קרח

the name of Kayin, from the side of the bad… his parts were reincarnated in three principal men, Moshe, Aharon, and Shmuel, as is hinted in the verse (in Bereshit), “Kayin shall be avenged sevenfold” (Genesis 4:24)—the initials of “Kayin yukkam shiv‘atayim” are Moshe, Aharon, and Shmuel.

For Moshe Rabbeinu arose from the parts of the good that were in Hevel; and therefore he came to rectify the blood of Hevel that was spilled by Kayin; and thus he killed the Egyptian by means of the Explicit Name, to rectify him.

And specifically by means of the Explicit Name that issues from the breath of his mouth, for the power of Hevel is in speech, and not like the power of Kayin, who is great in action, as in “Tuval-Kayin, who sharpened every cutting instrument of copper and iron” (Genesis 4:22), who was “a sharpener of every artisan,” as is found.

And Moshe Rabbeinu’s blood was to rectify Kayin’s sin for killing Hevel; therefore, since the deeds here correspond to the deeds there, only that here they were in the secret of the Tikkun, therefore Hevel’s blood—since it is blood—was swallowed in the ground, as HaKadosh Barukh Hu said to Kayin (Genesis 4:10–11): “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. And now, cursed are you from the ground, which opened its mouth to take your brother’s blood from your hand”—and that ground which opened its mouth to take [it]; therefore Moshe Rabbeinu buried the Egyptian in the sand, that is, Hevel’s blood.

And so after some time, when Korach took a bad acquisition for himself—and as stated, that he took Kayin’s parts—Moshe said to Yisrael, “But if HaShem will create a creation, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them” (Numbers 16:30), i.e., because Kayin was compelled for himself to take an acquisition; it took in that same measure, and thus it was: “And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them” (Numbers 16:32).

In any case, we return our question to its place; and still it requires explanation: that Korach certainly was not hidden from [Moshe’s] eyes—the events…; rather, the fact is that the one who takes this bad acquisition for himself is concealed because the death of Kayin, and sparks of the decree of “earth,” so that his soul would not go out—he will have no peaceful end. If so, why did he cast… to deny and to divine—serpent, fiery serpent, and scorpion, which are prepared—[in] a place that holds dispute; is it not all the more so when he holds dispute and takes the side of the one who loses from the outset, the side of Kayin?