?Vayih?yu ha?Meisim ba?Mageifah Arba?ah ve?Esrim Alef?. Why is it that here twenty-four thousand died, and by the Eigel, only three thousand?
R. Bachye: Because, whereas by the Eigel, they were guilty ony of Avodah Zarah, here they were also guilty of Z?nus with Nochrim, which shames the sanctity of Yisrael.
?Vayih?yu ha?Meisim ba?Mageifah ? ?. Who died in the plague?
Rashi: Refer to 26:13:2:1*.
R. Bachye: Refer to 25:3:0.1:1.
Why does the Torah record how many died in the plague?
Rosh: This teaches how much havoc Z'nus causes. Only one 'Yechidi' sinned, 1 causing the death of twenty-four thousand.
This connotes that this was the only Z'nus. Pasuk 1 says that the Am was being Mezanah with B'nos Mo'av! In Pasuk 1, the Rosh said that from the days of Avraham, no Yisrael stumbled in Z'nus. Perhaps 'Yechidi' means the only episode of Z'nus. Or, the plague was due to those who saw this lone brazen case of Z'nus in public, and were not enraged. (PF)
Why does the word "ha'Mesim" have the note Tipchah, so it is not read together with "ba'Magefah"?
R. Feivel Masmargan, cited in Kol Eliyahu: Hashem had decreed that twenty-four thousand die, but now was a time of Ratzon (He was not angry the entire time that Bil'am wanted to curse - Sanhedrin 105b). Therefore, he included "ha'Mesim" (those who in any case, it was time for them to die) in the twenty-four thousand, so less than twenty-four thousand died due to the Aveirah.
