[A Levi] from the age of thirty years and upward until the age of fifty years, who is fit to perform the service for the service
and the work of carrying, in the tent of meeting.
This pasuk seems rather ambiguous, it does not explicitly mention what the "service for the service" is that the לביים should be performing.
Rashi says that the "service for the service" refers to the music of the symbols and harps that the לביים played. This playing music was a service to the other service of the קרבנות.
Why were the לביים specifically ordered to be the ones to perform the service for the service? Is there anything else the service for the service could be referring to?
The Sfat Emet writes:
ReplyDeleteIt is the fact that they carry the Ark on their shoulders that gives them the power to lift their voices in song. This is true also of every person who serves God. True service fills a person with light and joy.
Rabbi Art Green adds:
The religious life is not meant to be a weighty burden, but one that helps us to feel the lightness and joy of knowing God's presence. The Levite who carries the ark on his shoulders is also -- or is therefore -- the one who sings! What a great message, and a typically chasidic one: life in God's service is a life of happiness and fulfillment.
The Rosh, based on a Pasuk in Divrei Hayamim, explains that this is referring to the Shechitah of the Korbanot. This was an important part of the service of a Kohen, but did not have to be performed by the Kohanim, which is why this was called 'the service of the service'.
ReplyDeleteA midrash says that the leviim in gershon's family were assigned to prepare the cloth and screens for the mishkan.
ReplyDeleteAriella Rand
ReplyDeleteRashi explains that the service that the Levi''s do, is they play the music specifically harp.
In a dvar Torah by Rabbi Yisroel Ciner, The tribe of Levi (which includes both the kohanim and the levi'im) had been entrusted with this avodas hakodesh - the holy service of the Mishkan and all that goes along with it. Birkat Kohanim could refer to the service of the service because it is requesting peace among everyone. "vayasaim l'cha shalom (and He will give to you peace) [6:26]".
ReplyDeleteThe levi'im were given the job of carrying pieces of the mishkan that if anyone else were to touch they would be killed.
ReplyDelete