Parshas Korach - leadership optional?

Rashi, in his comments on the beginnings of Korach’s rebellion, cites a story from Midrash Tanchuma. As the story goes, Korach and his followers all put on garments made entirely of techeiles (the blue dye used to color one of the fringes in Tzizit) and went to Moshe. They asked: “If a four-cornered garment is made entirely of techeiles, does it require fringes with a string dyed in techeiles?” Moshe replied that such a garment still required the addition of fringes with one thread of techeiles. Korach and his followers then mocked Moshe, saying that surely a garment made entirely of techeiles should be holy enough.

The midrash continues: Korach and his followers then filled a house with Torah scrolls and asked Moshe if the house required a mezuzah. He told them that the house still needed a mezuzah and the rebels mocked him, saying that the presence of all the scrolls makes the mezuzah superfluous.

What is going on in this midrash? In his notes on Rashi, Rabbi Avrohom Davis suggests that this midrash offers a colorful illustration of one of Korach’s primary challenges to Moshe and Aaron’s leadership of the people. In both cases in the midrash, the question the rebels posed was:  Does the addition of one small significant article truly change the status of a larger entity, if that entity is already suffused in holiness? The analogies of the midrash reflected the rebels’ bold philosophical argument, that since all the people heard God’s voice at Sinai, and were thus spiritually elevated, they did not need Moshe and Aaron to serve as teachers and guides.

Moshe effectively disproved the argument of Korach and his followers with the assistance of an unprecedented miracle - the ground opened up on cue and swallowed all the rebels (Number 16:28-35). Yet Korach’s argument, that Jewish leadership is often irrelevant, is one that periodically reemerges. On occasion we encounter Jews who resent the demands of religious life and, as a means of justifying their lethargy, they will grouse openly with their friends about the wisdom or authority of their rabbis. Our modern day religious leaders cannot summon mini-earthquakes, so they are unable to easily dispatch their detractors. But in my experience, those who are not able to find a constructive way to work within their religious community are often ‘swallowed up’ in their grievances and find themselves isolated just the same.