This week we read Parshat Korach, a portion that asks a timeless question:
What does it mean to challenge power in a holy way?
Korach confronts Moses and Aaron: “All the community is holy — why do you elevate yourselves above us?” It sounds like a call for equality. But was it about justice… or envy?
The rabbis say Korach’s mistake wasn’t the question — it was the intention. Still, maybe he voiced something true: Holiness doesn’t belong to a few. We are all holy. So how do we tell the difference between ego and righteous dissent?
We explore Torah’s vision of holiness — not as rank or power, but as how we live, how we honor the sacred. And we ask: what happens when today’s dissenters are treated like Korach — not because they’re wrong, but because they’re inconvenient?
Sometimes, the ones who challenge us are the ones calling us back to our deepest values.
Rabbi Cat’s Musings on When the Palace Is Not Safe: Purim, Patriarchy, and the Cost of Proximity to Power
Rabbi Cat challenges the themes of Purim, contextualizing them within systems of power, complicity, and sexual exploitation.
