page_title: Korach (parsha)
section_title: Numbers chapter 18
hierarchical_section_title: Korach (parsha) / In classical rabbinic interpretation / Numbers chapter 18
caption_attribution_description: The Knesset Menorah, Jerusalem (detail - Hillel the Elder)
context_page_description: Korach or Korah is the 38th weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the fifth in the Book of Numbers. It tells of Korah's failed attempt to overthrow Moses.
  It constitutes Numbers 16:1–18:32. The parashah is made up of 5,325 Hebrew letters, 1,409 Hebrew words, 95 verses, and 184 lines in a Torah Scroll. Jews generally read it in June or July.
context_section_description: The Rabbis derived from the words of Numbers 18:2, "That they [the Levites] may be joined to you [Aaron] and minister to you," that the priests watched from upper chambers in the Temple and the Levites from lower chambers. The Gemara taught that in the north of the Temple was the Chamber of the Spark, built like a veranda (open on one or more sides) with a doorway to the non-sacred part, and there the priests kept watch in a chamber above and the Levites below. The Rabbis noted that Numbers 18:2 speaks of "your [Aaron's] service" (and watching was primarily a priestly function). The Gemara rejected the possibility that Numbers 18:2 might have referred to the Levites' service (of carrying the sacred vessels), noting that Numbers 18:4 addresses the Levites' service when it says, "And they shall be joined to you and keep the charge of the Tent of Meeting." The Gemara reasoned that the words of Numbers 18:2, "That they [the Levites] may be joined to you [Aaron] and minister to you," must therefore have addressed the priests' service, and this was to be carried out with the priests watching above and the Levites below.
  Rav Ashi read the repetitive language of Leviticus 22:9, "And they shall have charge of My charge" — which referred especially to priests and Levites, whom Numbers 18:3–5 repeatedly charged with warnings — to require safeguards to God's commandments.
  Rabbi Jonathan found evidence for the Levites' singing role at Temple services from the warning of Numbers 18:3: "That they [the Levites] do not die, neither they, nor you [Aaron, the priest]." Just as Numbers 18:3 warned about priestly duties at the altar, so (Rabbi Jonathan reasoned) Numbers 18:3 must also address the Levites' duties in the altar service. It was also taught that the words of Numbers 18:3, "That they [the Levites] do not die, neither they, nor you [Aaron, the priest]," mean that priests would incur the death penalty by engaging in Levites' work, and Levites would incur the death penalty by engaging in priests' work, although neither would incur the death penalty by engaging in another's work of their own group (even if they would so incur some penalty for doing so).
  But Abaye reported a tradition that a singing Levite who did his colleague's work at the gate incurred the death penalty, as Numbers 3:38 says, "And those who were to pitch before the Tabernacle eastward before the Tent of Meeting toward the sun-rising, were Moses and Aaron, . . . and the stranger who drew near was to be put to death." Abaye argued that the "stranger" in Numbers 3:38 could not mean a non-priest, for Numbers 3:10 had mentioned that rule already (and Abaye believed that the Torah would not state anything twice). Rather, reasoned Abaye, Numbers 3:38 must mean a "stranger" to a particular job. It was told, however, that Rabbi Joshua ben Hananyia once tried to assist Rabbi Joḥanan ben Gudgeda (both of whom were Levites) in the fastening of the Temple doors, even though Rabbi Joshua was a singer, not a door-keeper.
  A non-Jew asked Shammai to convert him to Judaism, on condition that Shammai appoint him High Priest. Shammai pushed him away with a builder's ruler. The non-Jew then went to Hillel, who converted him. The convert then read Torah, and when he came to the injunction of Numbers 1:51, 3:10, and 18:7 that "the common man who draws near shall be put to death," he asked Hillel to whom the injunction applied. Hillel answered that it applied even to David, King of Israel, who had not been a priest. Thereupon the convert reasoned a fortiori that if the injunction applied to all (non-priestly) Israelites, whom in Exodus 4:22 God had called "my firstborn," how much more so would the injunction apply to a mere convert, who came among the Israelites with just his staff and bag. Then the convert returned to Shammai, quoted the injunction, and remarked on how absurd it had been for him to ask Shammai to appoint him High Priest.
  Tractate Terumot in the Mishnah, Tosefta, and Jerusalem Talmud interpreted the laws of the portion of the crop that was to be given to the priests in Num
caption: Hillel (sculpture at the Knesset Menorah, Jerusalem)
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