Комментарий к Бамидбар 8:19

ואתנה וגו׳ AND I HAVE GIVEN [THE LEVITES etc.] — Five times are the “children of Israel” mentioned in this verse (where the last four times they might have been alluded to by a personal pronoun), in order to show what affection they are held by the Lord in that the mention of them is repeated five times in one verse corresponding in number to the “Five Books of the Torah”. Thus I have seen stated in Genesis Rabbah (Leviticus Rabbah 2:4; cf. Genesis Rabbah 3:5).

ואתנה את הלוים, since they are by themselves “given” to perform service for Me, they are now at the disposal of Aaron and his sons, My delegates on earth.

ואתנה את הלוים נתנים לאהרון ולבניו, "and I have given the Levites,-they are given to Aaron and his sons, etc;" why did the Torah repeat the word נתנים, "they are given?" This may be intended to obligate the recipient of a gift to accept that gift and not to refuse it. Although in matters of inter-personal relationships it is perfectly in order for a person to decline to accept a gift as long as it has not come into his possession (his hands) and he has thereby acquired it, in this instance the Torah obligates the priests to accept this gift although acceptance involves negative aspects. By accepting the new status of the Levites -even though they were subordinate to the priests- the kind of duties performed by the priests became forbidden to the priests on pain of death. This is the view of Sifri on Numbers 18,3. The wording there is: "both they and you will be subject to the death penalty; you when you interfere in matters allocated to them and they when they interfere in matters allocated to you." This contrasts somewhat with what Maimonides wrote in chapter 3 of Hilchot Kley Hamikdosh where he describes Levites who performed service in the Temple, i.e. the domain of the priests, as guilty of death at the hands of Heaven. However, he describes priests who perform tasks allocated to the Levites as guilty of transgressing only an ordinary negative commandment, and not guilty of death. At any rate, Maimonides also agrees that such a transgression on the part of the priests qualifies for some retribution. Considering this we could understand why the priests would decline the gift of the Levites. The Torah therefore had good reason to repeat the word נתנים to deny the priests the option to decline this gift.

ולא יהיה בבני ישראל נגף בגשת בני ישראל אל הקודש, “so that there will not be a plague among the Children of Israel when the Children of Israel approach the Sanctuary.” The plague will be prevented as the Levites ensure that the Israelites do not cross the line into sacred precincts which are out of bounds to them. You will find the word ישראל five times in this verse. Whenever the name of a person or group of persons is repeated in this fashion this reflects the extreme fondness of the author writing this comment about the people concerned. Our sages in Vayikra Rabbah 2,4 illustrate this point by means of the parable of the father who has a young son just about ready to begin his schooling. The father constantly inquires about his son whether he drinks properly, eats properly, sleeps properly, etc. This is why we also find that all matters pertaining to the Tabernacle have been written in the Torah five times (compare author’s comment on Exodus 35,1 where he points out that most matters have been written repeatedly). The reason the Torah wrote these matters five times was to correspond to the five Books of the Torah the Jewish people observe. These Books are what keep the world going, seeing the world was created with the letter ה, as we pointed out in connection with the under-sized letter ה in Genesis 2,4 בהבראם. These five Books were not designed for any nation other than the Jewish people. We know already that the Tabernacle was a microcosm of the terrestrial world so that referring to its details five times makes excellent sense.

Bnei Yisroel are mentioned five times. Rashi brought this here because he was answering the question: He had explained that the words “I took them for Myself,” in the past tense, refer to the firstborn — meaning that “I took them for Myself and at that time I sanctified them for Myself.” Why then does the Torah need to say that Hashem had chosen them previously, did it not merely come to explain that he rejected them because they erred with the golden calf? Rashi answers that because of their preciousness and despite their rejection, He did not wish to mention their sin. Rather He mentions their praises and merits when Hashem brought them in to his service. You should know this by the fact that they were mentioned five times in one verse, due to their preciousness. In some editions of Rashi I have found the text “and I have given the Levites … [Bnei Yisroel are mentioned] five times…” and this more correct. (This appears to be our text).

V. 19. נתנים לאהרן וגו׳. Aharon und seine Nachkommen haben kein ursprüngliches Recht an die Leviten, sie sind ihnen "gegeben", von Gott zu bestimmtem Zweck gegeben. לעבד וגו׳: der Dienst am Heiligtum und im Heiligtum, der der Nation in erster Linie obliegt und den sie ursprünglich durch ihre Erstgeborenen zu leisten haben sollten, soll fortan durch die Leviten zur Erfüllung kommen. ולכפר על בני ישראל: Verstehen wir diesen Ausdruck recht, so dürfte diese Entfernung der בכורי ישראל und deren Ersatz durch die Leviten eine fortdauernde כפרה für Israels Abfall beim Egel sein. Es ist dies eine fortgesetzte Mahnung an diese erste große Verirrung, in welcher der noch vorhandene große Abstand der Nation von ihrer großen Bestimmung und ihre Erziehungsbedürftigkeit zu derselben an den Tag trat, und wozu sie sich eben durch die willige Bestellung der Leviten an die Stelle ihrer Erstgeborenen bekannten und bekennen. ולא יהיה בבני ישראל וגו׳, zugleich ist diese Entfernung der בני ישראל vom Heiligtum nichts als eine Fortsetzung jener הגבלה, mit welcher sofort am Tage der Gesetzgebung eben dieser noch vorhandene Abstand der Nation von der Höhe ihrer im Gesetze gezeichneten Bestimmung zum Bewusstsein gebracht und die Tatsache für alle Zeiten dokumentiert worden war, dass das Gesetz ein "gegebenes", ein an das Volk gekommenes, nicht aus dem Volke hervorgegangenes war, das somit ein für alle Zeit unantastbares bleibt, und es nie als Israels Aufgabe oder Befugnis erscheinen kann, sich aus eigenem subjektiven Belieben eine "Gottesverehrung" zu gestalten, eine Tatsache, deren Verkennung im tiefen Grunde die Wurzel der Egel-Verirrung bildete. (Siehe, was wir im Buche Schmot über die הגבלה und das עגל-Ereignis angemerkt.)

