A very curious description of the group with whom Korach associates himself for the purpose of confronting Moshe Rabbeinu is used by the Torah text. They are called..."Keri-ei moed." Who exactly are these people and where did Korach find them?
The Talmud of Sanhedrin, daf 110, enlightens us by the information which describes them as being scholars with consummate knowledge of matters dealing with the Jewish calendar, when to declare a new month, add a new month, and when to expand the Jewish year into a leap year.
That being the case, the question that now belies itself is: For what purpose did Korach align himself to go up against Moshe Rabbeinu?
Rabbi Yosef Salanter writes a beautiful response in his essays entitled Beer Yosef. What exactly is Korach after? Certainly not after Moshe Rabbeinu's position - no one wants that. Rashi adds that Korach's complaint was as follows: Moshe, if you wish to be the king (sic!) over us, that's OK - but it was totally inappropriate of you to have chosen your own brother Aaron as the Kohen Gadol. It was an arbitrary choice, smacking of nepotism. Aaron was not appointed as a result of his intrinsic worth, rather, because it is not what you know, but who you know!!
However, this seems to make little sense. For, as we all know, Korach is described as a "pike-ach" - he is no fool. So how is it possible for him to stand up and state that Aaron was nothing but an arbitrary choice? For we have read the Rashi in Parshat Shemini, specifically the text describing the dedication of the mishkan...at which point he comments that for seven days, Moshe Rabbeinu as the then acting Kohen Gadol, officiated, served...and for seven days failed to bring the Shechinah into the mishkan...and the people of Israel felt its absence and complained. So Moshe Rabbeinu responds by delegating Aaron as his successor to the position of Kohen Gadol, and Aaron succeeds where Moshe Rabbeinu fails. So how can Korach make the statement that Aaron was only an arbitrary choice, for here we have clear and positive proof that he succeeded in bringing down the Shechinah where Moshe Rabbeinu could not.
Korach's argument is, however, that whomsoever Moshe Rabbeinu would have chosen would have been seconded by G-d, no matter who he would have been. Where did Korach get this idea that a human decision of choice would have received automatic Divine sanction? The only time this happens is in the halacha of Kiddush Ha-chodesh, for the principle is that, whenever the Beis Din declares a certain day to be Rosh Chodesh, even if they are mistaken, or even deliberately, G-d, as it were, sanctions that date in Heaven and all succeeding chagim fall out according to that calculation, even if the date is wrong. Thus, the principle is established that, when human beings make a decision, G-d places his Divine imprimatur on that decision. And that is why Korach associates himself with the “Keri-ei moed,” those individuals who knew the intricate laws and details of the Jewish calendar.
But Moshe's response shows the fallacy of the argument: for whereas the Beis Din can make an imperfect calculation regarding Kiddush Ha-chodesh, it would, however, be supremely impossible to make a halachic decision which turns day into night and vice versa - a mistake in the future cannot possibly be compared to what is obviously impossible to accept...and just as day cannot be turned into night, so the position of Kohen Gadol can only be accepted by someone with the proven expertise, and not someone totally undeserving of the role. An ineligible person could not be declared acceptable for the position.
And who was right? The Talmud in Baba Basra tells us about the journeys of Raba Bar Bar Chana who, when he arrived at the place where Korach and his group were swallowed up by the earth, heard them declare the following: "Moshe emes, ve-to-ra-so emes". And when do they say this? Says the Rashbam...every Rosh Chodesh!!
Shabbat Shalom.
