PARASHAT KORACH DESCRIBES the punishment that befalls two groups of challengers. In the case of Dathan and Abiram, the rebels’ wives die along with their husbands. Yet in the Korah episode, only the men are punished. The story as a whole reflects a central biblical theme: the tension between a clan-based system of authority and a centralized system of priestly authority.
Dathan and Abiram represent what can be called clan heads or household heads. (The biblical terminology is not always consistent.) Early in Israel’s history, male heads of families had authority and jurisdiction over their families. For example, in Genesis 38 the patriarch Judah decides whether his pregnant, seemingly adulterous daughter-in-law Tamar should live or die. In contrast, the priest administers the ritual to determine whether a woman is an adulteress in Numbers 5.
According to the Bible, women within the clan system of authority played a significant role and exercised power as well as some authority. Although subject to the authority of the male head of the household, women clearly influenced the family head. For instance, unable to tolerate her rival, Sarah demands that Abraham expel Hagar. Despite Abraham’s reluctance, God tells him to obey Sarah (Genesis 21:12).
Texts that focus on the priesthood shift authority away from the family’s head toward the central sanctuary and its priests. Women, in particular, are affected by this shift (see at Leviticus 26:30). Whereas in Genesis 38 Tamar actively works to secure her fate, in Numbers 5 the suspected woman is a passive figure. The inclusion of the wives of Dathan and Abiram reflects the role that women played within the clan system.
Thus, Numbers 16 is not only a story of infighting among families, ultimately championing Aaron and his descendants; it also tells a story about the seeming demise of an important notion of the “biblical family.” The deaths of Dathan, Abiram, and their wives at the doorway to their tents (16:27) make the point painfully clear: after all, the entrance to the tent is a place associated with theophany and judgment in the clan system, and hence also a symbol of authority (Genesis 18:1; Deuteronomy 22:21). Together, Dathan, Abiram, and their wives represent the clan system that must be erased—swallowed whole—in order to establish the authority of the priesthood.
—Amy Kalmanofsky