Recent weekly Torah portions, among them Shelaḥlekh and Koraḥ, are often read as a collection of tales of sins, of spies, and of Koraḥ and his followers. It would be worthwhile to read those passages from another angle, as stories of the development of the Israelites from a nation in servitude to a people seeking a role in the processes of decision-making.
Yes, that occurs in a problematic fashion, but the people are no longer a collective of slaves but one of partnership. From this point on, their relationship with Moses is changed, because those who will enter the Promised Land are the children and grandchildren of those who left Egypt. They want a different kind of discourse, appropriate for people with informed opinions, free people.
This will require Moses too to change. Will he succeed? What do we learn from this? Simply that one can never step into the same river twice, as Heraclitus wisely said — an insight that should enlighten the path of every leader.
