We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.
J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
We are our choices.
Jean-Paul Sartre
We come to the second of our twinned brothers whose naĥalah was “scattered through Israel.” But where Simeon has faded to ignominy, Levi may well be considered the most pedigreed of the tribes. All of his descendants, throughout the many generations of Jewish history, have proudly self-identified as Levites, meticulously charting their family histories and transmitting their special customs through the ages. Some of those descendants have the added distinction of being born as kohanim (the priestly family), a subdivision of the tribe. And while other distinguished families have earned pride of place in Jewish tradition, such as the Davidic dynasty of kings from the tribe of Judah, all members of the tribe of Levi have a rarified status.1Indeed, Levi’s pedigree was on par with Judah’s with regard to the House of David. For more on the notion that the Levitess Miriam’s union with Judahite Caleb resulted in the royal lineage, see Sifrei, Numbers 78; Sotah 11b–12a; ShR 1:17; Tan B. VaYetzei 10; also I Chronicles 2:18. No contemporary Jew can definitively determine his tribal affiliation with the exception of a Levite or kohen. One can convert to Judaism, but the blood rights of the Levite or kohen are reserved for genetic descendants of the original son of Jacob.
Yet what distinguished Levi from his brothers demands investigation. There was nothing in his life in Jacob’s house that identified him as remarkable, worthy of generous and eternal privilege. Indeed, there was little to differentiate him from his brother Simeon at all. He acted in concert with his older brother, and the paternal blessing (which read more like a curse) was leveled at them both together. We either have to wait for the later sons of the tribe to prove their greatness and leave their stamp on tribal destiny, or argue that the privileged destiny of this tribe was not necessarily determined by any meritorious acts of its members. That is, perhaps their status was preordained, rather than earned. Was Levi chosen, or did he earn his privileged status through merit?
First, an examination of his life is due. He was the third son borne by Leah, named by her along lines that have become familiar: “She named her third son Levi, saying, ‘This time my husband will become attached [yelaveh] to me, for I have borne him three sons’” (Genesis 29:34).2The name Levi is the nif’al construct of the root l-v-h, which means “to accompany”: “Now my husband will further accompany me, will be further joined to me.” See Numbers 18:2, where the verse explicitly links this verb to the tribe of Levi.
Is there anything new to be found in the somewhat tired refrain? After all, we have heard this before:
And she named him Reuben, declaring, “The Lord has seen my affliction; now my husband will love me.” And she gave birth to another son, and she said, “God has heard that I am hated, so He has given me this one as well.” And she named him Simeon.
Genesis 29:32–33
Levi’s name continued the theme of those of his two older brothers: an appeal by an insecure Leah that Jacob would be further bound to her, now that she had borne him another son.
What differentiated Levi’s name, though, was the absence of despair present in the names Reuben (“God has seen my affliction”) and Simeon (“God has heard that I am hated”). This third son was named with a positive prayer, a confidence in having borne a third child.3Consider the significance of the number three and how that might have played a role in Levi’s fortune. The third letter in the Hebrew alphabet, gimmel, is rooted in the conceptual meaning of security and self-reliance. Three is considered the basic number of stability and roundedness. A gamal (camel) can subsist many months on its own stores, and the Hebrew word for weaning, which essentially means to establish independence, is gemilah. As Leah triumphantly exclaimed “I have now borne him three sons!” she gave voice to her realization that her position had shifted from insecure to protected.
The Sages note the predominance and significance of the number three to this tribe, and to its most treasured son:
The letters in Moses’s name are three, and he was a scion of the third tribe, Levi…the letters in Levi’s name are also three. There were three children in the family of Moses.4Moses was the third-born! Moses was hidden for three months. The revelation of Torah took place on the third of the three days, and in the third month.
Pesikta de-Rav Kahana 12:135See also Tan. Yitro 10, Tan. B. Yitro 8.
Levi was different from his older brothers, and the serendipity of his birth order had the Sages commenting on his preordained status as borrowed (loveh) by Jacob, but belonging to God Himself:
[When Jacob wrestled with the angel], the angel said: “Jacob! Did you not vow to give a tithe ‘from all that You [God] grant me?’ Well, what of your sons – you have not tithed them!” Jacob then set aside the firstborn of the four mothers,6Reuben, Gad, Dan, and Joseph, as firstborns of their mothers, were exempt from the laws of tithes (see Bekhorot 53b). and eight children remained. He began to count from Simeon, and finished with Benjamin, and began counting again [and the tenth was Levi]. Levi was declared the ma’aser – the tithe holy to God – as it is said, “The tenth shall be holy unto the Lord.”7Leviticus 27:32.…[T]he archangel Michael descended and took Levi, and brought him up before the Throne of Glory, and declared before God: “Sovereign of the Universe! This is Your lot, and the portion of Your works!” And God put forth His right hand and blessed him that the sons of Levi should minister on earth before Him.
