(Numb. 20:25-26:) “Take Aaron [and his son Elazar] […,] And strip Aaron.” The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses, “See, you may console him that he is bequeathing his crown to his sons. [This is] something that you are not bequeathing to your [own] children.” (Numb. 20:28:) “So Moses stripped Aaron of his vestments and put them [on his son Elazar].” But if the high priest leaves the Temple mount in priestly vestments, does he not receive forty lashes, since [these vestments] are [made of] wool and flax? However, [Scripture serves] to inform you that, with the wording by which he inducted him into the priesthood, when [the Holy One, blessed be He,] said to [Moses] (in Lev. 8:2), “Take Aaron,” with this very wording He also said to him (in Numb. 20:25), “Take Aaron.” (Numb. 20:27:) “So Moses did as the Lord commanded....” [This verse serves] to teach you that, even though He had spoken a decree against his brother, he did not hesitate. (Numb. 20:29:) “Then all the congregation saw that Aaron had died.”
When Moses and Elazar came down [from the mountain], the whole congregation assembled themselves against them and said, “Where is Aaron?” They said to them, “He is dead.” They said to them, “How could the angel of death hurt him, a man who has halted the angel of death and held him back?” It is so stated (in Numb. 17:13), “So he (i.e., Aaron) stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was halted.”
They said to them, “If you bring him [back], well and good; but if not, we will stone you [to death].” At that time Moses rose in prayer. He said, “Master of the world, bring us out from [this] suspicion.” Immediately the Holy One, blessed be He, opened the [burial] cave and showed him to [the congregation] for them. It is so stated (in Numb. 20:29), “Then all the congregation saw that Aaron had died.”