פירוש על שמות 6:16

ושני חיי לוי וגו׳ AND THE YEARS OF THE LIFE OF LEVI WERE etc. — Why is the number of the years of Levi mentioned? In order to tell us how long the period of slavery lasted — because so long as even one of the sons of Jacob (lit. the tribes) remained alive there was no slavery imposed upon the Israelites, as it is said, (Exodus 1:6) “And Joseph died and all his brethren”, and afterwards it is stated (Exodus 1:8), “Now there arose a king” (who enslaved them); and Levi lived the longest of all of them (Seder Olam 3).

ושני חיי לוי, according to the plain meaning which I explained in Genesis 5,31 all the lifetimes of generations between Adam and Noach, and from Noach to Avraham were mentioned. After that, basically only the lifetimes of Avraham, Yitzchok, Yaakov, Levi, and his sons Kehot, grandson Amram, and great grandson Moses are enumerated, followed by the number of years Joshua lived. Subsequently the Bible provides some details about the length of lives of the Judges and the Kings during the first Temple, to enable us to calculate crucial dates in our history.

And Leivi outlived all of them. If so, it means that they were enslaved only 116 years. For [it says in Bereishis 41:46 that] Yoseif was 30 years old when he stood before Pharaoh, and [we know that] Leivi was then 34 — since all the sons of Yaakov were born within a 6-year period, except for Binyamin. Thus we subtract [from these 6 years] 2 years until Leivi was born, as Leivi was the third child after Reuven, and it means that Leivi was four years older than Yoseif [who was born last]. After [Yoseif stood before Pharaoh] there were seven years of bounty and two of famine, after which the B’nei Yisrael came to Egypt. At that time Leivi was 43 [34 plus 9], and he lived until 137. Subtract 43 from 137, and we are still left with 94 years of Leivi’s lifetime, during which the enslavement did not begin. Now, the B’nei Yisrael were in Egypt for 210 ( רדו ) years. Subtract Levi’s 94 years from these 210, and the result is that they were enslaved only 116 years.

These are the heads. The Torah writes this to inform us of the length of the enslavement, for Levi was forty-three when he came to Egypt, and for the remaining ninety-four years of his life there was no enslavement (Levi lived 137 years, v. 16, see Rashi ad loc.). Subtract the 94 years of no enslavement from the 210 years total they sojourned in Egypt, and you conclude that the enslavement lasted 116 years.