The roots of redemption

The Levites were the last to be counted in the census delineated in the opening of Sefer Bemidbar. They were grouped according to the families of the three sons of Levi: Gershon, Kehas, and Merari.

 

The Torah commands:

 

Take a census of the descendants of Kehas among the Levites, according to the families of their ancestral house….Take a census also of the descendants of Gershon, according to their ancestral house and their families….As for the descendants of Merari, take their tally according to the families of their ancestral house. (Bemidbar 4:2, 22, 29)

 

Each time God requires that the Jewish people be counted, it is because each Jew is precious to Him. This is clear from the terminology the Torah employs in instructing that a census be taken. Naso, take a census, literally means, “lift up.” God’s census-taking connotes a rise in the esteem of those who are counted.

 

This is clearly evident in the manner in which the Torah expresses that the families of Kehas are to be counted. It is less evident for the families of Gershon. Although the word naso is used, the Torah’s use of the word also implies that Gershon’s census was secondary to that of Kehas. And the Torah seems to show even less regard for the clans of Merari, merely ordering that they be tallied without any mention of the word naso.

 

In each instance where the Torah instructs that one of the Levite ancestral houses be counted, it provides a detailed description of the specific service that house was to perform in transporting the Mishkan to the desert. The descendants of Kehas were charged with transporting the holiest components of the Mishkan: the Aron, the Shulchan, the Menorah, the Mizbei’achs, and their utensils. The descendants of Gershon were given responsibility for transporting the various curtains and hangings: the cloth drapery that served as the walls of the Mishkan and the Ohel Mo’ed, the hides used as outer coverings, and the partition at the entrance to the Ohel Mo’ed. The descendants of Merari were to transport the structural components of the Mishkan: the planks, the bars, the posts, and the sockets.

 

We can parallel the different assignments given to Gershon, Kehas, and Merari to the different levels of esteem with which the Torah relates to these families. Kehas, whose service was clearly the most refined of the three families, is accorded the greatest “raising up” in the Torah’s description of the census. Gershon’s service, is less distinguished than that of Kehas, and the Torah’s expression of the esteem for him seems likewise on a lesser level, an “also” to the “raising up” of Kehas. Finally, the counting of Merari, whose service was the most physically taxing and the least refined, is not described in terms of “raising up” at all.

 

A study of the names of each of these three families—Kehas, Gershon, and Merari—reveals a corresponding gradation of status. The Hebrew root of the name Kehas appears but once in the Torah as the word “yikehas”, meaning “ingathering”, in the verse “He will gather the nations unto him” (Bereishis 49:10). The name Gershon implies the opposite concept. A ger is a stranger, or a foreigner. The name Merari stems from the root word mar. Like maror, it means bitterness. Each of these three names alludes to a common theme of Jewish survival.

 

Kehas represents the period of history when Jews lived as a self-ruling nation in their homeland. This time of ingathering was but a brief respite, a short interlude in the Jewish people’s ongoing struggle for survival. Corresponding to this period, Kehas was assigned the least strenuous role in the transport of the Mishkan.

 

Gershon represents the time when the Jewish people lived as strangers in the Land of Israel, dominated by a foreign power. This period lasted much longer than the time during which the Jews lived autonomously in their homeland, but the years of the Jews living as strangers in their own land were far less than the long centuries Jews have suffered in exile. This halfway state parallels the service of Gershon; it was less taxing than that assigned to Merari, but more strenuous than the service God assigned to Kehas.

 

Merari represents the Jewish people’s life in the bitterness of exile, oppressed by the nations and subservient to their rule. This long and arduous night of exile characterizes most of Jewish history. Merari was assigned the most strenuous task of all the Levites in the transport of the Mishkan through the desert.

 

Why did Levi choose the names of his sons to hint at these different phases of Jewish history?

 

Originally the firstborn of each tribe were designated to serve in the Mishkan. Their task was transferred to the Levites than the firstborn lost the privilege as punishment for the sin with the golden calf. Thus God’s initial plan was for each tribe to have its own leadership represent it in His holy place of worship. That the Levites (the only tribe that did not worship the golden calf) replaced the firstborn in this task signifies that the individual tribes had not been able to develop leadership worthy of serving in the Mishkan from within their own ranks.

 

This same shortcoming, their inability to develop themselves spiritually from within, is the reason the Jewish people have been exiled time and again throughout their history. Unable to mold themselves—by themselves—into a nation worthy of redemption, God has resorted to teachers He recruited from without. To educate the Jewish people and return them to a spiritual path while they were living in their land, He sent famine, plague, and foreign rulers. When these proved ineffective, He exiled the Jews so that they might be molded and made worthy through the hands of the gentiles.

 

When God assigned the Divine service to the Levites in place of the firstborn among the nation, it was an indication of God’s methods of relating to His people throughout their history: the development of the Jewish people, through their ultimate redemption, would be dependent upon outside agents—most particularly, through the agency of exile.

 

It is for this reason that God chose to allude to the different phases of Jewish history with names Kehas, Gershon, and Merari, the three sons of Levi.

 

The Torah ascribes a “raising up” to the families of Kehas, for they represent that too-brief, Messianic-like period when the Jewish people could indeed raise their heads high—living all together in the Land of Israel as an independent nation, free to serve God. To the families of Gershon the Torah modifies the raising up with the word also, for they represent the generations when the Jewish people could raise their hands in a limited sense. They lived in their homeland, but as strangers, in semi-exile. Finally, to the families of Merari the Torah ascribes no raising up at all. It merely orders that they be tallied, for they represent the centuries upon centuries during which the Jewish people were not able to raise their heads, living bereft of pride and importance in bitter exile among the gentiles.

 

Yet this association between Merari and bitterness is a vital key for the Jewish people’s survival in exile and for their preparation for redemption. Merari carried the heavy boards and planks of the Mishkan because Levi’s third son exemplifies that quality the Jews have always demonstrated, and the quality they must have in order to survive in exile: the ability to persevere despite their weighty burden. The very “bitterness” of Merari’s service—the ability to serve God when it seems less than distinguished and brings no raising up—is the key element required to mold the nation and to make it worthy of the final redemption.