This week’s Torah reading of Numbers 16–18 begins with a rebellion against Moses’ authority led by his cousin, Korah. Although Korah incurs God’s wrath and receives a terrifying punishment, his rhetoric seems, especially to the modern reader, a noble expression of egalitarian ideals. After accusing Moses of nepotism in appointing his brother Aaron as high priest, Korah declares, “All the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?”

Howard Kreisel examines various ancient and medieval rabbinic attempts to find evidence of Korah’s wickedness, and then turns to a talmudic passage holding up Korah’s revolt as “a dispute not for the sake of heaven,” which it contrasts with the “dispute for the sake of heaven” exemplified by that between the respective schools of the early rabbis Hillel and Shammai.

A clue to how to differentiate between these two types of disputes comes from a different [talmudic statement], also reflecting on the controversies between Hillel and Shammai. After noting a dispute between the two schools of the two sages regarding what is permitted and forbidden in certain cases of levirate marriage, we read [that] “the school of Shammai did not refrain from taking wives from the school of Hillel, and the school of Hillel did not refrain from taking wives from the school of Shammai.”

[A] colleague of mine told me a poignant story. On one of his travels, he met two Ḥasidim who belonged to a dynasty which currently is suffering a severe schism. . . . They saw him studying Talmud in the airport lounge, and they fell into conversation. The Ḥasidim related to him that the schism has become so severe that members of one faction will have nothing to do with members of the other, neither marrying them or doing business with them. My colleague was surprised by this and cited the [passage] about the schools of Hillel and Shammai.

“I see you missed the main point,” the elder Ḥasid responded. . . . “When a controversy is for the sake of heaven, then neither party has any difficulty in maintaining close ties with the other; both sides are united in their quest for truth even if they do not see eye to eye. But when the controversy is not for the sake of heaven, as is the case here, but for the sake of wealth and power, then neither side wants to have anything to do with the other.”

On the same day the cease-fire went into effect along the Israel-Lebanon border, rebel forces launched an unexpected offensive, and within a few days captured much of Aleppo. This lightening advance originated in the northwestern part of the country, which has been relatively quiet over the past four years, since Bashar al-Assad effectively gave up on restoring control over the remaining rebel enclaves in the area. The fighting comes at an inopportune for the powers that Damascus has called on for help in the past: Russia is bogged down in Ukraine and Hizballah has been shattered.

But the situation is extremely complex. David Wurmser points to the dangers that lie ahead:

The desolation wrought on Hizballah by Israel, and the humiliation inflicted on Iran, has not only left the Iranian axis exposed to Israeli power and further withering. It has altered the strategic tectonics of the Middle East. The story is not just Iran anymore. The region is showing the first signs of tremendous geopolitical change. And the plates are beginning to move.

The removal of the religious-totalitarian tyranny of the Iranian regime remains the greatest strategic imperative in the region for the United States and its allies, foremost among whom stands Israel. . . . However, as Iran’s regime descends into the graveyard of history, it is important not to neglect the emergence of other, new threats. navigating the new reality taking shape.

The retreat of the Syrian Assad regime from Aleppo in the face of Turkish-backed, partly Islamist rebels made from remnants of Islamic State is an early skirmish in this new strategic reality. Aleppo is falling to the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS—a descendant of Nusra Front led by Abu Mohammed al-Julani, himself a graduate of al-Qaeda’s system and cobbled together of IS elements. Behind this force is the power of nearby Turkey.