Bamidbar Chapter 3 – Transcript

Bamidbar Chapter 3: The Genealogy of Aharon and Moshe, and the Appointment of the Leviyim

Introduction: Chapter Structure and Context

Today we are studying Bamidbar chapter 3. The subject of this chapter is quite unified by the way the chapter is cut up, but if you actually read the parshios from before and after, you see that things are a little bit more complicated. So we’ll try to tell the story as the person who cut the chapters made it, but I will mention the difficulties here a little bit. I don’t entirely have an understanding of what is going on, but we’ll tell you what it says.

We have discussed in the previous chapter, we have had an explicit mitzvah about it. The previous chapter was, or rather the previous two chapters were—the two subjects of the previous two chapters correspondingly were the counting or the census of the people of all the twelve shevatim and their jobs, putting them together in the degalim and how they will travel around the mishkan.

What we had before also was that the Levi, the shevet Levi, is not counted. We had a specific passage that said, right? When we read that we said we don’t know what these two things are. But if you read the later chapters we discover what it means. Because pekudim is not the same as nesias rosh. Pekudim means counting in the census and nesias rosh means giving a job.

As we’ll see explicitly, we have the pekudim of the Leviyim now separately, and the nesias rosh of Bnei Levi separately. So what it says here is, and that’s what I said, is more or less the subjects of chapter one and two. Chapter one is the pekudim Bnei Yisrael. And chapter two, although it doesn’t say that language, is the nesias rosh Bnei Yisrael, giving each of them a place where to travel, where to camp, where to be.

Now, so that was the negative part. It said don’t count Levi. But what the Levi will do, will be—and here it gave their position, their job relative to how the travel will work. They will be setting up the mishkan and all of that. And now, we have the count. What we have to now finish now is in the next chapter, and really the next two or three chapters, what we have is the pekudim Bnei Levi and the nesias rosh Bnei Levi.

But it seems to me that before that we have something even more. So there’s even, there’s at least three stories, or three chapters, or three parshahs talking about the Levi.

The Genealogy Section: Toldos Aharon uMoshe

Because first, we have something called the genealogy of the Levi, and it says, specifically Aharon uMoshe, not the whole shevet Levi. This seems to be a separate chapter, a separate part to me, and we didn’t really have something. We had told this for Bnei Yisrael, maybe we’ll have later in parshas Pinchas something corresponding to that. Maybe we had earlier in Sefer Shemos things corresponding to that. We don’t have something entirely corresponding to this parshah for the Bnei Yisrael. We do have a specific for the Levi, and we even say: “This is the genealogy of Aharon uMoshe on the day that Hashem spoke to Moshe beHar Sinai.”

So we see that this is going back to an earlier date, so to speak, right? Because we had the date, an explicit date, for the pekudim here, which is the echad lechodesh hasheini bashanah hasheinis, which is a lot after debar Hashem el Moshe beHar Sinai. Although this refers also to stories that happened later, so it must not literally have been said then, or something like that. But it seems like this is somehow going out of this story, of this narrative, this chronology we’re in, and giving us, like, remember who Moshe and Aharon are, and what their children are. And really, only the children of Aharon.

So not clear entirely what is going on here, but that seems to be a separate parshah. Maybe it belongs to some other series of parshahs in other places. We have the beginning of Shemos, toldos Levi, and so on.

And it gives us this header, and then it gives us the names of the four children of Aharon. These are the children of Aharon who were meshuach, they were anointed with oil, they had filled their hands—this is an idiom that means they received the commitment, they received the job to be the kohanim.

And we have the story—really not the story, the story we had in parshas Shemini—but what we have here is the result of that story for the genealogy of the children of Aharon, right? The result of the deaths of Nadav and Avihu for the purpose of chronology is that they died, and it gives us always—Nadav and Avihu’s deaths are mentioned I think five or six times in the Torah, they’re counted by the Medrash. Every time they’re mentioned, it gives the story. Medrash has an explanation for why, but it’s always given as like the reason for why they didn’t continue the dynasty of Aharon, but Elazar and Itamar became the kohanim lifnei Aharon avihem, in the face of Aharon, meaning something like in his lifetime.

