that Korah was not really interested in changing the system, but merely in taking it over. Korah was thus a dangerous demagogue. The 20th century Reform Rabbi Gunther Plaut reported that source-critics saw two traditions in , a Korah rebellion directed against Aaron and Levitical privilege (assigned to the Priestly source), and an anti-Moses uprising led by Dathan and Abiram (assigned to the J/E source). Plaut wrote that the Korah story appears to reflect a struggle for priestly privilege in which Korah's people, originally full priests and singers, were after a power struggle reduced to doorkeepers. The story of the rebellion of Dathan, Abiram, and members of the tribe of Reuben, Plaut wrote, may represent the memory of an intertribal struggle in which the originally important tribe of Reuben was dislodged from its original preeminence. Plaut read the words "Korah gathered the whole community" in to indicate that the people did not necessarily side with Korah but readily came out to watch his attack on the establishment. Plaut noted, however, that indicates some dissatisfaction rife among the Israelites. Plaut concluded that by not backing Moses and Aaron, the people exposed themselves to divine retribution. Professor Robert Alter of the University of California, Berkeley, noted ambiguity about the scope of the noun "congregation" (, edah) in . If it means Korah's faction, then in , Moses and Aaron pleaded that only the ringleaders be punished, not all 250 rebels. But subsequent occurrences of "community" seem to point to the whole Israelite people, so Alter suggested that Moses and Aaron may have feared that God was exhibiting another impulse to destroy the entire Israelite population and start over again with the two brothers. Professor Nili Fox of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and Terence Fretheim, Professor Emeritus at Luther Seminary, shared the latter view. Fox wrote that God was apparently ready to annihilate Israel, but Moses and Aaron appealed to God as Creator of humanity in and appealed to God's sense of justice in , arguing that sin must be punished individually rather than communally. Similarly, Fretheim reported that Moses and Aaron interceded arguing that not all should bear the consequences for one person. And Fretheim also saw the phrase "the God of the spirits of all flesh" in (which also appears in ) to appeal to God as Creator, the One who gives breath to all. In Fretheim's view, God