The wealth of Korach, swallowed in a moment

In addition to being one of the more colorful characters in the Torah, Korach is even more colorful as he is portrayed in the Talmud and Midrash.

A simple look at the commentaries brings one to understand his brilliant mind, his ability to twist Torah, mitzvot, and halacha to conform to his agenda of criticizing Moshe’s leadership (which is less apparent in the Torah) and Aharon’s role as Kohen Gadol, his primary objection.

One of the more seemingly inconsequential details raised is that Korach was exceedingly wealthy. (Pesachim 119a)

We know that when the ground swallowed up those who had burned the K’toret on the copper firepans, the Torah states, “The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, and their homes, and all the people that were with/belonged to Korach, and all of the property.” (16:32)

With the exception of when a person takes property that is unavailable – such as Achan taking from the “cherem” (Yehoshua 7) – property is not generally subject to the punishment that befalls a sinner. “You can’t take it with you” because it goes to your family.

If Korach’s property was not ill-gotten, as the Talmud assumes, and if Korach’s children did not participate in their father’s rebellion (Bamidbar 26:11) — Radak on the first verse in Shmuel explains (based on Divrei Hayamim I:6) that Korach’s children were prophets — they should have by all rights inherited their father’s possessions. Why was the property swallowed with the evildoers?

One line of thinking follows the passage in the mishnah towards the bottom of Sanhedrin 54a which punishes a seemingly blameless animal for a sin committed by a human (based on Vayikra 20:15-16). The reasoning? Because a human was brought to the lowest level of sin on account of the animal.

On a parallel plane, Nachshoni suggests Korach’s wealth did the same thing to him. The Talmud describes the number of keys to Korach’s treasures as being equivalent to the loads carried by three hundred mules (might not be a number meant to be taken literally). This tremendous wealth brought him to a level of unsurpassed arrogance, in which he felt he should have whatever he wanted, and was willing to go to whatever extreme necessary in order to get it.