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ופקדיו אשר צוה ה' את משה — This means, and those appointed by him (Moses) were appointed under the terms of the command which God had given to Moses (v. 43): from thirty years to fifty years old.

UPHKUDAV’ (THUS WERE THEY NUMBERED OF HIM) ‘ASHER’ THE ETERNAL COMMANDED MOSES. “A Masorah²⁷The Masorah is the tradition handed down from generation to generation of the exact Scriptural text, and also refers to a collection of exegetical notes on the Scriptural text. The comment before us is of this second class. has it: Five [words in the Scriptures] are written asher (‘which,’ or ‘that’) but they are to be understood as ka’asher (‘as’),²⁸This whole sentence is not found in our texts of Rashi. See however, Berliner’s edition of Rashi, p. 286. — The point though is clear. The Hebrew text reads: asher tziva Hashem literally meaning: [and his countings] “which the Eternal commanded,” and Rashi on the basis of a Masorah interpreted it to mean: ka’asher tziva Hashem — [thus were they numbered] “‘as’ the Eternal commanded.” Ramban later on interprets the text asher tziva Hashem in its literal meaning. [this being one of the five cases, and therefore the above expression is to be interpreted as follows: thus were they numbered of him ‘as’ the Eternal commanded Moses]. And those counted were, in accordance with the command, from thirty to fifty years old.” This is Rashi’s language. If this is so, the word, uphkudav refers to Moses [thus were they numbered ‘of him’ — by Moses]. But Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra commented that [the meaning of the verse is as follows]: every one, that is to say, of the three [Levitical] families — namely, Gershon, Kohath, and Merari — Moses appointed to his service, and to his burden as Scripture mentioned above [that he should appoint them]. And this is the meaning of [the word] uphkudav, namely “[the appointment] of every one” mentioned.
But it is possible that the expression ‘asher’ tziva be understood in its plain sense [i.e., “which” He commanded, and not, as Rashi has it, as if it said ‘ka’asher’ tziva — “as” He commanded]. Scripture would thus be saying that Moses appointed [each of the sons of] these three brothers [i.e., Gershon, Kohath, and Merari] to his service and to his burden as explained above; ‘uphkudav’ (and the numbered individuals) of each of them ‘which’ the Eternal commanded Moses to count by their polls, he appointed to his service, and to his burden. Thus the verse mentioned that Moses numbered them by their families, and also that he appointed the [numbered] individuals by their polls, every one to his service, and to his burden.²⁹In brief: a) according to Rashi asher tziva is to be understood as ka’asher tziva (“as” the Eternal commanded). b) Rashi explains uphkudav as meaning “his countings,” i.e., those of Moses. Ibn Ezra interprets it as “his appointments,” the pronoun “his” referring to each of the three Levitical families. c) Ramban explains asher tziva in its literal sense, “which” the Eternal commanded [as explained in the text], the word uphkudav he understands as does Rashi, i.e., as “countings,” but the pronoun [“his”] Ramban explains as referring to each of the three brothers [Gershon, Kohath, and Merari — not personally, but in the sense of the descendants of each of them] ‘which G-d commanded’ Moses to count by their polls — each of them he assigned to his individual work. And such indeed is the law, that a Levite [of one group] is not permitted to do the work of another group or to assist therein, just as the Rabbis have said:³⁰Arakhin 11b. “It once happened that Rabbi Yehoshua the son of Chananyah wanted to help [his fellow-Levite] Rabbi Yochanan the son of Gudgada to close the gates [of the Sanctuary]; whereupon [the latter] said to him: ‘Turn back, [for if you do not do so] your life is already forfeit, since I am one of the gatekeepers, and you are one of the singers.’”³¹All the Levites were divided into two groups, those who attended only to the gates in the Sanctuary, and those who attended to the singing at the Services. It was forbidden for a Levite of one group to do the work generally assigned to one of the other group (see “The Commandments,” Vol. II, pp. 70-72).

על פי ה׳ פקד אותם, He counted them at the command of G'd, etc. The actual command to appoint the Kehatites to their respective tasks, the Gershonides to their respective tasks, etc., was given only to Moses. Aaron had no hand in these appointments. Once Moses had counted them Aaron allocated the various tasks to each of the Levites who had been counted. When the Torah writes ופקודיו, "and his appointees," this is a reference to the appointments Aaron and his sons had made. This too, however, was only in compliance with instructions given by G'd to Moses.

ופקודיו אשר צוה ה' את משה, “and his count coincided with what Hashem had commanded to Moses.” Rashi writes that all those mentioned by name were between 30 and 50 years of age. Nachmanides writes that if that had been so the subject of the word ופקודיו would have to be Moses. Ibn Ezra explains that the words איש איש, refer to Gershon, Kehat, and Merari, respectively, whom Moses had each appointed individually to specific tasks as we have explained earlier. This would be the meaning of the word ופקודיו, i.e. “the tasks to which each person had been appointed.” It is possible to understand the word אשר as part of the plain meaning, i.e. that Moses had assigned to each of the three brothers Gershon, Kehat, and Merari, his specific service, or task respectively. Each of these brothers in turn carried out his designated task in accordance with what G’d had instructed Moses to convey to them. This involved appointing many individuals to many individual tasks.

From the ages of thirty to fifty. The opinion of Rashi is that the word ופקודיו (and they were counted) refers to Moshe, as the verse wrote previously “he counted them, by the hand of Moshe.” The words “אשר (that) [Hashem] commanded” are thus understood as “כאשר (as) [Hashem] commanded.” Consequently the verse is saying “the counting of Moshe as Hashem commanded Moshe,” meaning from the ages of thirty to fifty. This is why Rashi said “those counted were, as commanded, from the ages of thirty to fifty.” Do not ask why it writes Moshe’s name twice, instead of writing “him,” even though it refers to Moshe earlier in the verse. The answer is that many verses speak in this way, for example “He said to Moshe: come up to Hashem” (Shemos 24:1) where it could have said “come up to Me.” Similarly “Hashem rained down sulfur and fire upon Sodom and upon Ammorah, and the fire came from Hashem” (Bereishis 19:24) where it could have said “from Him.” Similarly “Lemech said to his wives Adah and Tzilah: Hear my voice, wives of Lemech” (Bereishis 4:23) where he could have said “my wives.” One might ask: Why did Rashi need to explain this — doesn’t the Torah state “from the ages of thirty…” many times? The answer is: Because it wrote (v.48) “Their numbers were eight thousand five hundred and eighty” and afterwards said “according to the word of Hashem he counted them,” you might want to explain that this refers to another count that was made in Parshas Beha’aloscha, which was from the age of twenty-five. Therefore Rashi explains that “those counted…” His proof is from the fact that it writes “as Hashem commanded Moshe” implying that they had already been commanded about this, however the command to count from the age of twenty-five was only said later. There are those who explain that ופקודיו means “and they were appointed” and that Rashi explains “ואותם הפקודים…” meaning that those appointed — Elazar and Isamar who were appointed over them — must also be between the ages of thirty and fifty. I found this explanation in the name of a certain great scholar.

V. 49. ופקדיו: Gottes Gezählte, auf Gottes Geheiß, für Gott gezählt. (Ähnlich מ׳׳ר z. St.)