Korah's rebellion erupts against the background of the Jews being told that their generation would not enter the Land of Israel. Korah's co-conspirators, Datan and Aviram, play on the people's sense of despair. They use the term aliyah, ascent, both in the sense of "going up" to the Land of Israel – an ascent denied to them, and as a synonym for appearing before Moses and accepting his authority – an aliyah they refuse to make. "And Moses sent to call Datan and Aviram the sons of Eliav but they said: We will not ascend (לא נעלה)(Lo Naaleh). Is it a small thing that you have brought us up (העליתנו)(Haelitanu) out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? You have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey. We will not ascend (לא נעלה)"(Lo Naaleh) (Bamidbar 16:12-14). The existential need of the Jewish People outside of Israel to dream expectantly of a return to the Land, to live in the belief that "we will ascend," "נעלה,"(Naaleh) is a permanent one. Rav Kook (Orot, p.9) teaches that "it is only the anticipation of redemption that preserves Judaism in Exile while Judaism in the Land of Israel is the redemption itself."


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This is a weekly column contributed by Aloh Naaleh an organization devoted to motivating Jews to make Aliya.
Aloh Na'aleh
POB 4337, Jerusalem 91042
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