Musar sobre Proverbios 7:10

ויקח קרח . We would have expected the Torah to write ויקחו, "they took." Another difficulty is the expression קריאי מועד, אנשי שם, "men who had been appointed, men of distinguished reputation" (16,2). Why should these men be mentioned favourably when the Tosaphot Talmud Shabbat 12 says: "Shevna a man from Jerusalem," etc. Rabbeinu Tam crosses out the title "a man from Jerusalem," (or omits his name altogether) of this man, seeing he was a confirmed sinner and we do not dignify such sinners by mentioning their titles or even their names. We have a tradition that "the name of sinners should rot" (Proverbs 7,10), based on Yoma 38b. Even according to the view of Rabbi Yitzchak cited there, that if, say, a sinner is called "Abraham," we surely cannot stop calling everybody "Abraham" on account of the one sinful Abraham, at the very least such a person should not be accorded his title! Here the Torah seems to go out of its way to describe how these people had earned their titles! Moreover, in Sanhedrin 110, we are told that these men had outstanding abilities, knowing when to add an extra month to the calendar, etc. It says there that the expression אנשי שם, means that their reputation was international.