Комментарий к Бамидбар 1:49

אך את מטה לוי לא תפקד ONLY THOU SHALT NOT NUMBER THE TRIBE OF LEVI — The legion of the King is worthy to be numbered by itself (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Bamidbar 15). — Another explanation is: The Holy One, blessed be He, foresaw that a decree would once be made against all those that had been numbered from twenty years and upwards, viz., that they should die in the wilderness (Numbers 14:29). He therefore said: Let these (the Levites) not be included amongst those now counted, in which case they must die, because they are Mine, since they did not sin by worshipping the golden calf (cf. Numbers Rabbah 3:7; Bava Batra 121b).

אך את מטה לוי, even though I had said “count all the heads of the community of Israel,” (verse 2) and it was understood that the Levites were included in this, they are distinct from the other tribes in that they will be counted separately, according to different criteria, such as —

לא תפקד…לא תשא. "do not count…nor take their sum, etc." The meaning is that the Levites should neither be counted by the traditional means of tendering a half shekel nor by any other means at the same time as the other tribes were being counted. Please refer to my comments in Parshat Ki Tissa on this subject.

Counted separately. Meaning that they would not be counted from the age of twenty, but from the age of one month. Since the Levites were the legion of the King, the Levites’ children who had passed the stage when a baby may be categorized as stillborn, were considered as important as those who go forth into the army of Israel.

V. 49. אך את מטה לוי לא תפקד וגו׳ בתוך בני ישראל: es soll der einzelne seine Bestimmung nicht innerhalb der Volksgemeinde erhalten, ואת ראשם לא תשא וגו׳ und als Gesamtheit bilden sie eine von der Volksgemeinde gesonderte Gemeinschaft, sie gehören nicht zur עדה, sondern zum עדות.

אך את מטה לוי לא תפקוד, “but do not count the tribe of Levi;” this verse excludes the tribe of Levi from the decree of requiring atonement for the sin of dying in the desert which was a decree that was going to be imposed on the males who had been adults at the time of the Exodus after the spies came back declaring that the people could not conquer the Land of Canaan. (Numbers 14,29) Seeing that would be so, G–d did not even want to count them here with the other tribes of Israel.

ואת ראשם לא תשא בתוך בני ישראל, “and you are not tonumber them as part of the Children of Israel.” The reason was that the criteria for counting the Levites were not the same as the ones applied to the other (12) tribes. The Levites were counted from age thirty days in this portion, (3,14), on the one hand, and again from the age of 3050 (in chapter 4,47.) A different interpretation: seeing that none of them would serve in the army, but they would only perform duties as security guards for the holy objects, a different yardstick was applied to them.

לא תפקוד different age groups, and —

Another interpretation; … foresaw. According to the first reason, one could ask why it is written אך (however), because the word אך always comes to exclude something. Therefore Rashi explained here that exclusion was from the decree that those aged over twenty should die in the desert. One might ask: Rashi should have said that they did not err during the episode of the spies, whereas the decree of death in the desert was due to this. The answer is: Even the Levites erred in the episode of the spies, and it was only with the golden calf that they did not err. Therefore, they were not punished [for the episode of the spies] given that even the rest of Yisroel were only punished because of these two sins together. Rashi proves this in Parshas Shlach Lecha (Bamidbar 14:33), where the Torah writes “bear your sins” rather than “bear your sin.” Consequently, it is certain that two sins of the golden calf and of the spies were the cause. [You might question:] Rashi explains later in Parshas Devarim (Devarim 1:23) that the Levites were not with them at the sending of the spies, or even at the decision to do so, as we will explain later. The answer is: Initially at the sending they were not with them, even for the decision, however when the spies returned and made an evil report about the land —when the entire congregation raised their voices and wept — the tribe of Levi was included in that weeping. They too said “why would Hashem bring us … to fall by the sword, our women and children to be taken captive.” With this, one may also answer the question that is widely asked: Even if they were counted from the age of twenty, if the Levites did not sin they would not have been included in the decree — because “it is not the serpent that causes death rather it is sin.” Thus we can certainly see that the Levites sinned during the episode of the spies and because of this they were not counted.

ואת ראשם לא תשא when you compute the total number of people in the general census their number will not be included.