Dvar tora parshat Korach by Martin Brody. Flower Power. Haight Ashbury, San Francisco 1967. Ah, those were the days. If you are under thirty you are probably unaware of the concept of flower power. It was part of the youth revolution, and peace movement. However silly it seemed, it has its source in this week’s Sedra, Korach. After Moses puts down the challenge to his leadership by his cousin Korach, there appears to be another challenge to Aaron and his role as the High Priest. God arranges a test. Each of the tribal leaders must bring his stick and put it in the Tabernacle. Alone amongst the others, Aaron’s stick, a weapon in the hands of brute man, buds into flowers and confirms his position. No battle is fought and the crisis was averted. Flower power reigns supreme. And Aaron becomes the paradigm of the seeker of peace, a major theme in Midrashic literature. The ultimate value in Judaism is peace. Whilst their contemporaries, such as those in ancient Greece were glorifying the exploits of its warrior heroes, Judaism’s prophets, Isaiah and Micah for example, were promoting the radical concept of peace between nations. The success of ancient Israel, and the miracle of the modern State of Israel, has been based on its ability to seek peace and flourish based on an agricultural economy. As noted before here, tiny Israel has taught many countries (often declared enemies) agronomic skills that have enabled the feeding of hundreds of millions of once starving people. What is remarkable is that ancient Israel came into being as a protest against two great empires, Babylon and Egypt. Both those empires were agricultural powerhouses, based on their constant and enormous sources of water, the Euphrates and the Nile, respectively, that brought them wealth and power. The Jews, promised a land of milk and honey, had no such luck, relying on Divine grace for rain Then, as now, despite the unpredictability of precipitation, they made the desert bloom. Flower Power, Negev, Israel, 2014 Shabbat Shalom
Posted on: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 20:30:53 +0000
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