It’s an iconic scene – a satire of conformity disguised as rebellion. In Monty Python’s Life of Brian, a crowd gathers to assert their independence. They triumphantly declare: “We’re all individuals!” And one lonely voice pipes up: “I’m not!”
As if he had read the playbook, Korach, who we read about in this week’s sedra, uses the same slogan for his rebellion: “All the people in the community are holy!” And therefore, “Why do you [Moshe and Aharon] elevate yourselves over God’s community?”
Now here is the twist: Korach is not wrong, at least not entirely. His argument seems reasonable, even noble.
Yes, we are all holy. God Himself calls us a “Kingdom of priests and a holy nation”. But that does not mean we are all the same. Not everyone can be the leader – there is only one Cohen Gadol, one Moshe Rabbeinu. Holiness does not mean uniformity, it means using our unique gifts in service of something higher.
Just like a symphony needs many instruments playing different parts, so too the Jewish people thrive not in uniformity, but in harmony.
How did Korach get this so wrong?
The story is told of a man who grew up in a very remote village in the American Southwest. After a lifetime of saving, he finally visits New York City. As he walks the bustling streets in the summer heat, something puzzles him. He sees boxes sticking out of windows, blowing hot air. Steam is rising from manhole covers. “Why,” he wonders, “are they heating the sidewalks?”
He saw but misunderstood. He confused the function of something with its form.
Korach made a similar mistake. He saw power and holiness concentrated in a few individuals and assumed something was broken. The reality was that Moshe and Aharon were not elevated to inflate their egos, they were appointed to serve both God and the people.
The tragedy is that Korach was a man of great stature: wealthy, influential, intellectually gifted. But like many tragic figures, his downfall came not from what he lacked but from a destructive fixation on what he did not have. And that same risk exists for all of us.
We all have blessings, and we all have areas we feel we are lacking. The danger comes when our pursuit of what we do not have blinds us to what we do, when jealousy overshadows gratitude, and ambition overrides purpose. But the Torah offers us a better path: one of individual holiness, unique mission, and inner integrity. We are all holy and that holiness is realised when we serve God not as copies of one another, but as our truest, most authentic selves.
Korach’s mistake was turning equality into envy, and it acts as an eternal reminder to us: we’re all individuals not because we’re the same but because each of us has something only we can do. When we do it, then we are holy.
Rabbi Chapper is at Borehamwood & Elstree Synagogue
