Musar for Berakhot 15:13
תניא נמי הכי תשע מאות ושלשה מיני מיתה נבראו בעולם שנאמר למות תוצאות תוצאות בגימטריא הכי הוו קשה שבכלן אסכרא ניחא שבכלן נשיקה אסכרא דמיא כחיזרא בגבבא דעמרא דלאחורי נשרא ואיכא דאמרי כפיטורי בפי ושט נשיקה דמיא כמשחל בניתא מחלבא
There is a teaching to the same effect : Nine hundred and three varieties of death have been created in the world ; as it is said, "The issues of death." Tosa'ot has that numerical value. The severest of them all is croup, and the lightest is the kiss of death. Croup is like a thorn in a ball of clipped wool which tears backwards. Others say it is like the whirling waters at the entrance of a canal. The kiss of death is like taking a hair out of milk.
Shemirat HaLashon
And we find also in Tanna d'bei Eliyahu 16: "Those who smite in secret 'i.e., speakers of lashon hara] and desecrators of the Name in the open and those who cheapen their friends with words, and those who instigate quarrels will, in the end, be like Korach [and his congregation] of whom it is written (Bamidbar 16:33): "And the earth covered them up." And sometimes the punishment for the sin of lashon hara, the gravest sin of all, is askarah [diphtheria], the gravest death of all, as Chazal have said (Berachoth 8a): "Nine hundred and three types of death were created in the world … askarah is the gravest of all." A sign is given here for all who enter the world, that their punishment is indicative of their sin, as stated in Shabbath 33b: The Rabbis taught: "Why does this death (askarah) begin in the intestines and end in the mouth? R. Yehudah b. Ilai answered: "Though the kidneys counsel, the heart deliberates and the tongue formulates, it is the mouth which consummates [the lashon hara]."
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