Pirkei de-Rebbe Eliezer 37
The midrash traces this idea back to the very moment of Levi’s birth. There is an anomaly in the description of this son’s naming that differentiates it from the formula used to name Leah’s first two, as well as all subsequent children born to Jacob. All were clearly named by Leah and Rachel themselves, with the exception of Levi.
After Leah declares her personal reasons for naming her son Levi (“so that my husband will be bound to me”), the verse continues with the passive “Therefore he was named Levi.” The midrash sees this as indicating God’s direct involvement in determining the fate of this son.
With Levi, the verse states: “Therefore he was named Levi.” This indicates that it was divinely announced: “His name is Levi, in that he was accompanied by and will accompany the King.”
Midrash Ha-Gadol, Genesis 29:348See also Genesis Rabbati, VaYetzei, 29:34.
A related midrash is based on the same textual anomaly and underlines a variation of the meaning of loveh. Rabbi Yudan remarks that just as Leah was inspired by the concept of being joined and further bound to her husband when naming her son, so too did God relate to him from that same angle: this tribe would serve to bind Israel to God.9BR 71:4. The midrash then takes another tack in praise of Levi: there were other tribes (Judah, Dan) where, when being granted their names, the identical formula, “therefore,” was applied. This special wording indicated an exceptionally large tribal population. That Levi was a tiny population compared to the other tribes was due to the fact that many of the tribe died in the service of carrying the Aron Ha-Kodesh (the Ark of the Tabernacle), a task that often resulted in death. And yet, they revered their service, no matter how dangerous. Therefore the verse accorded them the distinction of being a significant tribe like Judah and Dan, even though the numbers did not play out. See Rashi, Genesis 29:34.
The midrashic motif highlighting Levi’s chosenness, as opposed to extolling his performance or accomplishments, is pronounced. Quite a few of these midrashim are based in the verse where the baby Levi was granted his name. One source credits Leah with naming him based on her intuition that, in the future, Levi’s descendants (Moses and Aaron) would bind Israel to their heavenly Father.10MHG, Genesis 29:34.
Another exegetical device promotes Levi’s chosenness: in his commentary on Genesis 29:34, Rashi expands on the midrashic tradition and adds that Levi was crowned at birth with the twenty-four gifts that were the tribute due to priests.11Rashi claimed Deuteronomy Rabbah as his source, but this midrash is not found in any extant manuscripts of Deuteronomy Rabbah.
The Sages view Levi as unusual from birth, granted special status that separated him early from his brethren. Jacob chose Levi and Judah to accompany him from Beth-el when Isaac summoned him for a visit. It was there that Isaac blessed Levi and taught him the laws of priesthood. Other sources12Jubilees 31:3–32 and 32:4–29; also Testament of Levi. claim that Levi strongly resembled Jacob, a gloss that reflects positively on the son, considering the reverence accorded to Jacob by the Sages.13It must be noted that the case for Joseph resembling his father was a much stronger one within rabbinic literature. And when Jacob died, Levi was forbidden from carrying his bier and contaminating himself, since, in the future, he would be tasked with shouldering the Holy Ark.14Tan. B. Bamidbar 12, Tan. Bamidbar 12; BaR 2:8; Sefer Ha-Yashar, VaYeĥi 96a. Additionally, it was Levi who inherited Jacob’s mystical Book of Raziel, which originated with Adam.15The Book of Raziel was originally given by the archangel Raziel to Adam; its journey through the generations was marked with Enoch, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Jacob, Levi, Moses, Joshua, and finally Solomon. Midrash Sefer Noah, in Aharon Jellinek, Beit Ha-Midrash, 3:155–60.
And yet, Levi could claim no favorable or constructive accomplishments during his lifetime. He massacred the menfolk of Shechem alongside brother Simeon, an act that Jacob severely censured, and he was subsequently singled out by the midrash as colluding with Simeon to murder Joseph.16BR 99:7; Tan. B. VaYeshev 13; BR 99:7. In these sources, Simeon alone was blamed for throwing Joseph into the pit. In another source, Midrash Mishlei 1:12, Levi was listed as his accomplice. Ginzberg, Legends, 5:329, suggested that Midrash Mishlei was the original source, and later sources attempted to exonerate Levi so that by the Testaments and Targum Yerushalmi on Genesis 42:24, there was no longer the faintest allusion to Levi’s involvement. Philo (De Josepho 30) also put the entire blame on Simeon. Jacob lambasted Levi along with Simeon, and he was not spared the curse levied on his brother as well, that they would be “divided among Jacob, scattered among Israel.”
