(Numb. 20:29:) THEN ALL THE CONGREGATION SAW THAT AARON HAD DIED. When Moses and Eleazar came down [from the mountain], the whole congregation assembled themselves against them and said: Where is Aaron?¹⁶⁸ They said to them: He is dead. They said to them: How could the angel of death hurt him, a man who has halted the angel of death and held him back? It is so stated (in Numb. 17:13 [16:48]): SO HE (i.e., Aaron) STOOD BETWEEN THE DEAD AND THE LIVING, AND THE PLAGUE WAS HALTED. They said to them: If you bring him back, well and good, but if not, we will stone you to death. At that time Moses said: Sovereign of the World: deliver us from this distrust. Immediately the Holy One opened the burial cave and brought him to them for them to see him. It is so stated (in Numb. 20:29): THEN ALL THE CONGREGATION SAW THAT AARON HAD DIED….

footnotes: ¹⁶⁸ Numb. R. 19:20.