The Propaganda War

by Rabbi Mordechai Rhine

Korach was an honorable man. He was one of the chosen few designated to carry the holy Aron. Then something went wrong. In this week’s Parsha we find him in a showdown with Moshe, the revered man of G-d. Korach tries to oust Aaron from the position of Kohein Gadol. By the time the story is over, Korach is swallowed up into the earth. The message of the Torah is clear: Korach was wrong. The question, however, is: Where did Korach go wrong?

I once heard a fascinating insight into the destructive power of jealousy. At first a person sees that which was given to someone else, and simply wishes that it had been given to him. If these feelings are left unchecked, then the person begins to go beyond wishful thinking. He actually begins to feel that it really should have been given to him. With time, if left unchecked, the feelings progress to a sense that the item or position in question really is his, but the other person took it unfairly. Finally, the person is so offended that someone else has what is rightfully his, that he starts a “righteous” crusade to try to correct the “wrong” which was done to him.

Korach was a very talented and dedicated man. What went wrong is that he was jealous, and did not rein in his jealousy. He wished to have been appointed as the Kohein Gadol instead of Ahron. He allowed his jealousy to progress until he turned his indignation into a “righteous” crusade. In the words of Chazal: “He bought a bad deal for himself.” In other words, we all buy things; we all invest; we all sacrifice for causes that we believe in. Korach bought big. But he bought into a bad cause.

Once Korach allowed jealousy to bring him to the point of his crusade, he realized that he needed to promote his cause of “righteousness”. So he started a propaganda campaign to delegitimize Moshe’s teachings and Moshe’s leadership. Towards the end of the story, Moshe declares, “I did not make anything up on my own. I was simply a messenger of Hashem.” Clearly the message that Korach was feeding the people- and to which Moshe was responding- was the claim that Moshe was unreliable. The Jewish people knew that Moshe was reliable. They had seen him as G-d’s messenger in Egypt, at the Sea, and in the desert, especially at the revelation at Sinai. But by saying the lie enough Korach was able to get a group of people to join his misleading crusade.

Even bad people realize the importance of packaging a cause and promoting it through propaganda. Even if they themselves are comfortable with doing evil, they realize that only if they guise their actions in the cloak of righteousness will the people around them tolerate their behavior. Hitler, for example, first set out to delegitimize his enemies by teaching the masses that his enemies were “subhuman”. Then he was able to proceed and eradicate them in the name of the crusade that he created. He was simply acting with nobility to promote “the cause”.

Indeed, man has the ability to design and to choose all kinds of causes. Some causes, like training for a specific sport or physical challenge, may be for purposes of clean entertainment, exercise, or testing human endurance. There is no intrinsic greatness in successfully slam dunking, for example, or climbing Mount Everest. Yet, man can legitimately choose a challenge, then pursue it with great dedication, and provide reward or respect for those who strive or succeed in its achievement.

However, it is possible for a person to choose an evil cause, and then through propaganda, promote it so that others should support or at least tolerate it. A person can switch from being a terrorist to being a freedom fighter, for example, simply by repeating a lie enough that people begin to believe it. As a freedom fighter one can somehow justify kidnapping, maiming, and killing. Propaganda claiming how deeply a person has been oppressed can literally change people’s perception of reality regarding a person or activity. Western man understands the power of propaganda in influencing the masses to support evil. Julius Streicher, for example, was found guilty of crimes against humanity and executed at Nuremberg in 1946, not for planning the Holocaust or for killing people, but rather for creating the propaganda which made such evil possible.

It is instructive that besides prohibiting theft, murder, and kidnapping, the Torah prohibits jealousy and malicious gossip. “Cursed is one who strikes another in a hidden way,” refers to incitement, where the blow cannot be clearly seen, but can be easily traced as being the source of the evil which follows.

The story of Korach is not just about Korach and the targets of his criticism, Moshe and Ahron. The story of Korach is the story of a person who chooses a bad cause and then promotes it with boldness and dedication, so that people who don’t pay attention too closely begin to believe the lie. It is a story of the Bible which aims to teach the lesson that despite the propaganda, eventually truth, honesty, and peace will persevere.

May Hashem grant the kidnapped boys a speedy and safe redemption. May Hashem bless us with safety and peace.

© 2014 by TEACH613™