Korach was jealous that Moshe Rabbeinu chose someone else to be the Nasi of his Shevet. He started convincing Yidden that there should be no leader — everyone should be special! Moshe tried to stop the machlokes.

Moshe’s cousin, Korach, was very upset. Moshe Rabbeinu chose Elitzafan ben Uziel as the Nasi of his Shevet. Korach thought that HE deserved to be the Nasi!

(Uziel was the youngest brother of Amram, Moshe Rabbeinu’s father. Korach’s father, Yitzhar, was the oldest brother after Amram. He felt that he should have been the next choice for a leader. Korach didn’t know that HASHEM told Moshe to pick someone else.)

Korach said that it wasn’t fair that Moshe and Aharon should be in charge of the Yidden — ALL of the Yidden are special, so nobody should be in charge! Nobody should get to be kohanim and be more special.

Korach convinced his sons, his neighbors Dasan and Aviram, and his neighbors from Shevet Reuven — the sons of Eliav, and On ben Peles — to join him.

They gathered together 250 Yidden, including many important people (like the Nesiim and the judges) to go against Moshe. They asked Moshe a question to show that nobody should be more special:

“If we wear a robe made ALL out of Techeiles, do we need to put Tzitzis (with a techeiles string) on it?”

When Moshe answered yes, they laughed at him and said that it doesn’t make sense! If the WHOLE robe is made of Techeiles, why does it need one more techeiles string?

They were trying to tell Moshe that ALL of the Yidden are special (like techeiles) and they don’t need one string to be separate (like Moshe and Aharon) to be in charge of them! They said, “ALL of the Yidden are holy! Why do you try to be more important than everyone else?”

Moshe was afraid that all of the Yidden would join them, and that Hashem would punish ALL of the Yidden! Hashem told Moshe that only Korach and the people that join him would be punished.

Moshe told Korach to wait until the next day (so he had a chance to do Teshuvah).

Then, the next day, Korach can bring Ketores to see if Hashem wants EVERYONE to be the Kohen Gadol. The ketores is more special than all of the other korbanos, but it could be dangerous, like we saw with Nadav and Avihu. Moshe Rabbeinu said that this would be a good way to see what Hashem really wants.

Moshe tried to make Korach feel better, by telling him how special it is to be a Levi and sing in the Mishkan. He reminded Korach that it was HASHEM Who decided who should be the Kohen Gadol! So they aren’t just going against Moshe — they are going against HASHEM!

Moshe wanted to make Dasan and Aviram feel better too, but they didn’t want to talk to Moshe.

Instead, they said, “You were supposed to bring us into Eretz Yisroel, and instead you want to kill us in the desert — you want to be in charge of us!”