So that’s for that parshah.

The Three Commands Regarding the Leviyim

Now we have the next parshah, which connects with the whole length of the chapter, which again organized in the style of tzivui, a command, and then doing that command. We have really two parts—as you can see here, there’s three, actually three, three different commands. We can see here: one, vayedaber Hashem el Moshe; two, vayedaber Hashem el Moshe; three, vayedaber Hashem el Moshe bemidbar Sinai.

Only the last one really is entirely a continuation of the previous things, as we’ve said, bemidbar Sinai, be’echad lechodesh hasheini. The first two ones are really a more general thing, that’s why they don’t have that date. Maybe they’re to signify to us that this is not entirely a continuation. Like I said, these first two chapters seem to be a general discussion of how Levi becomes the Levi, and it’s not really the discussion of the pekudim and all of that here.

First Command: Appointing the Leviyim to Serve

So what it says is the first mitzvah that we have, the first command we have is Hashem telling Moshe to take the Levi—and this is Moshe, Levi, shevet Levi. There’s Aharon, Aharon and his children, which were mentioned before, right? Really that’s the way this chapter is organized. We have Aharon, the kohanim, and then there’s shevet Levi, the rest of shevet Levi.

It says put them, hamantos, and make them stand, which just means like appoint them to be on the side or in front of Aharon, and to service him, to serve Aharon. And their job will be to keep his keep, veshamru es mishmareto, and of the kol ha’edah, of all the people, for the avodas hamishkan. They will keep the ohel moed, and the mishmeres Bnei Yisrael.

In other words, their job is to be in the place of the people. All the people really have a responsibility for the mishkan, and the Leviyim are helping the kohanim and helping the people for the avodas hamishkan. They’re given to Aharon. In other words, they’re like sort of—that’s why someone calls the Leviyim, as the language of the Levi, like a tofel, something like given to him. The Leviyim are given to Aharon to help him, to serve him.

So Aharon and his children, they’re the kohanim, they’re really responsible. Bezeres Leviyim, every Yid is not, but the Leviyim are sort of intermediaries between the Yisrael and the kohanim, and they’re helping the Leviyim and helping Yisrael, helping both, by in some sense keeping the Yidden away from the kohanim, keeping the kohanim away from the Yidden, and doing a bunch of work, as we’ll see soon.

Second Command: The Exchange of Bechorim for Leviyim

And now, there’s another command, which is really to explain this. So how did the Leviyim become the ones that are the veshamru mishmeres hamishkan, and for the Yidden?

So it says: I took the Leviyim from the Yidden, instead, tachas kol bechor peter rechem Bnei Yisrael. Apparently, and this is the only time that this story says explicitly in this way, the bechorim originally—of course we know that story from parshas Bo, li kol bechor, beyom hakosi kol bechor—the bechorim belong to Hashem. So it’s like, belong just means something like, they work for Him, right? Everyone works for themselves, you have your job, you have your life, and the people that belong to Hashem, like the kohanim, the Leviyim, and here we say the bechorim originally, are mine, vehayulia.

And now, the bechorim—now there’s an exchange, a very interesting exchange, I don’t really understand it entirely, happening from the bechorim to the Leviyim. Hashem is saying: I took the Leviyim, instead of the bechorim. Now the Leviyim will be mine, instead of the bechorim being mine. As it’s said many times, li kol bechor, so now vehayulia, instead of li kol bechor.

As He says, li kol bechor, beyom hakosi kol bechor, all the bechorim became mine when I hit all the bechorim, when I killed all the bechorim in Mitzrayim. All the bechorim of the Yidden became mine, me’adam ad behemah, and now, I’m going to exchange them for the Leviyim.

So that’s the second part, and we’ll see the completion of this, the doing of this, in the next part of the chapter, in the second part of the chapter. It talks about how this exactly will happen, and later, a little bit even more.

