My children completely disagree with me about the ‘Role Model’ this week, and it has sparked a great deal of discussion in the house. How could I possibly pick Onn Ben Pelet? Firstly, he is hardly a conventional Role Model. Secondly, he is a remarkably obscure figure whose story emerges primarily through Rabbinic tradition in Midrash and Gemara. They argue that I am diminishing the entire ‘Role Model’ project. Onn Ben Pelet is certainly not Miriam.

But that objection and its depth is why I have decided to proceed.

Three weeks into this series, I am taking a deliberate risk. Onn Ben Pelet is not one of the Torah’s obvious heroes. Yet for a particular kind of courage, the courage to stop, he deserves recognition according to the views of the Rabbi’s. He did something that many human beings find extraordinarily difficult. He became swept up in a rebellion, stood at the edge of destruction, and then quietly walked away.

If we think about it, it is something that happens to so many people, especially younger people, who know what it means to get caught up in the wrong crowd, the wrong argument, the wrong movement, or the wrong momentum. The pressure to continue can become overwhelming even when a person already senses that disaster lies ahead.

The fact that this sparked such a debate in my house is precisely the point. I would like my writing to contribute to a similar kind of passionate conversation in other homes. Why do the Rabbis focus so deeply on this otherwise marginal figure? What are they teaching us through the Torah’s silence? And why did Rashi, whose commentary is so often rooted in the plain meaning of the text, choose here to direct us so explicitly toward a Midrashic tradition?

These are not fringe questions. These are exactly the kinds of questions thoughtful young people are asking or questioning in one form or another. Many struggle to understand how Midrash and Rabbinic interpretation works, particularly when they encounter modern habits of literal and historical reading. We can either avoid those conversations entirely or engage them seriously and respectfully within the framework of Torah itself.

The Torah introduces him once, in the first sentance of the Parshah. Then he vanishes.

At the very beginning of the rebellion, Onn Ben Pelet is named alongside the central instigators:

וַיִּקַּח קֹרַח בֶּן........

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