How, then, can we reconcile the tribe’s seemingly ignoble beginnings with the heavy dose of reverential counterbalance offered by the midrashim above? Was Levi all that different from Simeon, who was doomed to remain on the margins of the nation of Israel?
Simeon and Levi, United
Our approach to these questions hinges on understanding just how similar Levi was to Simeon originally, and how fundamentally the one tribe diverged from the other, a few generations later. The midrashic material cited above reads into the sparse narrative of Genesis, tracing the glorious and redemptive actions of Levi’s descendants back to their forefather.
These brothers were initially united by a single troubled city that formed the kernel of character so central to the famous Levites to come: Shechem.
“A city slated for divisiveness,” concludes the Talmud, considering all the traumatic events in the history of the Jewish people that played out there.17Sanhedrin 102a. The rape of Dinah, the subsequent massacre of the Gentile city, the sale of Joseph. Eventually, the kingdom of David and Solomon was wrenched apart in Shechem, divided between Judah in the south and Israel in the north. Shechem was a city that drew the original Levi time and again, and was granted to him by Joshua.18Joshua 21:21.
The divisive history of this city was set into place when the eponymous Prince Shechem raped Dinah, the daughter of Jacob.
Now Dinah – the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob – went out to visit the daughters of the land. Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite, chief of the country, saw her; he took her, and lay with her by force.…Jacob’s sons arrived from the field, when they heard; the men were distressed, and were fired deeply with indignation, for he had committed an outrage in Israel by lying with a daughter of Jacob – such a thing may not be done!
Genesis 34:1–7
Shechem injured Jacob’s family unforgivably, seethed the brothers. The fledgling nation agreed to a peace-and-intermarriage treaty when approached by Shechem and his father, Hamor, but they demanded that the Shechemites undergo circumcision first – the covenantal sign of sexual propriety, unique to the Children of Israel.
Shechem said… “Give me the maiden for a wife!” Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah, and they spoke, saying… “Only on this condition will we acquiesce to you: if you become like us by letting every male among you become circumcised,”…so all the people of the city were circumcised. And on the third day, when they were in pain, the two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword and they came upon the city confidently, and killed every male. And Hamor and Shechem his son they killed at sword point. Then they took Dinah from Shechem’s house and left.
Genesis 34:11–25
Most exegetes interpreted the explicit caveat “deceitfully” to mean that Dinah’s brothers had no intention of actually making peace with Shechem. They either felt that the Shechemites would never acquiesce to citywide circumcision,19Ĥizkuni, Seforno. or that, if they did, the brothers might easily steal into the city and snatch their sister back, while the men of Shechem were at their weakest.20Ramban. Neither of these options satisfied Simeon and Levi, though. They cared obsessively about the integrity of Jacob, and burned to see the grievous act avenged. They murdered all of the men of Shechem, while they were impaired by the agreed-upon milah.
Simeon and Levi attacked Shechem because the rape of Dinah and the subsequent halfhearted peace overtures directly threatened the integrity of the House of Jacob. It was this integrity that impassioned the brothers and defined them. These two tribes were zealous for the wholeness and perfection of the family, and they would have fought anyone who threatened that wholeness – even their own brother.21See “Simeon’s Hatred of Joseph” in chapter 3.
Joseph, favorite son of Jacob, dreamed his dreams of supremacy down in Hebron, the family homestead. His brothers retreated to Shechem, the place where the family had already experienced fraction, to “coddle their own selves.”22BR 84:13. But it was not humiliation that fueled Simeon’s and Levi’s animus toward Joseph – it was fear of an alluring charmer who placed himself above all. Joseph was the quintessential na’ar at that point, guileless and almost sweetly narcissistic. Nonetheless, he was a potent force that scared his brothers. What if he were to become a hero to be worshipped? The grand plan for the nation of Israel would then dissolve ignominiously into a sad form of idolatry:
It was this danger of the subtle twisting of individuality into egotism, of relationship into lust, of dreams into manipulation, of open-mindedness into insipid emulation, that worried the brothers about Yosef…[his] brothers detected the dangers that lurked in Yosef’s boyhood dreams.
Rabbi Matis Weinberg, Patterns in Time: Chanuka, 82
In Shechem, Simeon and Levi agitated to remove any element that threatened the unity and integrity of Benei Yisrael, whether a rapist or a brother. They lived and died by the creed that all the Children of Israel were to participate in the national mission, and deviation from that vision was a scourge to be zealously snuffed out. This was what characterized the two: the devotion to integrity, and the call to action when integrity was threatened. “Shall our sister be made like a whore?” they demanded of Jacob, simplifying moral ambiguity to a single, startling point.
