One man sinned
As a continuation to this idea Rashi writes, “[one man] is the sinner, shall You be angry with the whole congregation?” All the above-mentioned questions on this second commentary are predicated on the assumption that this is a separate commentary from the first. The difficulties posed regarding Rashi’s explanation here concerned the fact that not only did this next commentary seem superfluous, but that it did not at all focus on the words of the verse.
However, in the first print of Rashi’s commentary on the Torah, these two explanations are not disconnected, but are actually appear as one long comment and should read as follows:
Text 6
[G-d who] knows the thoughts [of every man]. Your attributes are not like those of earthly beings. A mortal king against whom part of his country transgresses does not know who the sinner is, and, therefore, when he is angry, he metes out punishment upon them all. But as for You, all thoughts are revealed before You, and You know who the sinner is: one man is the sinner, shall You be angry with the whole congregation? The Holy One, blessed be He, said, “You have spoken well. I know and will make known who sinned and who did not sin.”
Rashi, Bamidbar 16:22, First Edition
Based on this simple correction, all of the questions fall away, as instead of this commentary of Rashi being a separate explanation of the words “if one man sins,” as previously assumed, it is instead the conclusion of Moshe’s argument against G-d and G-d’s response.
The bottom line of Moshe’s argument was, that being that there is only one individual who was rebellious, there is no reason to equally punish everyone. G-d answered Moshe’s claim saying, “You have spoken well. I know and will make known who sinned and who did not sin.”
While G-d did agree to Moshe’s general claim, that because He knows who was rebellious and who were followers not everyone should be punished, G-d however disagreed with part of Moshe’s claim. For, while Moshe thought that only one individual was rebellious, G-d knew that there were more. So whereas in Moshe’s statement he declared, “one man is the sinner,” in G-d’s statement He replied, “I know (differently) and I will make known who sinned,” in the plural.
This response articulated the mistake in Moshe’s assumption. While Moshe stated that only one individual—Korach—rebelled, G-d’s statement, “I know...who sinned,” conveyed that there were additional individuals at fault. G-d made it clear that not only did Korach rebel, but Dasan and Aviram rebelled as well.
This is expressed in the following verse:
Text 7
The Lord spoke to Moshe saying, "Speak to the congregation saying: 'Withdraw from the dwelling of Korach, Dasan and Aviram.'"
Bamidbar 16:23-24
As an answer to Moshe’s argument with G-d, G-d responded that He would indeed destroy the perpetrators and not the followers. But, whereas Moshe believed that there was only one instigator, G-d expressed that there were three.
