Korach and the politics of holiness

The traditional commentators have exerted great inventive efforts to indict Korach and justify the punishment meted out to his followers. But the very inventiveness necessary for these explanations highlights the difficulty of the matter: at first blush, it is hard to say what Korach did wrong.

In the beggining of parashat Korach, Korach the Levite and his followers address Moses and Aaron:"
רַב-לָכֶם-כִּי כָל-הָעֵדָה כֻּלָּם קְדֹשִׁים, וּבְתוֹכָם יְהוָה; וּמַדּוּעַ תִּתְנַשְּׂאוּ, עַל-קְהַליְהוָה יְהוָה..."
('Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them; wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?' - Bemidbar 16:3). This is pretty much all we learn about the reasons of their revolt.

What is wrong with this? Is it not true that all Israel has been declared holy? and if so, why are certain people elevated over the others in relation to this holiness?

The issue here is subtle but crucial. If we look back to the end of the preceding parasha we find the pasuk about tzitzit, where God tells Israel:" לְמַעַן תִּזְכְּרוּ, וַעֲשִׂיתֶם אֶת-כָּל-מִצְו‍ֹתָי; וִהְיִיתֶם קְדֹשִׁים,לֵאלֹהֵיכֶם " ("that ye may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy unto your God." - Bamidbar 15:40). Looking even further back, to the first mention of the holiness of Israel, we see a similar declaration:"דַּבֵּר אֶל-כָּל-עֲדַת בְּנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם--קְדֹשִׁים תִּהְיוּ: כִּי קָדוֹשׁ, אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם" ("Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them: Ye shall be holy; for I the LORD your God am holy." - VaYikra19:2).
No doubt, this is what Korach is referring to, but note the difference between what he is saying and the instances he purportedly refers to: the Korachite formulation doesn't include the injunctive 'hayitem', it simply declares that everybody is holy. For the faction of Korach holiness has already been achieved and is immanent in each person in the community. The Korachite politics of holiness derive from this that the current hierarchical order is unbalanced.
Yet the state of holiness is not something that Israel had reached: they "shall be holy" if they accept the yoke of Adonai, perform her mitzvot. The grammatical particle that Korach drops has the form of the past tense, but it is injunctive and projective at the same time: it is a "messianic" future tense.
Similarly, Korach takes for granted that "the Lord is among them". But is he? He is when his people follow his lead, but there are times when Israel rebels or forgets or cannot take the hardships of desert and uncertainty any more. This is when they sin and then the Lord is not among them any more (his absence being the very condition that gets to be defined as 'sin').
So this is Korach's error, the assumption that each Israelite has already reached a state of holiness and that polical claims can be based on this state of affairs. It is no small error, and its punishment is proportional to its dangers. If you think that the consequences are overkill, consider this: even being swallowed by the earth didn't eradicate the Korachite faction. It kept living underground only to resurface in modern Israel in the teachings of Merkaz Harav that inspired Gush Emunim and the settlement enterprise.