The Glorious Kana’ut of Levi
The midrash sees a continuity between Levi’s early zealousness and his descendants’ subsequent behavior as a tribe. It singles Levi out as the tribe who spurned idolatry in Egypt. The midrash argues that the Levites had separated themselves sufficiently from their sinning brethren that the Egyptians paid them no mind, letting them be, while enslaving the rest of the Israelites.23ShR 5:16; Tan. VaYera 6. For the idea that Pharaoh himself refused to enslave the Levites, knowing that Jacob had excused them from carrying his bier, see Hadar Zekenim Baalei Ha-Tosafot on Exodus 1:13. Idolatry is the antithesis of integrity, and the Levites were unwilling to accept anything even smacking of idolatry. It was Levi who massed eagerly around Moses when he angrily confronted the sinning Israelites worshipping the Golden Calf at the foot of Mount Sinai. When Moses called, “Whoever is for God, rally to me!”24Exodus 32:26. The Levites and others loyal to Mosaic tradition gathered once again around this rallying cry many generations later, in the era of the Hasmonean revolt (second century Bce), the triumphs of which we celebrate annually on the festival of Hannukah. the Levites immediately responded. They who had murdered in the past in the name of integrity had no qualms about doing it again:
[Moses] said to them: “Thus says the Lord, God of Israel: Each of you put sword on thigh, go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay brother, neighbor, and kin.” The Levites did as Moses commanded, and some three thousand fell that day. And Moses said, “Fill your hands today for the Lord25“Dedicate yourselves as priests to the Lord” (Rashi, ad loc.). from this day, for each of you has been against son and brother. Therefore God has granted you today a blessing.”
Exodus 32:27–29
This act of solidarity with God was what elevated the Levites to the elite status of bearers of the Holy Ark. The tribe’s willingness to take even a bloody stand for integrity forged a bond between them and God. It qualified them for the special tasks that deprived them of a naĥalah, but granted them the unique role of God’s closest ministers:
At that time, the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark of the Lord’s covenant, to stand in attendance upon the Lord, and to bless in His name, as is still the case. That is why the Levites have received no naĥalah along with their kinsmen: the Lord is their portion, as the Lord your God spoke concerning them.
Deuteronomy 10:8–9
At that time – In the year immediately after leaving Egypt, you sinned with the Golden Calf; yet Levi, who did not sin, was separated from you by God.
Rashi, ad loc.
This was the defining act of the shevet, the source of their celebrated gifts – a startling stand that must have been engraved in the minds of the entire nation. Levi, the one who battled the battle of God. Up until the Golden Calf, it was the bekhorot (firstborn) who were slated for the Temple service. At the moment of the Exodus, they were defined as holy, set aside. Yet after the sin of the Golden Calf, they lost their birthright, and the bekhorah rights passed to the shevet that channeled its passion toward selfless devotion to God. In the natural order of things, the bekhor should have been consecrated. He was the first fruit, “my strength, beginning of my vigor.” In the divine order, however, beĥirah – choosing greatness – trumps bekhorah, every time.
Levi’s zeal to act on behalf of God’s name earned them great praise by their prized son, Moses, in his final blessing to his tribe:
(Levi) said of his father and mother, “I consider them not.” His brothers he disregarded, ignored his own children. Your precepts alone they observed, And kept your covenant.
Deuteronomy 33:9–10
Even those with whom he shared blood ties did not escape Levi’s vengeful sword, so committed was he to preserving national loyalty to God alone. With a showering of blessings for subsistence and victory over Levi’s enemies, Moses went on to counter Jacob’s curse (“I will divide them in Jacob, scatter them in Israel”) with a missive for the Levites: “They shall teach Your laws to Jacob, and Your instructions to Israel.”
Levi and Simeon: A Parting of Ways
Levi earned another covenant – by expressing this same dominant characteristic. Once again, he turned the bloody anger that destroyed Shechem into a force for good. This time, his righteous wrath was focused on the very brother who had once been his brother in lawlessness.
When the Israelites sinned at Shittim, engaging in idolatry and sexual licentiousness with Midianite women, the most flagrant sinner was Zimri, prince of Simeon. Phineas, expressing his identity as a Levite, did not hesitate. While the other leaders looked on helplessly, frozen in despair, Phineas speared Zimri and his Midianite princess consort, Kozbi, before the nation’s eyes.26Numbers 25:1–8.
