In this week’s Torah portion (Bamidbar/Numbers 16:1-18:32),
Korach plots to overthrow Moshe (Moses). “Korach…took [himself to one side]
along with Datan and Aviram, the sons of Eliav, and On ben (son of) Pelet,
descendants of Reuven. They confronted Moshe together with 250 men...” The
earth opens and swallows Korach and his followers, but the Sages teach that On
ben Pelet is spared, and that it is his wife who saves him.
The story is found in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 109b): “On
ben Pelet was saved by his wife. She said [to her husband], ‘What difference
does it make to you who is Rebbe [in charge]? In any case, you will [always
just] be a student/follower…They [the men who are rebelling] are all virtuous. Sit
back and I will save you.’ She got him drunk with wine and put him inside the
tent. She sat outside with uncovered hair [so that] anyone who came to get On
turned away, so he was never called to come [to the rebellion].” The wife of On
understands that the Congregation of Israel is holy and modest, so she could be
sure that no man would dare enter her tent if she were to appear immodest (with
uncovered hair).
The Midrash continues the story. “When death struck the evildoers,
the bed in which On slept began to slide toward the abyss. On’s wife gripped
its edge and prayed [for his salvation].”
Tiferet Tzion explains that the letter taf at the end of Pelet
indicates the feminine gender to hint that On was saved by his wife. (Pele,
ending in aleph, is the Hebrew word for miracle.)
Talmud (Sanhedrin 110) goes on with the story of the
wife of Korach, relating conversations between Korach and his wife. A shaven and
bald Korach returns from the purification ceremony inaugurating the Levites and
his wife hardly recognizes him. She says, “He [Moshe] treated you like excrement,
he made you shave all your hair, he wants that only he will look important…He
made a mockery of you…Also, he tells you to put [fringes of] techelet (blue)
on your garments. If it is so important, you should clothe your entire academy
in garments of techelet [not just the fringes].” She incites Korach against Moshe by implying that
Moshe has made up the mitzvot (commandments) that Levites must be shaven
and that only the fringes must be the color techelet.
Talmud (Sanhedrin 110) says that King Solomon wrote
about these two wives in Mishlei/Proverbs 14:1: “The wise woman [Wife of
On] builds her house; the foolish one [Wife of Korach] tears it down with her
own hands.”
In her book, Women at the Crossroads (p. 142), Rebbetzin
Chana Bracha Sielgelbaum cites the explanation of author Shoshanna Lepon: “A
man is motivated by the respect of his wife. On’s wife was interested in
building him up. She expressed concern
for her husband’s esteem when she asked, ‘What are you going to get out of Korach’s
rebellion?’ On’s wife was able to persuade her husband by caring about his respect
and demonstrating that he had nothing to gain by joining Korach.”
“Korach’s wife, on the other hand, related to her husband in
precisely the opposite way. Instead of building him up, she put him down and
degraded him by making fun of the way he looked after complying with Moshe’s command
to shave all the hair of his body. It was thus Korach’s attempt to regain the
respect of his wife that incited him to rebel against the authority of Moshe. He
wanted to save face and show his wife that he was enough of a man to stand up against
Moshe and prevent being made a fool in her eyes.”
http://books.google.com/books?id=4HVwBMI5zK0C&pg=PR12&lpg=PR12&dq=women+at+the+crossroads+siegelbaum
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