Torah Reading – Pinchas
I record briefly for myself an issue from the Torah Reading – the Parsha of Pinchas, and perhaps for any advanced Torah students that might stumble by here.
Torah Reading – Pinchas
The Sons Of Korach
It would seem that there is a contradiction between what Rashi writes in this Torah portion regarding the sons of Korach to what he writes in Parshas Korach. In Parshas Korach, Rashi, when he writes why did Korach let himself get mixed up in this shtus, he writes there (from the Tanchuma) that Korach saw from himself a whole line of honorable decendents coming out from him, Shmuel, and the 24 mishmaros, and so forth, but his eye tricked him, because his sons repented before the end, see there, (16, 7). Yet here in Parshas Pinchas, on the verse that the sons of Korach did not die, Rashi writes from the Gemora in Sanhedrin, and from the Medrash Raba, that they indeed repented in their heart, and so the Almight’y prepared for them a protected high place in Gehenom, so that they didn’t die, “vayaishvu sham” and they sat there, or dwelt there, or stayed there.
What Happened Afterwards To The Sons Of Korach?
One may ask, what happened afterwards to the sons of Korach?
Isn’t that the main point, that they climbed out, to start a new life, to have decendents? The implication here is that not, and indeed when one opens the Gemora, one sees that at least according the first opinion there, they didn’t get out.
At any rate, the internet is not the forum for deep analytical exegesis, I just mention that the Mizrachi here on the spot, (26,11), relates to the whole problem very nicely, finds difficulty with resolving this given the way Rashi learns the Gemora, but suggests a different approach whereby one can resolve the question.
Boruch Rappaport
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