What is the method of purifying the Levites and why is it written after the offerings at the Tabernacle dedication? Commentators weigh in on the meanings below the surface.
Abarbanel introduces his commentary on the purification of the Levites by saying:’Now there remains to expound the third level of the servants of Hashem: the Leviim, as after the Torah mentioned earlier (12:3);’And behold I took the Leviim’- and commanded that they be taken for His service in place of the first-born - it was necessary that He command how they were to be purified for His service, as is the case with every person who is elevated in standing, which requires that he undergo steps indicating his new level - as was done with Aaron and his sons, and the Princes.
‘Therefore this parsha does not come to announce the taking of the Leviim in the place of the first-born, as this was already related earlier - but to describe the manner of their purification.’
The Torah relates the manner of their purification:(38:5-19):’Hashem spoke to Moshe saying:’Take the Leviim, from among Bnei Israel, and purify them.. Sprinkle upon them water of purification, and let them pass a razor over their entire flesh and let them immerse their garments, and they shall become pure.
They shall then bring the offerings prescribed in the passage,’you shall gather together the entire assembly of Bnei Israel. You shall bring the Leviim before Hashem and Bnei Israel shall lean their hands upon the Leviim. Aaron shall wave the Leviim as a wave-service before Hashem from Bnei Israel, and they shall remain to perform the service of Hashem. The Leviim shall lean their hands upon the heads’ of their two bulls’, to provide atonement for the Leviim.
‘You shall stand the Leviim before Aaron and his sons, and wave them as a wave-offering before Hashem. So shall you separate the Leviim from among Bnei Israel, and the Leviim shall remain Mine.
‘Thereafter, the Leviim shall come to serve the Tent of Assembly; you shall purify them, and you shall wave them as a wave-service. For presented presented are they to Me from among Bnei Israel, in place of the first-born.. For every first-born of Bnei Israel became Mine..on the day that I struck every first-born in the Land of Egypt I sanctified them for Myself. I took the Leviim in place of every first-born among Bnei Israel.
‘Then I assigned the Leviim to be presented to Aaron and his sons from among Bnei Israel to perform the service of Bnei Israel in the Tent of Meeting and to provide atonement for Bnei Israel, so that there will not be a plague among Bnei Israel when Bnei Israel approach the Sanctuary.’
Rashi comments:’Take the Leviim’: Take them with words: You are fortunate that you have merited to become attendants of the Omnipresent.
‘And you shall gather the entire congregation: Since the Leviim were submitted as an atonement offering instead of them, let they (the Israelites) come and stand with their offerings (viz: the Leviim), and rest their hands upon them.
‘For all the first-born.. are Mine:’The first-born are Mine by right, for I protected them among the Egyptian first-born, and I took them for Myself until they erred through the golden calf, so now:’I have taken the Leviim.’
Sforno adds:’The Torah here duplicates - in passuk 16:’Presented presented are they’, the Leviim to Me’ - ‘to teach that the Leviim presented themselves, to service, as the Torah writes - in Parashat Ki Tissa, concerning the sin of the golden calf - ‘Whoever is for Hashem, to me’ - and all of the tribe of Levi assembled around Moshe.
‘And presented - also - from Bnei Israel, that they should sustain them, from the tithes, as payment for their service, for the people.’
Rav Zalman Sorotzkin asks rhetorically:’Why was this parsha juxtaposed to the parsha of the princes and of the menorah?’ - and answers:’Because Aaron was down-hearted, that he was not among the princes in the inauguration of the Sanctuary, and that neither was his tribe- Levi.
Hashem appeased him:’Yours is greater than theirs, as you will light the candles of the menorah - and Aaron was appeased.
‘But what of his tribe? True, the princes of the other tribes offered on behalf of their tribes - as well as themselves personally, but the ‘offering’ of Aaron - the lighting of the candles - was a ‘personal service’, which could not be performed on behalf of others, just as one cannot don tefillin on behalf of others - so what was the ‘offering’ of the tribe of Levi?
‘Therefore, Hashem juxtaposed the parsha of ‘take the Leviim’, for service in the Sanctuary - truly ‘greater’ than the ‘once only’ offering of the princes.’
The Siftei Kohen also sees the juxtaposition in the nature of an appeasement of the tribe of Levi -Aaron personally having been appeased.
Elucidates the Rav:’As Rashi brings, they were appeased by the words of Moshe, ‘taking them, by telling them of their reward, to be chosen to serve Hashem.’
Adds Rav Sorotzkin:’The shaving of the hair of the body’, alluded to removal of any מותרות :’unnecessary extras’ - its removal on the day of the purification of the Leviim - that from that day on, they were to abstain from unnecessary luxuries, as befits their new spiritual level.’
The Siftei Kohen adduces another reason for the shaving:’It comes to distinguish and separate them from the rest of the people, as befits and denotes their new level.’
Rav Moshe Sternbuch adds: ’Let us note that purification from tzaraat - ‘the affliction of ‘leprosy’ - also required the shaving of the entire body.
‘One of the reasons given for this, is that since he was guilty of speaking lashon hara against others, the Torah decided to remove him from the presence of others - to outside the encampment, and to be shaved - so that his appearance is different from those of other people, and this distancing will - hopefully - cause him to restrain what comes out of his mouth, and to abstain from speaking lashon ha’ra about others.
‘It would appear that this reason also could apply to the requirement that the Leviites shave themselves, as part of their purification - as they will thereby look different from other people, which they are - being the army of Hashem, who need to be able ‘to swim against the stream’, in their sanctified role- unlike the materialist view of many, though this may lead to the others viewing them ‘as afflicted’ - like those struck by tzaraat.
The Malbim expounds:’The parsha of the purification of the Leviim was said on the day of the erection of the Sanctuary, as the Leviim were at that time mingled with the rest of Bnei Israel, and Hashem therefore commanded that they be separated, and purified.
