Is this Rashi Out of Place and If So, Why?

In this UTJ Facebook Discussion Group post, Rabbi Noah Gradofsky asks why Rashi takes a midrash on Numbers 16:25 (part of this week’s Torah reading) and transports it to Numbers 17:15. ITJ faculty member Rabbi Leonard R. Levy suggests that perhaps while the rabbi’s drash (interpretation) might be most powerful in relation to Numbers 16:25, Rashi may have felt that it better fit the pshat (plain meaning) of Numbers 17:15.

Here is some text of the original discussion.  Any updates and further comments can be found on the Facebook Discussion Group post.

Rabbi Gradofsky wrote:

Here is something I realized this Shabbat. In BT Sanhedrin 110a we have:

‎(במדבר טז, כה) ויקם משה וילך אל דתן ואבירם אמר ר”ל מכאן שאין מחזיקין במחלוקת דאמר רב כל המחזיק במחלוקת עובר בלאו שנאמר (במדבר יז, ה) ולא יהיה כקרח וכעדתו

With regard to the verse: “And Moses arose and went to Dathan and Abiram” (Numbers 16:25), Reish Lakish says: From here we derive that one may not perpetuate a dispute, as Rav says: Anyone who perpetuates a dispute violates a prohibition, as it is stated: “And he will not be like Korah and his assembly, as the Lord spoke by the hand of Moses to him” (Numbers 17:5). Even the aggrieved party must seek to end the dispute. Dathan and Abiram accused Moses and by right should have initiated the reconciliation. Nevertheless, Moses was not insistent on this; he went to them.

Rashi explains:

‎מכאן שאין מחזיקין במחלוקת – שמחל על כבודו והוא עצמו הלך לבטל מחלוקת:

For he waived his honor and went himself to undo the dispute.

Interestingly, in Rashi on Humash, Rashi pins the lesson to not perpetuate a dispute from to an earlier verse, Numbers 16:12:

The verse:

‎וַיִּשְׁלַ֣ח מֹשֶׁ֔ה לִקְרֹ֛א לְדָתָ֥ן וְלַאֲבִירָ֖ם בְּנֵ֣י אֱלִיאָ֑ב וַיֹּאמְר֖וּ לֹ֥א נַעֲלֶֽה׃

Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab; but they said, “We will not come!

Rashi’s comment:

‎וישלח משה וגו’. מִכַּאן שֶׁאֵין מַחֲזִיקִין בְּמַחֲלֹקֶת, שֶׁהָיָה מֹשֶׁה מְחַזֵּר אַחֲרֵיהֶם לְהַשְׁלִימָם בְּדִבְרֵי שָׁלוֹםׁ (סנהדרין ק”י):

‎וישלח משה וגו׳ AND MOSES SENT [TO CALL DATHAN AND ABIRAM] — From here we may learn that one should not persist in strife (Midrash Tanchuma, Korach 10), for, you see, Moses sought them out in order to conciliate them by peaceful words (Sanhedrin 110a).

It seems to me that the Midrash loses some flavor here. Moshe’s effort to undo the dispute is heightened by Numbers 16:25 in that Moshe is going to Dathan and Abiram rather than summoning them. From what I could tell (I am traveling and don’t have Bar Ilan CD, but did have access to Torah Shelaimah) the midrashim about Moshe trying to patch things up revolve around 16:25 so I don’t think this is a matter of parallel midrashim. So, why does Rashi mention this lesson on 16:12 rather than 16:25? Could it be simply a matter that he forgot which verse the midrash was based on? Could he feel that perhaps in the context of other commentaries he chose this midrash fit better at 16:12? Could there be a print error? Am I barking up a wrong tree?

Note: Texts above are copied from Sefaria (translation of Rashi on Talmud is my own)

Rabbi Levy Responded:

16:25 leads directly into Moshe warning the people to get away from Dathan and Abiram lest they get sucked down with them (16:26). Perhaps Rashi as commentator on Chumash concerned with Pshat as much as drash found it difficult to present the teaching from Sanhedrin 110a on 16:25, so he moved it back to 16:12 where it wouldn’t seem out of whack with the pshat. Chaza”l in Sanhedrin were teaching Midrash without concern for context in pshat and chose 16:25, where they want to stress the lengths Moshe went to try to resolve the machloket – he even went to them when they wouldn’t come to him.

Perhaps opening up the Earth to suck them down was considered a way of resolving the machloket. Of course, as Rabbi Jonathan Sacks points out in his commentary on the parasha this week, that backfired….