Zealousness is a frightening force. Like Jacob in the aftermath of the massacre at Shechem, the nation of Israel did not know how to respond to this bloody act. Yet this time, God Himself spoke, defending Phineas’s action:
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “Phineas, son of Elazar son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the Israelites by displaying among them a passion for Me, so that I did not wipe out the Israelite people in My passion. Say, therefore, ‘I grant him My covenant of peace.’”
Numbers 25:10–12
Here was where the two brothers – Simeon and Levi, who were once the closest of kin – dramatically diverged. The trait of kana’ut, or zealousness, surfacing earlier in Levi with Shechem, the Golden Calf, and now here – was pure in the one brother, and sullied in the other. It was Phineas, not Zimri, who was the paradigmatic kanai, zealous for the honor of God. Zimri was jealous for his own tribal honor. While coming from similar roots, his was far removed from the kinah of Phineas, described wonderfully as “an act of true love, whose only object is the strengthening of the ties between God and Man, not the crushing of opposition” (Rabbi Matis Weinberg, Patterns in Time: Chanukah, 288).
Jealousy is petty and hostile; zealotry is noble and ultimately seeks peace. It was with zealous Phineas that God forged His covenant of peace. A jealous character does not value the glory inherent in the distinctiveness of his friend, and wants to abrogate the other’s gifts in favor of himself. A zealous character, in contrast, glories in the uniqueness and greatness of the other. He cherishes not only his own integrity, but also the integrity of the whole that is formed by the utter individualism of its parts. A fine line divides jealousy from zealotry, but that exacting distinction makes all the difference in the world.
The paradigms for Levi were his two prized sons, Moses and Aaron, who embodied the trait of appreciating the other:
If only you were like a brother to me…I would find you outside, I would kiss you…
Song of Songs 8:1
Which outside could the verse be referring to? The desert: the place where two brothers kissed each other. It means Moses and Aaron!
Exodus Rabbah 5:1
All the brothers hated each other until Moses and Aaron.…When Moses became king and Aaron, high priest…each rejoiced in the achievement of the other. When Moses hesitated to accept his mission, it was because he did not want Aaron to be hurt. Said the Holy One to Moses, “Not only will he not be hurt, he will be happy. And not only externally happy but ‘he will see you and rejoice in his heart!’” (Exodus 4:14).
Tanĥuma, Exodus 27
Only one who truly loves and appreciates the strengths of another, one who does not covet but seeks only to encourage the other to realize his own greatness, can be called truly zealous. And paradoxically, burning zealotry creates “a covenant of peace”: “Be of the disciples of Aaron, a lover of peace, a pursuer of peace, a lover of people, drawing them near to the Torah” (Avot 1:12).
The genuine affection and respect between Moses and Aaron and the passionate drive of Phineas were rooted in the same basic character trait: selflessness. The concern that characterized this tribe was not for each individual’s own personal integrity, but for the best interests of the other, and, above them all, the best interests of God. It was this concern that drew God’s love toward the Levites, and it was this concern that fostered peace in the world.
Intrinsic to the Nation, Yet Eternally Removed
We have examined how the Sages read intimations of separateness and distinction in the private life of Levi, even though a simple reading of Genesis revealed nothing manifestly remarkable. On the contrary! Levi was consistently partnered with Simeon during his lifetime, a fact that was made most explicitly clear by Jacob’s closing summary: “Simeon and Levi – the brothers! Together plying weapons of violence.”27Genesis 49:6. In finding hints of greatness in Levi even at this ambiguous point, the Sages pointed to latent potential that was only to be realized later in the life of the tribe, at Sinai and Shittim. Zealotry is not a clear-cut characteristic. Murky and dangerous, it took time to discover itself, to clear out the dross of anger and jealousy.
As we leave the tight family stories of Genesis and begin the narrative of the confederation of tribes developing in Egypt, it is quite startling just how much Levi stood apart from his brothers. First, a rabbinic gloss declared (without precedent and seemingly unwarranted by any textual analysis) that the nation of Israel only became slaves to Pharaoh after the death of Levi.28Seder Olam 3. As mentioned above, there was a midrashic motif that the tribe of Levi was never enslaved in Egypt, perhaps because they separated from their brethren early on and therefore were overlooked by Pharaoh.29ShR 5:16; Tan. VaYera 6. See also Ramban, Exodus 5:4, who explained that Pharaoh exempted the Levites, as the nation’s teachers and religious leaders, from labor. Additionally, the Levites were singled out as the only tribe to uphold the sacred covenant of milah, circumcision, during the nation’s enslavement in Egypt.30YS 589 on Malachi 2:8, where the “berit ha-levi” in the verse was defined as berit milah.
