Finding Our Voice
In this week’s Parsha we read about the Korach episode,
which ends with the earth swallowing up Korach and his followers. This
punishment also affected all those who saw it:
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All Israel who were around them fled from their voice,
for they said, "Lest the earth swallow us up [too]!"
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לדוְכָל
יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר סְבִיבֹתֵיהֶם נָסוּ לְקֹלָם כִּי אָמְרוּ פֶּן תִּבְלָעֵנוּ
הָאָרֶץ:
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Most commentators understand this verse to mean that the people ran away from
the sound of the earth buckling and the rebels crying out as they were
swallowed alive. However if we look closely we notice that the prefix does not
fit with the translation I offered- Nasu L’kolam” really means to run “Towards
the voice” not away from the voice.”
The Korach Rebellion was a traumatic experience and a crisis
of faith for many of the Jewish People- beyond the 250 directly implicated in
the rebellion. Targum Yonatan ben Uzziel explains that as a result of these
events the people “nasu L’Kolam” they found their voice and proclaimed:
ואמרין זכאי הוא יי וקושטא היך דינוי וקושטא הינון פתגמי משה עבדיה
ואנן רשיעיא דמרדנא ביה
Hashem is righteous and the words of Moshe, His servant, are
true. We are wrong!
The Jews experienced something profound. They processed what happened; and by
doing so they found their voice to express a re-invigorated faith in and
commitment to God.
When we experience something traumatic, something profound,
something meaningful - large or small- it is an opportunity for us to flee
towards our voice, ie to find our voice that will lead us to growth and positive
change.
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