Leveling the complaint at Moshe and Aharon is ludicrous. The people saw how miraculously the ground had opened up beneath the usurpers, swallowing them before returning to its normal state. Moshe and Aharon were probably just as surprised as the people. They all saw the fire that burned the 250 men who had prepared and offered the incense. Clearly, Moshe and Aharon played no role in their deaths. Furthermore, why are these men referred to as Am Hashem, the people of G-d? They certainly were not acting very much like members of the Jewish People.
Horav Meir Tzvi Bergman, Shlita, suggests that these 250 leaders were the heads of the Sanhedrin, not the average Jew. They were the nation’s spiritual elite, essentially the people’s rebbeim, who studied Torah with them. Thus, the Jews were crying out, “You took away our rebbeim! How are we to survive with our Torah mentors?” The Rambam (Hilchos Rotzeach 7:1) rules that, if a Torah student kills a fellow Jew unintentionally, he must go to an Ir Miklat, City of Refuge. His rebbe who teaches him Torah must be exiled together with him, since the murderer is supposed to “live” in the city. Without his rebbe to teach him Torah, he has no life. Likewise, if a rebbe is exiled, his students must follow. Klal Yisrael’s complaint was that, by punishing the 250 heads of the Sanhedrin, they were depriving the nation of their rebbeim. From whom would they now learn? They did not dispute the fact that these leaders deserved their punishment. When they said, “You have killed the people of G-d,” they were not referring to Korach and his henchmen, but to the unaware Jews who would now be left bereft of their rebbeim. Without rebbeim – there is no life.
