Sanhedrin 110A

וסתרתה למזיה, כל דאתא חזיה הדר. אדהכי והכי, אבלעו להו.

and exposed her hair as though she were bathing. Anyone who came and saw her stepped back. In the meantime the assembly of Korah was swallowed into the ground, and On, son of Peleth, was spared.

איתתיה דקרח אמרה ליה: חזי מאי קעביד משה. איהו הוה מלכא, לאחוה שוויה כהנא רבא, לבני אחוהי שוינהו סגני דכהנא. אי אתיא תרומה אמר ״תיהוי לכהן״, אי אתו מעשר דשקליתו אתון אמר ״הבו חד מעשרה לכהן״. ועוד דגייז ליה למזייכו ומיטלל בכו כי כופתא, עינא יהב במזייכו. אמר לה: הא איהו נמי קא עביד! אמרה ליה: כיון דכולהו רבותא דידיה, אמר איהו נמי ״תמת נפשי עם פלשתים״.

Korah’s wife said to him: See what Moses is doing. He is the king, he appointed his brother High Priest, and he appointed his brother’s sons deputy priests. If teruma comes, he says: Let it be for the priest; if the first tithe comes, which you as Levites take, he says: Give 1/10th to the priest. And furthermore, he shears your hair and waves you as if you are as insignificant as excrement (see Numbers 8:5–11), as though he set his sights on your hair and wishes you to be shaven and unsightly. Korah said to her: But didn’t he also do so; he shaved his hair like the rest of the Levites? She said to him: Since it is all done for his own prominence, he also said metaphorically: “Let me die with the Philistines” (Judges 16:30); he was willing to humiliate himself in order to humiliate you.

ועוד, דקאמר לכו עבדיתו תכלתא. אי סלקא דעתך תכלתא חשיבא [מצוה], אפיק גלימי דתכלתא וכסינהו לכולהו מתיבתך. היינו דכתיב: ״חכמות נשים בנתה ביתה״⁠ – זו אשתו של און בן פלת, ״ואולת בידה תהרסנה״⁠ – זו אשתו של קרח.

She said to him: And furthermore, with regard to that which he said to you, to prepare tekhelet dye for your tzitzit, one could respond to him: If it enters your mind, Moses, that using tekhelet dye is considered a mitzva, take out robes that are made entirely of material colored with tekhelet dye, and dress all the students of your academy in tekhelet robes without tzitzit; why could one not fulfill the mitzva in that manner? Clearly, Moses is fabricating all this. This is the meaning of that which is written: “The wisdom of women builds her house” (Proverbs 14:1); this is referring to the wife of On, son of Peleth. And: “Folly plucks it down with her hands” (Proverbs 14:1); this is referring to the wife of Korah.