“It is too much for you, sons of Levi” (Numbers 16:7) – the Holy One blessed be He said to Moses: ‘You struck with a rod and with what you struck, you are stricken. You said: “It is too much for you [rav lakhem].” Tomorrow, you will hear: “Enough for you [rav lakh]”’ (Deuteronomy 3:26).34“Enough for you, do not continue speaking to Me anymore about this matter” – the matter of entering the Land of Israel.
“It was, as he concluded speaking all these words, the ground that was beneath them split” (Numbers 16:31) – to teach you that the Holy One blessed be He causes punishments to develop from any place that He chooses. “They and everything that was theirs descended alive into the abyss, and the earth covered them, and they were lost from the midst of the assembly” (Numbers 16:33). “Alive into the abyss” – some say that they live and endure to this day. “Covered them” – they were eliminated, but not their positions of authority, as others were appointed leaders of thousands and leaders of hundreds. “All Israel that were around them fled due to their sound, as they said: Lest the earth swallow us” (Numbers 16:34). “All Israel…fled due to their sound” – as they were screaming with their voices: ‘Moses our teacher, save us!’ “Fire emerged from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men, the presenters of the incense” (Numbers 16:35). “Fire emerged from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men, the presenters of the incense” – these were swallowed and those were consumed, and Koraḥ was standing among the consumed, as Moses said: “And you and Aaron, each his firepan” (Numbers 16:17). Koraḥ was stricken more that all of them, as he was consumed and swallowed. Why were two sentences executed upon him? It is because had he been consumed and not swallowed, the swallowed would have protested that is was none other than Koraḥ who brought this punishment upon them, and they are swallowed and he is spared? Had he been swallowed and not consumed, the consumed would have protested that is was none other than Koraḥ who brought this punishment upon them, and they were consumed and he was spared? That is why he was sentenced to two deaths. The fire first blazed before the eyes of the consumed, in whose hands were the firepan and the incense that was in it. The fire folded him into a ball and the fire rolled him until it brought him to the mouth of the earth with the swallowed, as it is stated: “The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, and their households, and all the people who were with Koraḥ, and all the property” (Numbers 16:32).