The Torah gives us census numbers for the tribes after they left Egypt. Among them, Levi is a standout, with far fewer people than any other tribe. The obvious question is, of course, “why?”
Using the text itself, I have one answer that seems to make sense. When Levi is born, his mother, Leah, says, “’This time my husband will become yilavehto me, for I have borne him three sons.’ Therefore he was named Levi.”
What does this word mean? Elsewhere in the Torah, it is found in only a few places. Twice it specifically refers to the duties of the Levi:
You shall also associate with yourself your kinsmen the tribe of Levi, your ancestral tribe, to be attached to you and to laveh to you, while you and your sons under your charge are before the Tent of the Pact. (Num. 18:2)
They shall be laveh to you and discharge the duties of the Tent of Meeting, all the service of the Tent; but no outsider shall intrude upon you. (Num. 18:4)
We learn from this that the job of Levi is to be Levi. The name describes their task, their raison d’etre. Levi is because Levi does laveh. So what does the word actually mean? The above suggests some kind of helping or facilitating role, helping the priests fulfill their jobs in building and growing the relationship between G-d and the people.
Another time the word is used in the Torah (besides identifying the tribe itself) it is as follows:
If money you laveh to My people, to the poor among you, do not act toward them as a creditor; exact no interest from them. (Ex. 22:24)
This gives us our meaning. A moneylender is a facilitator, someone who helps someone do what they want to do, without actually being a direct party in the transaction. The bank, for example, may help buy your house, but they do not get to live in it. Instead, the bank facilitates what you already want to do.
In a section of curses, G-d tells us:
The stranger in your midst shall rise above you higher and higher, while you sink lower and lower. He shall be your laveh, but you shall not be his laveh; he shall be the head and you the tail. (Deut. 28:43-44)
Which tells us that a laveh is not a subsidiary role.
In all, we have our definition, the reason for Leah’s name-choice: a Levi is someone who helps others, from a position of leadership or guidance, not as an underling. We can think of numerous comparative words: an escort, or mentor or tutor.
Note the repetition of a theme that is found time and again in the text of the Torah: terrestrial marriages parallel, and even lead, the marriage between the people and G-d. Levi is there to help Leah and Jacob, just as his descendants exist to facilitate and guide the Jewish people in their relationships to G-d.
And in this, we can understand why Levi does not have children at the same rate of other people. Leah named her son in the hopes that Levi’s existence would facilitate her marriage to her husband. And forever more, Levi becomes the person who helps other people with their relationships. Levi becomes the teacher, the guide, and counselor. In the Mishkan, Levi is there to help the people connect with G-d, facilitating and guiding the connection.
The problem with helping other people is that it always comes at a cost. Investing in other peoples’ relationships is that you lack the time and energy to invest as much in your own. And so it proves in Egypt. The tribe of Levi acted in accordance with their name, so they helped other people, but at the cost of their own marriages. Which explains why they had fewer children, while helping the other tribes to have more.
Do Levites Get Their Job Description from Joseph?
You shall put the Levites in charge (pakad) of the Tabernacle of the Pact, all its furnishings, and everything that pertains to it: they shall carry the Tabernacle and all its furnishings, and they shall tend (sharress) it; and they shall camp around the Tabernacle. (N. 1:50)
Note the presence of two words, “in charge” (pakad) and “tend” (sharress). And we saw something that was very cool: these two words only appear in two other verses in the entirety of the Torah. The first is with Potiphar, Joseph’s master:
And when his master saw that G-d was with him and that G-d lent success to everything he undertook, Joseph found favor in his eyes. He made him his personal attendant (sharress) and put him in charge (pakad) of his household, placing in his hands all that he owned.
Interesting! Potiphar made Joseph the head of his household, in charge of everything… just like G-d did with the Levites in Exodus! Except Potiphar did it first.
The other verse that uses both of these two words is not far after: the butler and baker are jailed in the prison where Joseph had been left to rot.
Pharaoh was angry with his two courtiers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker and put them in custody, in the house of the prefect in the same prison house where Joseph was confined. The prefect assigned (pakad) Joseph to them, and he attended (sharress) them. (G. 40:2)
What was Joseph’s role? He acted as the intermediaries to these two jailed men, with responsibility but no clear power or authority. And in his role, Joseph listened to the men and interpreted their dreams. He acted as a counsellor.
Which might help shed a different light on why the Levites were selected to tend G-d’s House; they were not just administrators or trusted functionaries (as Joseph was in Potiphar’s house). They were also counsellors and friends, building connections and giving hope to the people just as Joseph did for the butler and the baker.
Isn’t it intriguing that when G-d decided to appoint the Levites as the people responsible for maintaining G-d’s house, the language reflects the acts of Potiphar, of all people?