After the story of קרח’s rebellion, the תורה tells us about the various gifts that בני ישראל must give to the כהנים.
רש"י gives the example of a king who gave a field to his friend. Another person came and challenged the ownership of the field, so the king wrote and signed a document in court, to affirm ownership of the field, and ensure that no one would challenge it again.
Here, too, since קרח made a claim against אהרן regarding the כהונה, the תורה comes and gives him 24 מתנות כהונה, gifts, to confirm his כהונה.
QUESTION:
Why does רש"י specify the amount of gifts that are given to the כהנים?
ANSWER:
קרח convinced people from all the 12 שבטים to join him in his rebellion.
However, like a גנב (as opposed to a גזלן) who hides what he is doing, they were sneaky, and hid their intent to rebel by saying things like כ ל ה ע ד ה כוּל ם ק דוֹש ים, everyone is equally holy.
This is why רש"י specifies that there were 24 gifts for the כהנים.
Just as a גנב must pay double of what he stole, בני ישראל now had to give a total of 24 gifts to the כהנים, to correct what they had done.
The 24 מתנות כהונה represent 2 gifts – “double payment” – on behalf of each of the 12 שבטים.
Further discussion:
Since many people from שבט לוי also joined the rebellion, why were there not a total of 26 מתנות כהונה?
(See אות י"א in the שיחה)
