To Bring Forth Beauty

This week’s Torah portion is Korach, which concerns the famous conflict sparked by Moses’ cousin Korach, 2 of his neighbors, and 250 other leaders. After the bad news about having to wander for 38 more years, in last week’s Torah portion, Korach, a Levite, challenges Moses and Aaron, claiming that they have taken upon themselves too much authority. Moses tells Korach that God will choose who is holy, and subsequently, Korach and the rebels perish in an earthquake and fire respectively. Then a plague breaks out and Moses instructs Aaron to stop the plague with an offering of incense. Aaron stands between the living and the dead and stays the plague, but the people continue to complain about Moses and Aaron. In an effort to stop the murmuring, God tells Moses to have the head of each of the 12 tribes put a staff with his name on it in front of the Tent of Meeting, overnight, and to write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi. The Torah says, “And it came to pass, that on the next day Moses went into the Tent of Testimony; and, behold, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds.” Aaron has a wonderful reputation in the Torah. He is the High Priest, the older brother, but he is consistently a second fiddle to Moses. He is a peace maker, resolving quarrels and keeping the peace in Moses’ absence. In Midrash Rabba it says, 18:23 It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife; but every fool will be snarling (Prov. XX, 3). Aaron is also the appeaser who made the golden calf; the parent whose two eldest sons died before his eyes and the entire assembly, while he kept silent. He is the one who refused to keep one of God’s commandments to eat a sacrifice, because he felt unworthy; and Moses thought his reasoning was correct. He is the servant of God who sacrificed animals, one who heard confessions of the sins of the people each day and saw how sins, that cause death and waste, can be forgiven and cleansed. He was a people person, a regular guy when not in his royal robes and a good listener. When his staff, or mateh in Hebrew, bore fruit, God showed that beauty, creativity, and goodness came from him. Staff, mateh, also means below, which the rabbis connect with humility. The Torah underscores the qualities that bear fruit in a life. What qualities can bring forth beauty?: patience, service, humility, repentance, and sincerity of heart. A quiet that comes from below: that deep place where we are alone with ourselves and our divine essence; the refusal to separate ourselves, as Korach did, but to bind ourselves to our brothers and sisters by being at one with the group. Beauty comes from connection, nobility from service, and fruitfulness from the balance that humility brings to our participation. Creation is about love. Our sages say, it is only by love that God created the world. Love always Re-enacts creation. Bearing fruit is about union; the unification of the upper and lower realms. Aaron was a conduit connecting earth and heaven, He is a model not for the leader, but for the rest of us, those who try to help in the role we have been given to play in this life. May our love re-enact creation, unifying the upper and lower realms, bearing beautiful fruit in our lives allowing us to connect earth to heaven; and May our deeds bring forth beauty and union with our Divine essence.