Musar על במדבר 8:25
Shaarei Teshuvah
And [part of] the content of excision is the shortening of years; like the matter that is stated (Proverbs 10:27), “but the years of the wicked will be shortened.” But there is a difference in the matter of the shortening of the years between death [at the hands of the Heavens] and excision. For [in the case of] excision, the death of the person is before fifty years, whereas [in the case of] death, [it] is before sixty - like those that died in the desert. This is meaning to say, that one about whom it was decreed to live for seventy or eighty years, but became liable for death [at the hands of the Heavens], will die at less than sixty years. However there are righteous ones the [decree for which] is to have less days than sixty [years] - as they said (Taanit 5b), “One [who dies] at fifty-two years, this is the death of Samuel of Rama.” And it is stated (Numbers 4:18), “Do not let the group of Kohathite clans be cut off from the Levites.” And our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, expounded (Yerushalmi Bikkurim 2:1) from this that excision is before fifty years. Its explanation is, let not an accident be how you cause the tribe of the Kohatites to be cut off from the service of the Levites. For if you do not guard them - that they should not come to see when the holy [vessels] are covered - they shall be excised from the service of the Levites, and will die before they are fifty years; as it is stated (Numbers 8:25), “But at the age of fifty they shall retire from the workforce, etc.”
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