They separated themselves further, we have seen, when they refused to participate in the idolatrous episode of the Golden Calf, instead following Moses’s command to execute their sinning brethren. Continuing along the same praiseworthy route, the tribe of Levi was the only one not to send a representative to spy out Eretz Yisrael, thereby avoiding participation in the spies’ report, an incident that turned out to be one of the most catastrophic in Jewish history.31The more straightforward explanation as to why Levi did not send a scout or spy is that they were to have no naĥalah, so they were less invested.
These separation measures did not drive a wedge between the tribe and the broader nation, but did serve to establish a tribal identity of independence and distinction. As the nation camped around the Tabernacle in the desert, Levi did not join their ranks, but was encircled by them all. When the tribes were divided between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal to engage in the berit arevut (covenant of responsibility) of the blessings and curses upon entering the Promised Land, Levi bridged between them, joining neither group, but ensconced securely in the valley between the mountains.
Levi earned freedom from personal toil due to their service of God – on behalf of the nation:
And to the Levites I hereby give all the tithes in Israel as their share in return for the services that they perform, the services of the Tent of Meeting.…[T]hey shall have no territorial share among the Israelites, for it is the tithes set aside by the Israelites as a gift to the Lord that I give to the Levites as their share.
Numbers 18:21–24
Levi served God on the nation’s behalf, and the nation provided the tribe with sustenance. Afforded no naĥalah of their own, Levi were freed from having to provide for themselves. This arrangement was designed from Above and alluded to in Jacob’s blessing – which initially did not seem like a blessing at all:
Cursed be their anger so fierce, and their wrath so relentless;
I shall divide them among Jacob; I shall scatter them in Israel.
Genesis 49:7
It is a terrible thing to be destined for all time to subsist on handouts and charity. Indeed, when it came to Simeon, these words were interpreted by the Sages as a curse leveled on the tribe, condemning the Simeonites to a poor naĥalah embedded within another’s territory, and a scourge of poverty that forced them to wander throughout Israel, begging for handouts. Not so Levi. The curse was changed to blessing through a symbiotic relationship with the rest of the nation. The Sages pointed out that Jacob’s words can be read as a hidden blessing. Our characteristics are not destiny; mistakes can be turned to good:
God said, “Shall Levi too [alongside Simeon] go begging?” What did God do? He kept Levi free from earning his livelihood through humiliation…by apportioning to him the tithes. Thus Levi would make the rounds, legitimately requesting his portion. Hence the verse “I shall apportion for him within Jacob.”
Genesis Rabbah 99:7
Another national role was assigned to the Levites, when Moses explicitly tasked the tribe to assume the job of teaching the nation the ways of God: “They shall teach your laws to Jacob and your instructions to Israel” (Deuteronomy 33:10).
This privilege was extended to Levi because of the merit earned by avoiding the sin of the Golden Calf and by taking a stand at Shittim, explained the midrash.32Sifrei, Deuteronomy 349. Levi had become a role model for the nation, and the best teachers are those who lead by example. Clearly, the roles of servicing the Temple and instructing the nation went hand in hand; the Levites were the natural religious leaders.33An additional detail: consider that the stone on the priestly breastplate symbolizing Levi was the bareket (carbuncle). This gem was chosen to represent the tribe because it beams like lightning (barak), just as the faces of this tribe beamed with piety and wisdom. Additionally, the carbuncle had the unique property of making one who wore it wise (Rabbenu Baĥya, Exodus 28:17).
The scattering of Levi turned into the source of his greatness. Divided throughout others’ naĥalot, Levi interacted constantly with the nation of Israel. His brethren were able to support him efficiently since his cities were not concentrated in one specific area. Rather, they were easily accessible to every tribe. That his cities were all over the map also indicated that the tribe was not meant to form an elite, removed caste of holy men; instead, Levites were to involve themselves with the life and lifestyles of the nation. They were to be the teachers and scholars,34Deuteronomy 33:10. reminding every tribe of its duty to the whole and its duty to God.
Though our Sages read a special promise into Levi’s birth, we have seen that Levi’s greatness lay in his choices. Jacob dispensed open-ended blessings to the twinned brothers Levi and Simeon, pointing out shared patterns and dangerous forces. Each remained free, though, to determine his own destiny by choosing how to channel and act on his innate passion. Unlike Simeon, whose jealousness became progressively more tainted by personal considerations and unrighteous anger, Levi chose the path of zealousness…and the bekhorah rights thus passed to him.35How remarkable, and utterly appropriate, that Maimonides chose Moses, the paradigmatic Levite, as the model for self-creation: “Each and every person can choose to become a tzadik like Moses” (Hilkhot Teshuvah 5:2).