‘There were two wavings of the Leviim - one by the hand of Aaron, and the other by the hand of Moshe - as each one had a different instruction, as two separate matters were done with regard to the Leviim: One, that Bnei Israel gave them to Hashem, as till then the first-born performed His service, but now the Leviim took their place - and, to this, Aaron waved them, as the shaliach of the people, who had ‘given’ them, to henceforth perform this service of Hashem.
‘The second matter, was that the Leviim were given to Aaron, to assist the Kohanim in their work - such as the slaughter of the offerings, the removal of their skins and the transport of the Sanctuary - to this end, Moshe waved them, as the Shaliach of Hashem, to ‘give’ the Leviim to Aaron.
TheTorah now gives the reason for the two wavings:’Because they are given..’- meaning: the reason for the first waving, is that they were given to Me - to Hashem - in place of the first-born, and therefore need to be sanctified - therefore, Aaron waved them, as ‘to Hashem and His service.
‘The reason for the second waving - by Moshe - as Moshe was Hashem’s shaliach, and - after they became Hashem’s from the first waving - they were now given by Hashem, to Aaron, ‘from Bnei Israel’, to aid the Kohanim in their work, which till then was imposed on all of Bnei Israel.
‘After this, the Leviim came to perform their service in the Tent of Meeting, before Aaron’ - as they had, by the second waving been given this role, this by Moshe, as to which it says:’As Hashem commanded Moshe on the Leviim, so he did to them’ - which was by the second waving, which was by Moshe.’
Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch notes:’There were three wavings - waving being known to signify sanctification.
‘By these three wavings, the Leviim are sanctified to their role, as appears from the parsha: Israel sanctify them to Hashem, Hashem sanctifies them to Aaron, and Aaron and his sons sanctify them to serve in the Sanctuary.
‘We therefore find it said- in the name of Hashem, in the name of the people and in the name of Aaron and his sons, the Leviim capture and fulfill their role - this being brought to the attention of the people by the three wavings - first, the ‘giving’ of the Leviim by Bnei Israel to Hashem, and the two subsequent wavings.
‘Only after the Leviim have been given by Bnei Israel to the Kohanim, do they enter and serve in the Sanctuary - and this only for ‘the Needs of Heaven’, and not the private needs of the Kohanim.’
The Kli Yakar comments:’The Torah in our parsha, sometimes uses the language of לקיחה, and sometimes the language of נתינה: given - and we need to clarify this.
‘Also- why does the Torah replicate the word נתונים נתונים הם: they are given, given to Me’ - yet this is immediately ‘contradicted’ by the Torah saying:’I took them to Me’.
‘It appears that this led the Midrash to expound:’Take the Leviim’: לשמי: For My Name, for rule.
‘By this, all our difficulties are resolved, as we find the language of לקיחה: taking in regard to the exchange of the first-born, as it says:’in place of every first-born, לקחתי: I took you to Me’ , in passuk 16.
‘The explanation is, that the Leviim were chosen for three things: two of subjugation, and one of rule - the two of subjugation: their bodies to bear the Sanctuary, and their souls as atonement for Bnei Israel.
‘It therefore says:’And Bnei Israel lay their hands on the Leviim’, as if they were their offering and atonement.
These two things were not imposed by Hashem on the Leviim because the first-born were disqualified, but because the Patriach Yaakov gave a tithe from all that he had, as he had twelve sons, to whom he added ‘Ephraim and Menashe, like Reuven and Shimon will be to me’ - take away the four first-born to the four mothers, and we are left with ten.
‘From them, he gave Levi , but as he said:’עשר אעשרנו’ - doubling the tithe, therefore he also added the חומש : twenty percent, leading to him sanctifying Levi to the One Above, in two things: his body to the work of the Sanctuary, and his neshama, as atonement - as if he gave two portions, alluded to by the doubling of the words נתונים נתונים: given, given to Me from Bnei Israel’ - as they were given from the Patriach Yaakov - who, of course, is our Israel - as it immediately elucidates the two matters:’to do the service of Bnei Israel..’ and to atone for them.’
‘However, when the language of לקיחה : taking, is used - that Hashem took them without Yaakov giving, meaning by rule - as was the case with the first-born - who were disqualified, and whose role was given to the Leviim - He said:’I took the Leviim in place of every first-born, I took them to Me - from which the Midrash expounded: לשררה : by force, this being that every-one of Bnei Israel was obligated to give them tithes, this being why he was called לוי: alluding that he was ‘accompanied’ by gifts - and this is a precious exposition.’
Abarbanel- whose introductory comments we brought at the outset - notes:’Hashem commanded here several things: First:’Take the Leviim from among Bnei Israel’, as they were mingled with the rest of the people, and commanded that they have their own separate place in the encampment; second: and purify them’ - prescribing what was to be done to them, including the sprinkling of the water of purification, as till then they had not been as careful to avoid impurity as their new position now required.. Third:’to shave all their body’ - this, too, to remove any of the contact with impurity which may have attached to them. Fourth:’to immerse their soiled garments -all of this to prepare their souls to their new sanctified status, as was the case before Matan Torah.
‘It then said:’And you shall draw the Leviim before the Tent of Meeting’, so that they not err to think to enter it, as did the Kohanim, whom they were to assist in their service.’
A parting gem from the Be’er Mayim Hayim:’’You shall bring the Leviim before Hashem’(8:10)- the purport of this is not clear, as there had already been a command to draw them near to the Tent of Meeting(8:9).
‘Perhaps this alludes to bringing the souls of the Leviim to a higher level - to be ‘standing before Hashem’ Above, where He would confer on them all of His choicest blessings, for success in their new roles, to be worthy to serve Him.’
