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Last week's Torah portion today: The earth just opened up and swallowed them!


Cenote (sinkhole) near Chichen Itza, Mexico. Photo by Nikonian Novice.


Yesterday morning, someone parked their car on a downtown street here in Saint Louis, went into the gym and when they came out, found their car in a sinkhole. 

The earth just opened up and swallowed their car!

Well, actually, sinkholes develop overtime. The rock and soil underneath us whittle away from the acidic water that carves out underground passages that cause voids.  After awhile, the voids get filled in with the soil and rock from above and eventually cave in. 

Last week's portion was Korach, not to be confused with my name, Koach. In the beginning of this parsha, we see Korach challenging Moses and Aaron's leadership.

Numbers 16: 1-3 states Now Korah, son of Izhar son of Kohath son of Levi, betook himself, along with Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—descendants of Reuben—to rise up against Moses, together with two hundred and fifty Israelites, chieftains of the community, chosen in the assembly, men of repute. They combined against Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! For all the community are holy, all of them, and the LORD is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above the LORD’s congregation?”

Moses tells Korach that in order to settle this, they will need to do the wilderness version of Beat Bobby Flay. Moses and Korach grab their fire pans and incense so they can present them to G-d who will declare the winner. G-d of course picks Team Moses and the earth opens up and swallows Korach and his people. 

The earth just opened up and swallowed them!

Well actually, my guess is that the rock and soil that was eroded gave way and these folks fell to their death. 

And all of this got me thinking about us and our work towards liberation for all people. 

What are those things eroding us, causing voids that don't allow us to see the impending danger?

Do we really believe this competition, or as some put it, oppression olympics, will get us free?

What will we do to firm up the foundation so we don't sink back into the pits of white supremacy?


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