Visiting Naĥalat Levi
Itinerary: Tel Balatah (Shechem), Umm el-’Umdan (Modi’in?)
Devising a day itinerary in the footsteps of Levi can take one the length and breadth of the country, as this tribe’s cities are scattered throughout the other naĥalot. When considering this shevet, it may be instructive to visit Shechem, modern-day Nablus, nestled for millennia between the two imposing mountains of Gerizim and Ebal. The best vantage point to take in the sprawling city (to which, at present, Israeli entrance is forbidden) is from the Samaritan village of Kiryat Luza, located on Mount Gerizim. Directly opposite the sacrificial center in Kiryat Luza (where the Samaritans annually slaughter dozens of lambs in their Passover sacrifice ritual) is a short walking path that leads to Mitzpeh Yosef, the Joseph Outlook – named for the closest protected point to gaze upon the Tomb of Joseph.
Just west of the Tomb of Joseph is Tel Balatah, the site of biblical Shechem. Look for a pronounced tel, the bare raised mound girded by the apartment buildings of Balata refugee camp. The Arabic name for the ancient site preserved a second biblical name for Shechem: Elon Moreh, or the “Tree of Instruction” (balut is Arabic for oak tree).36Arye Bornstein suggests in one place that Elon Moreh originally meant “Plain of Moreh,” and that the LXX and other early translations erred in translating elon as “tree.” See http://www.odyosefchai.org.il/TextHome/TextInfo/438. Bornstein elsewhere translates Elon Moreh as “The Oak of Moreh” – see his entry “Shechem,” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Archaeology, ed. Daniel M. Master (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 2:355. Ancient Shechem was situated next to abundant springs on lower Mount Gerizim, and was strategically located at the mouth of the valley, commanding trade and travel routes.
Tel Balatah has been excavated sporadically throughout the last century. Scant Chalcolithic and Early Bronze-era potteries were uncovered, but discoveries from the Middle Bronze period (corresponding to the patriarchal period in biblical chronology) revealed that that was when the city really came into its own. A fortification wall, gates, earthen rampart fortifications, and a temple complex dating to between the nineteenth and seventeenth centuries Bce were excavated. Egyptian inscriptions and execration texts from this period mention Shechem by name. But the archaeological record ceased after this point, save for the temple complex, which seems to have continued in active use. Some have suggested that Simeon and Levi’s slaughter of the city’s inhabitants accounted for the long interruption in building, which picked up again only in the Late Bronze period (the thirteenth century Bce).
This was the period when Joshua led the Israelites into Eretz Yisrael, and assembled them there for renewing their covenant with God upon entering the Promised Land. It is certainly possible to interpret the thirteenth-century Bce renovated temple complex, with its east–west orientation and architectural plan nearly identical to that of the future Temple (ĥatzer [courtyard], heikhal [inner sanctuary], and devir [Holy of Holies]), as the Temple of God mentioned in Joshua 24.
On that day, Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he reaffirmed for them decrees and laws. And Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the Temple of God. “See!” he said to all the people. “This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the Lord has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God.” Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to their own naĥalah.
Joshua 24:25–28
Still on its base today is the lower part of a broken matzevah, or large standing stone, that some believe to be the remains of Joshua’s matzevah. Long gone is the ancient oak, under which Jacob hid the terafim idols of Rachel,37See “Dan the Idolator” in chapter 8. centuries before Joshua erected his matzevah on that very spot.
The city grew throughout the period of the Judges, but the archaeological record shows a destruction layer dated to 1100 Bce, likely corresponding to the sacking of the city by Avimelech, as described in Judges 9:42–49.
The ties that bound Levi to Shechem went back to the period when the city was Canaanite, continued through the sale of Joseph, and culminated in the berit arevut of the blessings and curses in the days of Joshua. Then, the Levites stood on the ruins of the city and gazed up at the other tribes splayed out on the two mountains girding Shechem. The city was granted to the tribe of Levi,38Joshua 21:20–21. within Naĥalot Benei Yosef.39Joshua 24:32.
It is instructive that each city granted to the Levites (forty-eight in total), among them Shechem, was also designated an ir miklat, a city of refuge for one who accidently committed manslaughter and fled from his victim’s family.40Numbers 35:6 and Makkot 10a. For a more thorough discussion on the forty-eight cities allotted to Levi and whether they were all indeed cities of refuge, see אליצור, מקום בפרשה, 61–350. It is possible that this design was intended to rehabilitate those who were excessively careless by forcing them into prolonged exposure to the nation’s teachers. Perhaps religious instruction would further sensitize them to the sanctity of life.41Another interesting explanation about the semikhut ha-parashiyot focused on the ease with which the Levites themselves wielded the sword, time and again. Perhaps they too were in need of the rehabilitative effects of the city of refuge. Rabbi Yisrael Alter, Beit Yisrael, Ma’asei 1957, “סמיכות.”