And this is something that in some sense we already had before. We know that a bechor has to have a pidyon, right? It already says a few times, already in the Vayikra, we already had in Shemos, that a bechor, both of a human and an animal, needs to be redeemed. But now we have a sort of a new story, a new background, or a new kind of idea of this, that originally the bechorim were to be redeemed in a sense of exchange for Leviyim.

So originally the bechorim should be the ones working, should be the ones belonging to Hashem, but then Hashem exchanged them for the bechorim. And then, we’ll see at the end of the chapter, that there were some bechorim that didn’t have Leviyim to be given, right? Every Yid, so to speak, had to give Hashem one Levi, instead of him. So those would have to give five shekalim, and then also, the doros would have to have five shekalim, apparently because there’s no more Leviyim left to give as a new way, although there’s no Leviyim born. So there’s some difficulty in understanding the logic of this exchange, but that’s what it says.

Third Command: Counting the Leviyim

So then we get the third mitzvah, and this is a complete one. There’s a mitzvah and it already says that he did it. Of course the actual details of him doing it will be later, but it said—and we had the same structure before, right?—it says Hashem told Moshe to count the Leviyim.

And now it’s something different from the Leviyim and everyone else. The Yidden were counted from 20 years and above, because that’s the military age. The Leviyim were counted from ben chodesh vamalah, which as we’ve seen in the story of the erachin and so on, it just means from when they’re born. Until a month you’re sort of not counted as being born, but they were counted from then.

And this apparent logic for this is, although we’ll see later, it’s not that they work—the Leviyim don’t start to work from when they’re a month old—but they still have some kind of kedushah, they still have some kind of chosenness or some kind of job, which is theirs, not because they’re adults, but because they were born. So in that sense it makes sense for the Leviyim to be counted from when they were one month.

And we’ll see the same for the bechorim are going to be exchanged from one month for the Leviyim, not only the adult bechorim from 20 and on.

The Action: Moshe Counts the Leviyim

So then we have the action. Moshe does as Hashem commanded him, and counted them as he was commanded.

So now what we have is something more than we had by the Yidden, right? So by the Yidden we just had the families, we didn’t have—in parshas Pinchas we will have it, but in parshas Bamidbar we didn’t have the mishpachos, or the batei av of the shevet. We only had the counts of each shevet.

Now for the Leviyim we will have each family of Levi, we will have the story of their families. So each level of the generations and their families, because as we’ll see later, each of these will get their specific job, their specific…

The Three Levite Families: Structure and Responsibilities

Gershon – The First Family

Starting with Gershon, the first son of Levi, who had two families: Libni and Shimi. The pasuk says “mishpachat haLibni, mishpachat haShimi” – not just Libni and Shimi, but the *families* of Libni and Shimi. This tells us that these became families – families as a social grouping, not just literally a son and brothers. They were considered a family unit, and they had some job that belonged to them. Later, you would go to the Mishkan and say “you’re Libni” and you would do this job.

In total, their count was 7,500. They each have their space – Gershon is on the ma’arav side, in the west of the Mishkan. Each have a nasi, I forgot to say. Each have a nasi. Gershon’s nasi is Eliasaph ben Lael.

Their job is to carry the Mishkan – which means the covering of the Mishkan: the fabric, the yerios, the ohel, the michseh – the three levels of fabrics that were on top of the Mishkan. Also the fabric, the masach of the ohel, the petach of the door of the Mishkan. And the same for the chatzer: the kela’im, the curtains of the chatzer, the masach of the petach of the chatzer which is around the Mishkan and the mizbe’ach, and the hooks or the screws, whatever it is – the nails that we use for that.

That was the job of Gershon. If we remember the parts of the Mishkan, we remember that this organization, the divisions of the parts of the Mishkan, were already over there. One part is the fabrics – there’s fabrics on top of the Mishkan and in the chatzer.

Kehas – The Second Family

Then we have Kehas. Kehas has four families: Amrami, Yitzhari, Chevroni, and Uzzieli. They had 8,600 people. They were on the teiman – teiman is darom – on the south side of the Mishkan. Their nasi is Elizaphan ben Uzziel.

