Counting of the Levites

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The Census in the Wilderness

TANAKH

Several censuses of the Israelites are featured in Tanakh. The Book of Numbers describes how in the wilderness, at God's command, Moses took a special count of the Levites.

יהוה spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, saying: Record the descendants of Levi by ancestral house and by clan; record every male among them from the age of one month up. So Moses recorded them at the command of יהוה, as he was bidden.

Numbers 3:14-16

Divine Assistance in Counting the Levites

MIDRASH

The miraculous assistance of the Shekinah allowed Moses to count the Levite children without physically counting each one. Louis Ginzberg’s early 20th-century work, Legends of the Jews, synthesizes a vast array of midrashic and Talmudic sources into a continuous narrative.

When Moses was ordered to number among the Levites all children from a month old and upward, he said to God: "Thou biddest me count them from a month old and upward. Shall I now wander about their courts and houses and count each child, seeing that Thou givest me such a command?" But God replied: "Do thou what thou canst do, and I will do what I can do." It now came to pass that whenever Moses betook himself to a Levite tent he found the Shekinah awaiting him, tell him exactly the number of children without his having to count them.

Legends of the Jews 3:4:20

The Mystery of the Levites' Numbers

COMMENTARY

Despite their loyalty to God and beloved status, the Levites were few in number. Rabbi Chaim ibn Attar, in his 18th-century Torah commentary Or HaChaim, explores the reasons behind the small population of Levites, referencing Nachmanides' insights.

כל פקודי הלוים, all the Levites who were numbered, etc. Nachmanides wonders at the small number of Levites seeing that we are dealing with a tribe who had proved loyal to G'd during the episode of the golden calf and had not sustained losses in their number at that time. Moreover, they were beloved of G'd already while in Egypt. How is it that their number was so small? Although they were counted from the age of one month, as opposed to the other tribes who were counted only from the age of twenty and over…

Or HaChaim on Numbers 3:39:1

The Exemption of the Levites

TALMUD

After the sin of the spies, a generation of Israelites was sentenced to die in the wilderness without themselves entering the holy land. According to the Talmud in tractate Bava Batra, the unique counting method for the Levites exempted them from the decree affecting the other tribes.

Rav Hamnuna says: The decree of death pronounced for the generation of the spies was not decreed upon the tribe of Levi, as it is written: “Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and all those who were counted among you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward” (Numbers 14:29). The verse is interpreted: The decree applies to one whose count in the census is from the age of twenty and up, excluding the tribe of Levi, whose count is from the age of thirty and up. Ahijah was a Levite, and he was not subject to the decree.

Bava Batra 121b:8

The Palace Guard of God

MIDRASH

The Levites were set apart from the rest of Israel due to their loyalty and dedication, especially during the incident of the Golden Calf. The eleventh-century midrash, Bamidbar Rabbah, explains the unique status and responsibilities of the Levites, including their role in the Tabernacle and the severe consequences for non-Levites who attempted their tasks.

Another matter: “However, the tribe of Levi you shall not count” (Numbers 1:49) – why were they not counted with Israel? It is because the tribe of Levi was the palace guard. This is analogous to a king who had several legions, and he said to his chief of staff: Go count the legions, except for the legion that stands before me. That is why the Holy One blessed be He said to Moses: “However, the tribe of Levi [you shall not count]…among the children of Israel” (Numbers 1:49). Among the children of Israel you shall not count them, but by themselves, count them…

Bamidbar Rabbah 1:12

The Organization of the Levites by King David

SECOND TEMPLE

King David counted and organized the Levites, assigning them specific roles and responsibilities in the temple. Josephus, in his first-century historical work 'Antiquities of the Jews,' provides a detailed account of the Levites' organization and duties under King David's rule.

7. But David, being desirous of ordaining his son king of all the people, called together their rulers to Jerusalem, with the priests and the Levites; and having first numbered the Levites, he found them to be thirty-eight thousand, from thirty years old to fifty; out of which he appointed twenty-three thousand to take care of the building of the temple, and out of the same, six thousand to be judges of the people and scribes, four thousand for porters to the house of God, and as many for singers, to sing to the instruments which David had prepared, as we have said already…

The Antiquities of the Jews 7:14:7

The Order of the Levites

COMMENTARY

The specific order of the counting of the different Levite families has been interpreted as informative about their relative importance. The medieval Torah commentary Daat Zkenim, attributed to the Tosafists, explains the distinction between the sons of Gershon and the sons of Kehot in the census.

נשא את ראש בני גרשון גם הם, “take the sum of the sons of Gershon, also;” seeing that on the first occasion, (Numbers 3,17) when the Levites were counted from 30 days old and up, the Gersonides were listed first, (seeing he was the oldest of sons of Levi, as per Genesis 46,11) whereas here when only the ones thirty years and older were counted and Kehot was counted first, (seeing that he performed the most holy tasks of the Levites), the words גם הם, “they also,” were added here to show that this section of the Levites also was counted.

Da'at Zekenim on Numbers 4:22:1

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Counting the Jewish People

Parashat Bamidbar

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