Komentarz do Liczb 16:31

ככלתו לדבר את כל הדברים, "when he finished saying all this," The earth timed its action at the precise moment when Moses completed what he had to say. As soon as Moses was finished it swallowed Korach, etc.

ותבקע האדמה אשר תחתיהם, ותפתח הארץ את פיה ותבלע אותם, “The ground which was beneath them split open and the earth opened its ‘mouth’ and swallowed them.” Nachmanides explains why the Torah had to mention both אדמה and ארץ as “opening” in this verse. Had the Torah only written that the ground split open, the phenomenon could have been considered as an ordinary earthquake, although Moses had predicted the time and the place. This is why the Torah added the words “the earth opened its mouth” to tell us that a great miracle, unparalleled, happened here. This is why the miracle had been predicted as a בריאה, a new creation. The place where this took place returned to its original appearance as distinct from an earthquake which leaves behind clear evidence that there had been an upheaval.

ואת כל האדם אשר לקרח, “and every human being belonging to Korach.” This refers to the members of his household and all the rebels accepting his leadership. Korach’s sons were also “swallowed” by the earth but they did not die as a result; this is the meaning of Numbers 26,11: “and the sons of Korach did not die.” Our sages (Megillah 14) explain that a “fortified” place was reserved for them in purgatory where they stayed. [I suppose the meaning is a site safe from the fires of purgatory but inside it. Ed.]
It is possible to explain the verse differently by understanding the words ואת כל האנשים, “and all the men,” as including only the people previously described in verse 30 as כי נאצו האנשים האלה את ה', “for these men had provoked Hashem.” The reason that the Torah called the people who were swallowed as אדם is because they were swallowed by the אדמה, i.e. they returned to the place they originally came from [as in “dust thou art and to dust thou shall return.” Ed.]

ותבקע האדמה אשר תחתיהם, The earth which was underneath them split. Why did the Torah have to write both that the earth "split" and that it "opened its mouth?" Why did the Torah describe the earth as אדמה when describing that it split, and as ארץ when "it opened its mouth?" Perhaps the mouth of the earth had not previously been situated exactly where Korach and his associates stood at the time so that the earth's reaction had to be described as a crack in its surface; for practical purposes this now became the earth's mouth. The crack was described as a crack in the אדמה, the mouth as the mouth of the ארץ.

ואת כל הרכוש, “and all the property.” The Torah informed us that not only the people but their belongings including their tents, their money, etc., were all swallowed up as part of this great act of retribution. Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 10,1 states that even a needle of theirs which had been temporarily in the possession of some other unrelated Israelite would be swept away down into the abyss into which these people disappeared. The reason the Torah writes the words אשר לקרח, “which belonged to Korach,” without specifying that Korach personally was also swallowed by the earth in so many words, is because there was no need for this. Seeing that the Torah had written that Datan and Aviram, and their families as well as Korach’s families and more distant followers had all been swallowed it is clear that he himself as the instigator of the whole rebellion did not escape such a fate. At any rate, even though Korach’s descent into the bowels of the earth is not spelled out, we find it spelled out in Numbers 26,10 where the Torah writes: “it swallowed them, together with Korach.” We find a parallel example when the Torah described the drowning of the Egyptian army in the sea of Reeds where the Torah writes (Exodus 15,4) “the chariots of Pharaoh together with his army were drowned in the sea,” although the Torah does not specifically mention that Pharaoh himself was also drowned at the same time. Nevertheless, David explains in Psalms 136,15: “He flung Pharaoh and his army into the sea of Reeds.”
Our sages (Sanhedrin 106) believe that Korach was not only swallowed by the earth but that his body was also burned; seeing that he was the root cause of the sin he was afflicted with two penalties. They derive this from the words in 26,10: “it swallowed them as well as Korach when the assembly died as the fire consumed the 250 men.” This teaches first of all that Korach was swallowed; he was also consumed by the fire as the words באכול האש refer to Korach as the first one to be burned. The reason that the Torah did not spell out his name specifically as a victim of the fire is that simple logic teaches us that fact. All the people who offered incense were burned together with the incense in their censers. Clearly, there is no reason to believe that Korach would survive his attempt to offer this incense. The other two hundred and fifty men were punished on account of Korach; why would he escape such a penalty? Alternatively, we need simply view the extra word את before the expression החמישים איש as the clue that Korach was included as the word את always means something or someone additional, as we know from Pesachim 22.