death, annihilation, fear that stalks the soul in the dark of night. The soldiers had forgotten momentarily how to deal with their fear….had forgotten their own bravery in leaving Egypt and directly facing their fear in facing the oncoming Egyptian charioteers.
I SPEAK directly to history…these were the same persons who a year earlier had faced fear and helped drive their community to freedom, liberation from slavery and to receive the gift of Torah. The fear that was overcome became the celebration of Passover and liberation from slavery.
Who was Moses to forget this? What right did he have, in the name of the Divinity, to condemn an entire precious community to live out their lives in the wasteland of their mistake? This generation that had known Sinai and more importantly the Gift of the Mishkan.
Savage night….savage decree.
So I spoke out and rallied against Moses and his Priests…and suffered the consequences. Surely what also motivated me was the insurgency of the Priesthood and their taking over the direction of the community…and that is the actual and true story. And look at how the Priesthood ended up. The priests in the counting house with Moses divvying up booty; that’s the actual story. Moses and his priests losing sight of the Light.
Why wouldn’t I speak up…only a few dared to join me. Fear ran through the camp. An unsuccessful military mission made the situation worse…and then silence spread over the camp with the realization of the decree of a slow death by attrition. So I spoke, I did speak. I have served out some three thousand years in historical infamy and every year when its time to read my story…it’s always about the Rabbis and the machlochet, the argument about my ego and need for aggrandizement rather than an argument for truth. It gets told over and over.
It’s never about the Freedom Fighters losing their nerve momentarily or of never being given a second chance….a chance at redemption.
Redemption, that most important notion of Forgiveness that runs through the Torah. Oh, the practitioners of the Golden Calf were given a second chance, Judah is given a second chance. Levi, our own Tribal seed, given a second chance for redemption through service.
The wild sons of Jacob, even his bed warmer, were Blessed; but not us. Lost were the persons who received the Light of Sinai and the Mishkan….an entire community who carried the original Light…condemned….they were the Holy Ones. Please consider what Israel would be like now had those persons been redeemed and enabled to bring their Light into the Promised Land. The Holiness Code, their own training ground in the Mishkan, was lost, rotting in the Desert.
And I spoke for them.
I now apply for Clemency as I approach my three thousandth year in infamy.
I ask this Court of History to understand why I did what I did. I ask this Court to nullify its Judgment of me as a traitor, a seditious rabble rouser whose narrative in our Bible is met with silent guttural disdain; my name a catch phrase for ill will and obloquy.
I am Korach, son of Itzar, son of Kohath. A Porter who brings his Message to this Court.
Respectfully submitted,
Robert Jaffe
On behalf of Korach
Copyright…..2021