What Happened After Korach…. By:Aviva Kessock

Making the Cover of the Mizbach

פסוקים א-ה:

פרק י”ז begins right after the rebellion of קרח were destroyed, and now בני ישראל is feeling very upset after the deaths.

Hashem tells משה directions, to tell אהרון ,אלעזר’s  son. אלעזר is supposed to clean up from where the 250 leaders were burned. He needs to collect all the firepans, hammer and flatten them out and turn them into a beautiful cover for the mizbeach, 2″רִקֻּעֵ֤י פַחִים֙ צִפּ֣וּי לַמִּזְבֵּ֔חַ”. The firepans were used for a מצווה, so they are now holy, and can’t be used for a non-mitzvah activity. That’s what the פסוק is referring to when it says,1כי קדישו”  אלעזר successfully does this.

משה and אהרון Stopping the Plague 

פסוקים י”א-ט”ו:

משה tells his brother, אהרון to quickly go to the middle of the nation, and give קטורת, to get forgiveness from Hashem for them. אהרון ran to give the אהרו .קטורת was specifically told to give קטורת, because the nation thought that the קטורת caused אביהו,נדב, and the 250 leaders to be killed, so משה was showing them that their actions are the thing that is killing בני ישראל והחטא הוא הממית 5. , and when he got there, the plague was already happening to some of the people. He stood between the dead and the living, 6 “וַיַּֽעֲמֹ֥ד בֵּֽין־הַמֵּתִ֖ים” to persuade the       מלאך המת to stop the plague, and he did. There were a total of 14,700 people that died in the plague, but when אהרון returned back to משה in the אהל מועד, the plague completely stopped.