Then Korah betook himself to the people to incite them to rebellion
against Moses, and particularly against the tributes to the priests
imposes upon the people by him. That the people might now be in a
position to form a proper conception of the oppressive burden to these
tasks, Korah told them the following tale that he had invented: "There
lived in my vicinity a widow with two daughters, who owned for their
support a field whose yield was just sufficient for them to keep body
and soul together. When this woman set out to plow her field, Moses
appeared and said: 'Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass
together.' When she began to sow, Moses appeared and said: 'Thou shalt
not sow with divers seeds.' When the first fruits showed in the poor
widow's field, Moses appeared and bade her bring it to the priests, for
to them are due 'the first of all the fruit of the earth'; and when at
length the time came for he to cut it down, Moses appeared and ordered
her 'not wholly to reap the corners of the field, not to gather the
gleanings of the harvest, but to leave them for the poor.' When she had
done all that Moses had bidden her, and was about to thrash the grain,
Moses appeared once more, and said: 'Give me the heave offerings, the
first and the second tithes to the priest.' When at last the poor woman
became aware of the fact that she could not now possibly maintain
herself from the yield of the field after the deduction of all the
tributes that Moses had imposed upon her, she sold the field and with
the proceeds purchased ewes, in the hope that she might now undisturbed
have the benefit of the wool as well as the younglings of the sheep.
She was, however, mistaken. When the firstling of the sheep was born,
Aaron appeared and demanded it, for the firstborn belongs to the
priest. She had a similar experience with the wool. At shearing time
Aaron reappeared and demanded 'the first of the fleece of the sheep,'
which, according to Moses' law, was his. But not content with this, he
reappeared later and demanded one sheep out of every ten as a tithe, to
which again, according to the law, he had a claim. This, however, was
too much for the long-suffering woman, and she slaughtered the sheep,
supposing that she might now feel herself secure, in full possession of
the meat. But wide of the mark! Aaron appeared, and, basing his claim
on the Torah, demanded the shoulder, the two cheeks, and the maw.
'Alas!' exclaimed the woman, 'The slaughtering of the sheep did not
deliver me out of thy hands! Let the meat then be consecrated to the
sanctuary.' Aaron said, 'Everything devoted in Israel is mine. It shall
then be all mine.' He departed, taking with him the meat of the sheep,
and leaving behind him the widow and her daughters weeping bitterly.
Such men," said Korah, concluding his tale, "are Moses and Aaron, who
pass their cruel measures as Divine laws." [567]
Pricked on by speeches such as these, Korah's horde appeared before
Moses and Aaron, saying: "Heavier is the burden that ye lay upon us
than was that of the Egyptians; and moreover as, since the incident of
the spies, we are forced annually to offer as a tribute to death
fifteen thousand men, it would have been better for us had we stayed in
Egypt." They also reproached Moses and Aaron with an unjustified love
of power, saying: "Upon Sinai all Israel heard the words of God, 'I am
thy Lord.' Wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation
of the Lord?" [568] They knew no bounds in their attacks upon Moses,
they accused him of leading an immoral life and even warned their wives
to keep far from him. [569] They did not, moreover, stop short at
words, but tried to stone Moses, [570] when at last he sought
protection from God and called to Him for assistance. He said: "I do
not care if they insult me or Aaron, but I insist that the insult of
the Torah be avenged. 'If these men die the common death of all men,' I
shall myself become a disbeliever and declare the Torah was not given
by God." [571]