Their job is the keilim hapnimi’im: the aron, the shulchan, the menorah, the mizbachot and their utensils, the tools, the vessels that serve the Mishkan, the keilim hashareit, the mizbe’ach, and so on. And the masach – the masach, apparently we had already the masach, so this must mean the parochet of inside the Mishkan, which is more holy.

Their job is really, as we’ll say later, kodesh hakodashim – the internal vessels that are in the Mishkan. That’s Kehas.

Elazar’s Role

Between Gershon, Kehas, and Merari, for some reason we get the job of Elazar ben Aharon hakohen. Elazar, as we said, was the kohen after Nadav and Avihu died. Elazar is the next one who becomes the chief of the kohanim, although Aharon was there. Maybe he was of a higher level, so he didn’t do the actual work. He’s pekudat mishmeret hakodesh – he’s in charge of all of this. We’ll see later that he’s in charge of these, and he still might have another job. He’s in charge of something else.

Merari – The Third Family

Now we go to Merari, the third family, who has two families. The third mishpacha – maybe these are batei av, or maybe the opposite. Merari is a beit av and the lower level is the mishpacha, I’m not sure.

They have 6,200 people. Their nasi is Tzuriel ben Avichail. They are on the north side of the Mishkan.

What they carry is the kerashim of the Mishkan, all the parts of the kerashim – sort of the wood around the Mishkan – the berichim, the amudim, the adonim, and everything belonging to them. And the same thing: the amudim of the chatzer. So the hard parts, the structure of the Mishkan, is what they carry.

The Eastern Position – Moshe and Aharon

In the front, in the mizrach of the Mishkan – we’re left, remember, there’s four sides. We just had three families of Levi, so who’s on the front? On the front is Moshe and Aharon and the children. This is apparently the most special place, in the mizrach. Here’s one place where mizrach is the most special. Before, in our shuls, the mizrach is special just because we daven to mizrach. Here, mizrach is the most special.

Moshe, Aharon and his children – they lived, they were camping in the front of the Mishkan, the mizrach called kedem. And their job is to oversee all of this, the mishmeret haMikdash. Maybe there might be a difference between mishmeret haMishkan and mishmeret haMikdash. And “hazar hakarev yumat” – as the pasuk’s repeating, but part of the job of the mishmeret haMishkan is to make sure that only they do it and not the zar.

The Bechorim Exchange

The Total Count

Total – now we get the total. Total count of all the Leviyim is 22,000, exactly.

Counting the Bechorim

Now, since we remember we have to exchange the Leviyim for the bechorim, we get a mitzvah of counting the bechorim. We have to know how many there are to exchange them correctly.

Hashem tells Moshe: Count every bechor, every male bechor from a month and on. Count their names, right? Because that’s how they count. It’s a mitzvah of shem Yisrael. And then you will exchange the Leviyim instead of the bechorim, and also the animals with them instead of the bechorim. But those weren’t counted – the bechorim weren’t counted.

Moshe did that. He counted the bechorim, and it turns out that there were 22,273 bechorim. So there’s more bechorim than Leviyim. And that turns out that those extra bechorim are a problem – they can’t be exchanged instead of a Levi.

The Surplus Bechorim

Again, Hashem answers this question. Hashem tells Moshe: You will exchange the bechorim and the behemot of the bechorim – the bechorim of the behemot, sorry – instead of the Leviyim.

Now, what about the extra? The 273 extra bechorim, that there’s more bechorim than Leviyim. For them, you will take five shekalim for each head. Each shekel is esrim geira, we already know that. Shekel hakodesh is esrim geira – it’s repeated many times.

You will give this money to Aharon and his children in exchange for those people.

That’s what he does. He takes the money, and he gives that total: 1,365 shekel, which is what you should get from counting up 273 bechorim times five. And he gives it to Aharon as Hashem commanded.

And that is the end of this chapter.

As I said, I don’t entirely understand the logic of this story. I need some explanation. If someone knows one, they can tell me, or I can learn and find out.