Parshat Hashavua Rabbi Michael Laitner If you have comments please feel free to e-mail Rabbi Laitner at: michael@southhampstead.org

‘But the tribe of Levi you shall not count…’ (Bemidbar/Numbers 1:49)
 
Rashi, the premier Torah commentator, makes several comments on this pasuk (verse). 
 
First though, we need to understand the context.  The large scale counting of the Jewish people listed in the Sidra (weekly Torah reading) seems necessary for several reasons, not least that the Jewish people are preparing for their journey to and conquest of the Land of Cana’an (Israel) so they need to know how to organise their resources (see comments of Rabbi Moses ben Nachman –  aka ‘Ramban- to 1:45).
 
According to this approach, it would seem that the Tribe of Levi should be included in the counting, yet G-d commands Moshe (Moses) not to count them.  Let’s return to Rashi to try and understand this.  Rashi gives a different context to this counting.  In his second comment, he writes that G-d told Moses not to count the Levi’im (members of the Tribe of Levi) because G-d foresaw that after the sin of the spies which takes place in chapter 14 of Bemdibar, the decree of wandering around and dying in the desert would be applied. 
 
The Levi’im served in the Mishkan (Desert Temple) and would not take part in the sin of the spies just as they had not taken part in the earlier sin of the Golden Calf (Shemot/Exodus chapter 32).  Since the decree of wandering around and dying in the desert included those people who participated in the sin of the spies and were included in the count of the people in this week’s Sidra, G-d told Moshe to exclude the Levi’im even though Moshe would not know why.  
 
The late former Chief Rabbi, Lord Jakobovits, sees another connection between the Levi’im being the only tribe whose members left Egypt and entered Israel and the particular work of the Levi’im.  Just as Israel is the land where the Jewish people have a stronger connection to G-d as Israel is the place where the most mitzvot (commandments) apply, so to did the Levi’im have a unique connection to G-d through their work in the Mishkan and the Beit Hamikdash (Temple).

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