Datan and Aviram: A Lesson in Happiness

Datan and Aviram appear in this week's parsha as Korach's sidekicks, but, as often is the case in rabbinic literature, when a particular characteristic or quality trait appears in multiple instances, the sages state that the actors in one instance are the very same actors as the other instances when the traits described are at play. 

And so, Datan and Aviram became the symbol of dispute, for the sake of dispute itself. They like conflict, live off of it, and thrive on it. 

But, who really were Datan and Aviram?!

In rabbinic literature they were similarly heroic, like righteous Judenrat of the camps who took the blows rather than see other Jews suffer. 

Yet, upon Moshe's second foray to see his brother's suffering, it is, our sages teach us, Datan and Aviram who are fighting. We do not know why they are fighting, but one tries to strike the other, and Moshe says, "Evil man, why would you strike your brother?"

It would seem that Datan and Aviram had an identity crisis. They respond to Moshe, "Are you going to kill us like you killed the Egyptian?!" 

The day prior Moshe had looked all around him to make sure the "coast was clear" before striking the Egyptian, so it seems like Datan and Aviram managed to camouflage themselves, or truly have their finger on the pulse to understand what had transpired. They were with it, yet at the same time, in their heart of hearts they were renegades, loyal but not loyal at the same time. It would seem that their loyalty, though, was only up to a certain limit.

When the Sea of Reeds was split, the Medrash shares they were not there. They waited to see what would happen, likewise, later, the sages teach that they were the ones who didn't have full trust and held on to their manna to make sure they'd have for the next day, rather than trusting in its reappearance, and similarly, after the sin of the spies, they promulgated returning to Egypt. 

What was the essence of their rebellious spirit? The sages teach that when the verse states that those who sought to kill Moshe in Egypt had died, it was Datan and Aviram who had become impoverished, and therefore were considered dead because they had lost their sway with the kingship. 

Pirkei Avot teaches that a "rich man is happy with what he has," and it would seem that this duo was the exemplar of the conflicted soul in exile, deeply dedicated to his people, but rife with internal strife that spills out to his fellow man and festers in his relationship with others, not knowing what his loyalties were. The poverty was one of spirit, reminiscent of what Biff says about his late father, Willy in Death of a Salesman, "He never know who he was."