ולא יהיה בבני ישראל נגף [AND I HAVE GIVEN THE LEVITES … TO DO THE SERVICE OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL] THAT THERE BE NO PLAGUE AMONG THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL [WHEN THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL COME NIGH UNTO THE SANCTUARY] — The meaning is: I have given them etc. so that it should be unnecessary for them to come near to the Sanctuary, because [having sinned by worshipping the Calf], if they came near there would be a plague among them.

לעבוד את עבודת בני ישראל באהל מועד, to perform the very duties which, previously, it had been the duty of the firstborn to perform on behalf of the Children of Israel.

[If] they approach. Meaning that this is an abbreviated phrase. For it should have said “I have given the Levites … to atone for the Bnei Yisroel so that the Bnei Yisroel will not need to approach the Holy and so that there will not be [a plague…].” The reason that the Levites were given to the Kohanim was so that they could serve, and the Israelites would not need to approach — so that there would not be a plague among Yisroel for if they were to approach, there would be a plague. The verse means to say the positive (if they approach there will be a plague), and not the negative “there will not be a plague among Yisroel” (if they do not approach). It is as if the Torah had said “Why were the Levites given to Aharon and his sons — in order that the Bnei Yisroel would not need to enter for this service and approach the Holy. And why should they not approach the Holy — in order that there will not be a plague among them.” Re’m. Alternatively, Rashi is answering the question: Is it because He now took the Levites that there would not be a plague with their approach to the Holy? Surely, it is written “the foreigner who approaches shall die” (Bamidbar 1:51). Therefore he explains that “so there will not be a plague among them” means “so for they will not need to approach the Holy.” For otherwise there would be a concern over a plague among them when they were to approach the Holy.

מתוך בני ישראל, from among the children of Israel, etc. Our verse repeats the expression בני ישראל five times, apparently without reason. Our sages in Vayikra Rabbah 2,1 consider mention of that word an expression of G'd's fondness for the Jewish people. The five-fold mention corresponds to the five books of the Torah. This is all homiletics, of course. According to the plain meaning of the verse the number of times the children of Israel are mentioned appears absolutely justified. When the Torah writes מתוך בני ישראל, it refers to the Jewish people as long as these included the tribe of Levi on an equal footing. When it referred to the עבודת בני ישראל this is a reference to the firstborn of the Israelites who had performed the priestly functions up until then. The Levites had now taken over their functions. The Torah had to refer to these firstborns as בני ישראל instead of merely writing עבודתם, "their service," seeing it was no longer "their service." When our verse continues with the expression לכפר על בני ישראל, it refers to a description of the entire Jewish people. The reason the Torah did not choose the shorter לכפר עליהם is that this would have sounded as if it referred to the people mentioned or rather referred to last, i.e. the firstborn. When the Torah continues with ולא יהיה בבני ישראל נגף instead of ולא יהיה בהם נגף, it does so in order that we should not understand that the absence of such a plague is merely the result of the atonement mentioned previously. The Torah speaks of two separate benefits devolving on the Israelites as a result of the Levites performing their tasks. 1) There will be no mental illness due to sins perpetrated for which the Levites attain atonement. 2) There will be no physical plague which would result through the unauthorised entry of the Israelites into the sacred precincts of the Tabernacle. It makes eminent sense that this is what the Torah has in mind here as the message is not related to what had been discussed previously. When the Torah continues with בגשת בני ישראל, it means that even though only individuals might become guilty of violating these sacred precincts, the ramifications of the sin of these individuals would involve the whole people. G'd's anger would be vented at the people as a whole. We know from the uprising of Korach which involved only a few people, that Moses had to remonstrate with G'd when he noticed that G'd held the entire nation responsible (compare Numbers 16,21-22).

ולכפר על בני ישראל, and to be the instrument of the people’s atonement by their accepting the tithes tendered them by the people so that they would be free to perform the duties G’d has now assigned to them. G’d had come to despise the firstborn, seeing that they participated also in the sin of the golden calf which had caused G’d so much grief.

ולא יהיה בבני ישראל נגף, both among the Israelites and among the Levites.

בגשת בני ישראל אל הקודש, the Israelites’ sin would be that of entering domains out of bounds to them, whereas the Levites’ sin would be allowing them to do so without trying to prevent them from entering holy precincts. All of them would make themselves guilty and would die at the hands of G’d as spelled out in 18,3.