Moshe responded to Korach that in the morning, boker, Hashem will specify which individual is endowed with sanctity and should be brought close. This selection is not predicated by the community sanctity that Korach champions. Rather Hashem will select the leader by considering the individual’s sanctity. Boker derives from the root word to discriminate, to differentiate. Boker means the period of clarity when one can distinguish. Korach’s concept of sanctity was erev, a time of uniformity, monotony, when individuals merges into a single obscured and amorphous mass. Moshe countered that boker connotes sanctity, as the period when the world starts to appreciate sanctity attained by the individual.
In future article, be’ezras Hashem, we will analyze Korach’s second argument against Moshe’s leadership and its connection to attempts to delegitimize Torah Sh’beal Peh.