אלשיך — רב לכם בני לוי

Q — Moshe's reproof closes with 'רב לכם בני לוי' — addressed to the Leviim. But 250 of the rebels were not Leviim; they were yisraelim (וכל עדתו, נשיאי עדה). Why does Moshe direct the appeal only to the Leviim, who were a tiny minority of the rebellion?

A — Moshe had expected the yisraelim, when offered the ketoret test, to refuse — to admit it was absurd for a yisrael to claim the kehunah gedolah, and to leave the test to Korach (a Levi) versus Aharon. When they all agreed to take pans, Moshe understood the case was hopeless. A person whose ego has scaled three rungs at once — from yisrael to kehunah gedolah — is beyond reasoning with. Moshe therefore turned his words to the only group still in range of argument — the Leviim, whose leap was 'only' from Leviyah to Kehunah Gedolah, one rung. He doesn't even address 'הטפשים האלה' anymore; with the deeply-deluded, words don't work.