민수기 18:2의 Halakhah

That is that He commanded us to guard the Temple and to constantly walk around it, to honor it, to exalt it and to aggrandize it. And that is His saying to Aharon, "while you and your sons under your charge are before the Tent of the Testimony" (Numbers 18:2). And this command has already been repeated with different language, and that is His saying, "and keep the charge of the Tent of Meeting" (Number 18:4). And it is written in the Sifrei (Sifrei Bamidbar 116:1), "'While you and your sons under your charge are before the Tent of the Testimony' - the priests within, and the Levites outside." And in the Mekhilta, they said, "'And keep the charge of the Tent of Meeting' - this tells me only that it is with a positive commandment. From where [do we know that] it is also with a negative commandment? [Hence,] we learn to say, 'And you shall keep the charge of the sanctuary.'" Behold it has been made clear to you that guarding the Temple is a positive commandment. And there it is said, "It is an aggrandizement to the Temple that it has guardians; and a palace that has guardians is not the same as a palace that does not have guardians." And it is well known that, palace, is a name for the [Temple] chamber. They said that the aggrandizement and exaltation of the chamber is [generated by the presence] of the guards that are assigned to it. And the regulations of this commandment have already all been explained in Tractates Tamid and Middot. (See Parashat Korach; Mishneh Torah, The Chosen Temple 1.)

The commandment to guard the Temple: That the priests and the Levites were commanded to guard the Temple and walk around it constantly the whole night, on each and every night (see R. Chaim Heller - Sefer HaMitzvot LaRambam, Mitzvot Ase 22) - and this guarding is to honor it, to exalt it and to glorify it, and not from there being any fear from the enemy, God forbid - as it is stated (Numbers 18:4), "and they shall guard the guarding of the Tent of Meeting." And the language of Sifrei Bamidbar 116 is "'And you and your sons with you will be in front of the Tent of Testimony' (Numbers 18:2) - the priests inside and the Levites only outside"; meaning to say to guard it and to walk around it. And in the Mekhilta (Sifrei Zuta on Numbers 18:4), they said, "'And they shall guard the guarding of the Tent of Meeting' - I only know of a positive commandment, etc." Behold, it is elucidated that its guarding is a positive commandment. And there it says another greatness of the Temple is that it has guards - "A palace that has guards is not similar to a palace that does not have guards." And it is known that the palace is a name for the sanctuary.

From the roots of the commandment, [there is a need to] preface that there is no doubt that God separated the entire tribe of Levi from the congregation of Israel to always serve Him. And still, within that tribe itself, one [group] was selected to be the head, the officer and the minister over all of them - he and his seed forever, and it is the most sacred of all the tribe - to serve and to minister before God permanently. And He placed the rest of the whole tribe below it, to assist in the service - and as it states (Numbers 18:1), "And the Lord spoke to Aharon saying, 'You, your sons, and your patriarchal lineage shall bear the iniquity of the Temple - meaning to say, that the entire tribe will receive the guarding of the Temple. "But you and your sons with you will bear the iniquity of your priesthood" - meaning to say that the primary service - that is the priesthood - is upon you. And it is written after it (Numbers 18:2), "Also your brothers, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, bring close with you, and they shall accompany you and serve you" - meaning to say that you are primary, and not them. And so [too,] is it written elsewhere (Numbers 3:9), "And you shall give the Levites to Aharon and to his sons; they are truly given to him." And so, since the priests are 'the foundation of the home' in the service of our God, they merited twenty-four gifts that are given to them, which are explicit in Scripture, and as the Sages, may their memory be blessed, enumerated (Chullin 133b) - ten in the Temple, four in Jerusalem and ten [outside]. And the rest of the tribe that was chosen with it to assist it also merited to live [from gifts], without toil, with the tithe of the fruits that they take from all Israel. And in order that they know and contemplate that the cause of their portion being free and of the portion of their brothers is the service to God, they were commanded to give a tenth of all they take from the Children of Israel to the 'greater ministers.' And in this way, they will [remind themselves] that there are [others] above them, and that above all of them is the One Who guards all, may He be elevated. With this is also merit, honor and prestige for the Levites, without removing their names from the commandment of the tithe in their portion of the produce. And [the sons of the Israelites] will not [be able to] say to [the sons of the Levites], "You merited the grain, and we the commandment." And now the response will be, "There is 'Torah and there is flour.'"