פירוש על במדבר 26:63

THESE ARE THEY THAT WERE NUMBERED BY MOSES AND ELEAZAR. [This phrase refers] to they that were numbered of the children of Israel [mentioned further on in this verse], but does not refer to they that were numbered of the Levites [Verse 57], because of them it could not be said [as is said in the following verse]: But among them there was not a man [of them that were numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest in the wilderness of Sinai],¹⁵²Verse 64. since that decree [that they must perish in the wilderness] did not apply to the tribe of Levi, as our Rabbis have said.¹⁵³Baba Bathra 121b. And a proof [of this is] Eleazar, and also Phinehas [who were born in Egypt¹⁵⁴Exodus 6:23; 25. and yet are both mentioned here, and came into the Land].¹⁵⁵Joshua 14:1; 22:13.

אלה פקודי משה ואלעזר, “These are the ones counted by Moses and Eleazar.” The Torah now reverted to the Israelites that had been counted, not the Levites, for among the former the wording of “none of the ones counted here were included in the men counted by Moses and Aaron.” The reason is that the decree that the males over 20 that had been counted in the desert of Sinai had to die in the desert had not applied to the Levites. The Torah had stated that of the earlier generation only Calev and Joshua had been exempt. If the Levites had been included in the decree, how come that Pinchas and Eleazar had survived?