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Counting the Baby Levites

How to Study Torah - Bamidbar

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Counting the Baby Levites: How to Study Torah - Bamidbar

In the census of the Jewish people, Moses counted all men eligible for military conscription, that is all who were twenty years of age and older. Why then did a separate census of the Tribe of Levi include even babies from 30 days and up?
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Census of the Israelites, Bamidbar

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3 Comments
M. Diane Flushing, NY June 6, 2016

Oh! Those first borns could not have been 'happy campers' with the change! And, maybe they still are not!

It makes sense that simply having baby Levites around makes things safer and holier and nicer for the rest since the babies are intended future beneficiaries of receiving "G-d as their inheritance" instead of receiving a piece of land. We all know that G-d, in a blink of an eye, can cause any particular piece of the Earth one is confident she 'owns' and for which she possesses a paper with pretty gold stickers and seals and stamps representing "legal title" including a metes and bounds description that leaves no room for anyone to mistake it for their own, to be flooded and covered by rain or river, subsumed into an ocean or swallowed up by a gigantic earthquake crack in the ground or humongous sink hole so that no trace of it remains. Gonna sue G-d? G-d's "Answer & Affirmative Defense" "Allegations Admitted & "Act of G-d" Defense." Case Dismissed. So, I'll take the "G-d as inheritance" option if I can get it, please! Great lecture, Rabbi Mendel! Reply

Katrin Europe May 23, 2014

Service in the IDF Since the Levites didn't get counted in the first place for they never stopped learning Torah, hence didn't go to war, couldn't we also say that the Yeshiva guys who study Torah all day should be exempt from joining the IDF if they wish? Reply

Norah Melbourne, Australia May 24, 2012

2 questions I always enjoy your shiurim! but I have 2 questions:
firstly would the son of a Cohen who served idols be considered a Cohen?
secondly, how come Yocheved was counted, none of the other girls/ladies were counted. Reply

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