(Numb. 16:1:) NOW KORAH … TOOK. What is written above on the matter (in Numb. 15:37–38)?⁵., Numb. 5:2; Numb. R. 18:3. THEN THE LORD SPOKE UNTO MOSES, SAYING: SPEAK UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL [AND TELL THEM] TO MAKE TASSELS FOR THEMSELVES. Korah said to Moses our Master: Moses, in the case of a prayer shawl (tallit) which is all blue, what is the rule about it being exempt from having the tassel? Moses said to him: Such a prayer shawl is required to have the tassel. Korah said to him: Would not a prayer shawl which is all blue exempt itself, when four blue threads exempt it? In the case of a house which is full of scriptural books, what is the rule about it being exempt it from having the mezuzah (which contains only two passages of Scripture)? Moses said to him: Such a house is required to have the mezuzah. Korah said to him: Since the whole Torah has two hundred and seventy-five parashot in it,⁶ 16:1 (15c); Soferim 16:10; M. Pss. 22:19, according to which there are 175 parashot in the Torah where an expression of speaking, saying, or commanding occurs. See also Alfa Beta deRabbi ‘Aqiva, longer recension, Tsade (Eisenstein, p. 421). and they do not exempt the house from having the mezuzah, would the two parashot which are in the mezuzah exempt the house? He also said to him: These are things about which you have not been commanded. Rather you are inventing them by taking them out of your own heart. Here is what is written (in Numb. 16:1): NOW KORAH … TOOK.

footnotes: ⁵ Tanh ⁶ Cf. yShab.