Interred in Shechem are idols, covenants, Joseph himself. The place hosts so many bitter memories, of rape, slaughter, secession, and ultimately national division; but also triumphant ones, of grand promise and renewed commitment. Shechem was given to the Levites to repair…for none are better in “loving peace and pursuing peace, loving their fellow men and drawing them closer to the Torah.”42Avot 1:12.
To encounter a later Levite city, one might visit Modi’in, a Second Temple–period city that was described in rabbinic discussion as a “city of priests”43Kiddushin 66a, especially Rashi, “שהיו אומרים.” – specifically, the priestly Hasmonean family. The exact location of ancient Modi’in has not yet been conclusively identified.44For a survey of the various possible locations of ancient Modi’in, see אליצור, מקום בפרשה, 71–78. One of the possibilities is Umm el-’Umdan, Arabic for either “Mother of Pillars” or a reworked version of “Modi’in.” If the latter is accurate, then the Arabic name of the village is strong evidence that the site was the Modi’in of antiquity. Alternatively, the place may indeed have been named for its pillars, since the most significant building excavated was a Herodian-era synagogue with eight pillar bases.
Umm el-’Umdan is located on the western edge of the Shevatim neighborhood (also known as North Buchman) of present-day Modi’in. Although the excavated synagogue and adjacent mikveh complex are Herodian, archaeologists have identified two strata of monumental buildings lying underneath the synagogue, at least one of which has tentatively also been identified as a synagogue. These strata are dated to the Hasmonean and pre-Hasmonean periods, and indicated to the excavators that the site may well have been where the priest Mattathias and his sons revolted against the Seleucid Greeks in the 160s Bce.45Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah and Alexander Onn, “Modi’in: Hometown of the Maccabees,” BAR 40:2 (2014): 52–58. In recent years, the charming custom of holding a prayer service on the Shabbat of Hannukah at this site has developed, reviving the spirit of the ancient Maccabees. The spirit of Levi is alive and well among the enthusiastic participants, who thrill at the almost tangible connection with their revered ancestors who fought zealously to defend the honor of the Lord.
Here is a fitting place to ponder a later manifestation of the zealousness that characterized the tribe, specifically its specialized priestly caste descending from Phineas, son of Elazar son of Aaron. In the second century Bce, the Syrian Greeks threatened the traditional way of life in Judah by hellenizing the Temple compound and levying a series of draconian decrees on the native Jews. Specifically, they outlawed basic Mosaic practices, such as Shabbat and the dietary laws. The grassroots Jewish revolt was launched by the Hasmonean priest Mattathias and his sons from their hometown of Modi’in. This city symbolized the staunch resolve of the tribe of Levi, and especially the kohanim within the tribe, to counter the brazen threat that the Greek lifestyle posed to their ancestral mores.46For more on the brazenness of the kohanim, see Kiddushin 70b and Ĥiddushei Ha-Maharal, ad loc., “אומנם.”
Finally, a tribute to Levi would be incomplete without a visit to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Tour the Davidson Center Museum, which showcases the archaeological remains and history of the Jerusalem Archaeological Park (the ongoing excavations of the Ophel and areas adjacent to the western and southern retaining walls of Herod’s Temple). Wander around the impressive ruins; there is much to take in. Note the abundance of ritual baths, necessary to purify the Levites, priests and laymen who would ascend to the Temple, as well as shops to purchase animals, birds and grain for sacrifice and exchange coins. The stone tumble and ash residue tell the story of the Temple’s destruction. Of particular interest is the replica of a stone from the fallen southwestern tower of the royal stoa (which ran along the top of the Temple’s southern wall). This stone was inscribed with the words: “l’beit hatekiya l’hakh[riz]” – Of the Trumpeting Chamber to ann(ounce). It marked the point where a priest would trumpet shortly before the commencement of the Sabbath and holidays.
Climb the reconstructed steps leading to the gates in the southern retaining wall. It is easy to envision the Levites, as the custodians and musicians of the Temple, assembled on the steps inside, marking the passage of the week, with dedicated psalms and singing with instrumental accompaniment as the sacrifices were offered.
To more fully immerse in the Levite Temple experience, visit the Temple Institute in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. This museum has a scale model of the Second Temple, as well as reconstructed Temple vessels, including the musical instruments played by the Levitical choir. On display are vivid oil paintings depicting daily and holiday services, transporting the visitor back in time to when the Temple was the vital center and heart of the nation.