Deceptive Demagoguery and The Politics of False Nostalgia
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This sheet on Numbers 16 was written by Gil Troy for 929 and can also be found here
Korach is Jewish history’s Disreputable Rebel. But for a tradition proud of producing mavericks like Abraham and Baruch Spinoza, Theodor Herzl and Menachem Begin, Betty Friedan and Natan Sharansky, rebellion is not necessarily wicked. In fact, what Shimon Peres called the “Jewish dissatisfaction gene” generated 66 volumes of Talmudic debate, billions in start-up revenue, innovations galore in theology, technology, philosophy, philanthropy, academia, science.
What then is Korach’s sin in mutinying against Moses and Aaron?
Note Numbers 16:13.“Is it not enough that you have brought us out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the desert,” Korach charges. Peddling such false nostalgia for Egypt to a people clearly vulnerable to such fantasies is unforgivable.
True, leaders good and bad love evoking Golden Ages – whether they existed or not. Donald Trump’s promise to “Make America Great Again” echoed Franklin D. Roosevelt’s very different 1932 campaign vowing “Happy Days are Here Again.” In On Revolution the philosopher Hannah Arendt taught that the word revolution evokes a cycle, returning to purity, to first principles.
But Korach perverts a common rhetorical riff into treasonous propaganda. He builds his Politics of False Nostalgia with an ideological hijacking. He steals God’s vision of future grace – arriving in a Promised Land flowing with milk and honey. He then manipulatively applies it to describe the enslaving Egypt the unsettled children of Israel know and now miss rather than the redemptive Israel they’ve been promised. Such deceptive demagoguery is subversive, creating a clash of mutually exclusive visions.
Korach’s categorical, sweeping, all-or-nothing, us-versus-them, approach to politics explains Chapter 16’s opening word – VaYikach – and Korach took himself, separated himself from the Mosaic status quo. That petty Levite tribal jealousies motivated him and his co-conspirators made them ordinary political hacks. That he used his dissent to repudiate our community, our leaders, our values, and our vision so thoroughly made him, extraordinarily – dare we say it -- revolting.
May Korach’s destructive deceit caution us to beware those who reject categorically rather than criticize constructively. Let’s keep political critiques of healthy democratic communities contained and patriotic – except when forced by an evil Korachian leader or policy. May we usually be guided by the wisdom of my rebbe. New York’s former mayor Ed Koch, who advised, “if you agree on 9 out of 12 issues, vote for me; if you agree on 12 out of 12 issues – see a psychiatrist.”
What then is Korach’s sin in mutinying against Moses and Aaron?
Note Numbers 16:13.“Is it not enough that you have brought us out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the desert,” Korach charges. Peddling such false nostalgia for Egypt to a people clearly vulnerable to such fantasies is unforgivable.
True, leaders good and bad love evoking Golden Ages – whether they existed or not. Donald Trump’s promise to “Make America Great Again” echoed Franklin D. Roosevelt’s very different 1932 campaign vowing “Happy Days are Here Again.” In On Revolution the philosopher Hannah Arendt taught that the word revolution evokes a cycle, returning to purity, to first principles.
But Korach perverts a common rhetorical riff into treasonous propaganda. He builds his Politics of False Nostalgia with an ideological hijacking. He steals God’s vision of future grace – arriving in a Promised Land flowing with milk and honey. He then manipulatively applies it to describe the enslaving Egypt the unsettled children of Israel know and now miss rather than the redemptive Israel they’ve been promised. Such deceptive demagoguery is subversive, creating a clash of mutually exclusive visions.
Korach’s categorical, sweeping, all-or-nothing, us-versus-them, approach to politics explains Chapter 16’s opening word – VaYikach – and Korach took himself, separated himself from the Mosaic status quo. That petty Levite tribal jealousies motivated him and his co-conspirators made them ordinary political hacks. That he used his dissent to repudiate our community, our leaders, our values, and our vision so thoroughly made him, extraordinarily – dare we say it -- revolting.
May Korach’s destructive deceit caution us to beware those who reject categorically rather than criticize constructively. Let’s keep political critiques of healthy democratic communities contained and patriotic – except when forced by an evil Korachian leader or policy. May we usually be guided by the wisdom of my rebbe. New York’s former mayor Ed Koch, who advised, “if you agree on 9 out of 12 issues, vote for me; if you agree on 12 out of 12 issues – see a psychiatrist.”
Gil Troy is a Distinguished Scholar of North American History at McGill University, and is the author of The Zionist Ideas.
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