Korach - First and Foremost

Parshat Korach - First and Foremost:  When memorizing a list of items, people usually get the first one or two and maybe the last couple, but in a long list, the middle gets forgotten.  It’s just something about the way humans and their minds work that the first makes an impression.  It’s the same with a collection of valuables, the one that we get first is often most prized. 

And according to Sefer ha-Chinuch, the medieval book about the mitzvot, the same can be said when a person first becomes a parent, that first child is simply special for being the first and so transformative for the family and everyone concerned.  Our Torah portion this week wraps up with a reminder of the law stated earlier that a first-born son must be redeemed by his family from the kohanim, the priests.  This is, according to Chinuch, a reminder of both the days when the first-born were the priests, but also because, “we acknowledge that whatever we posses in reality belongs to God.  A person’s first acquisition is usually the most precious in his eyes, therefore in giving the “first” to God we demonstrate that we remember this important fact.”

What benefit is it to “give” the “first,” most “precious” to God?  We human beings can easily fall victim to our own sense of self-importance, we can let our egos and what’s “ours” to get in the way of what’s right or actually best.  When we let this happen, we can harm relationships and the world around us, unnecessarily defending “ours” against everything and everyone else.  Let’s not be too quick to do that.  And remembering that what we think is ours is really God’s, is a good place to start.  That doesn’t mean we can’t still care passionately or love that which is God’s, nor does it mean that we can’t fall victim to standing up for what is God’s when God doesn’t need the help (let alone using the notion that we are defending “God’s” when really we are back to defending what we think is ours again). 

So, when you feel threatened or on the attack, or overly anxious about things, try to remember that it all belongs to God, that its okay to be strong by not fighting, by even surrendering sometimes.  Going back to the parshah’s example, our kids are our responsibility, it’s true.  But they will grow and develop, have interests and personalities that may be different and even at odds with our own.  Do we need to bend them back to being what we think they should be?  Or do we need to foster and nurture what God saw fit to add to the world by bringing them into it?  The parshah tells us it’s the latter – and it’s true as much about our first child as the last child of someone else.