T orah P ortion
The Levites Go Back to School
BY RABBI TZVI SINENSKY
Parshat Beha’alotcha
AT WHAT AGE do Levites
begin serving in the taber-
nacle? The early chapters of
the book of Bamidbar provide
contradictory answers to this
seemingly straightforward
question. In Parshat Naso (4:3),
Moses charges the Levites to
serve from ages 30 to 50, yet
in Parshat Beha’alotcha (8:24)
he instructs them to begin at
age 25.

Which is correct?
Drawing on textual cues, as
well as the Talmud and midrash,
Rashi (to 8:24) answers that
while the Levites only started
working when they were 30, at
age 25 they began to prepare
for their service by studying the
Temple laws.

Rashi’s solution
is perplexing: Why were all
Levites required to study the
same content for five full years?
After all, members of the tribe
were assigned discrete tasks in
the tabernacle: Some played
instruments as the sacrifices
were offered, another group
stood guard at the front gates
and yet others disassembled,
carried and reassembled
Sherman Continued from Page 16
and run hospitals?
Before you jump to the
“racist” slur, talk to the Black
pastor of Faithful Central
Bible Church in Inglewood,
California, a leader in the black
community, who was aghast
at the thousands of bombs
raining on Israeli civilians and
who wrote this to me: “I am
shocked and saddened. My
community prays with you.”
We at Sinai Temple stood with
his community last June during
the racial protests, and he is with
us now. He has spoken from our
pulpit on MLK Shabbat year after
24 MAY 27, 2021
CAN DL E L IGHTIN G
May 28
June 4
8:03 p.m.

8:08 p.m.

the building and each time
the nation journeyed. If the
majority of the “course content”
was of no practical relevance to
most Levites, why were they all
required to dedicate five years
to learning so much material?
We can better understand
Rashi’s reasoning by examining
an analogous text that appears
in “Ethics of the Fathers.”
The Mishnah (5:21) teaches
that a child begins studying
Bible at age 5, Mishnah at 10
and Talmud at 15. A similar
question begs itself: Isn’t this
overly rigid? Why such a
standardized curriculum?
In his commentary to “Ethics
of the Fathers,” Rabbi Judah
Loew ben Bezalel, the famed
Maharal of Prague (1525-1609),
explains that the Mishnah is not
merely recommending develop-
mentally appropriate ages for
the study of different sections
of Torah, but that each course
of study serves as a foundation
for the next.

A student who does not
know the Bible cannot properly
comprehend the fundamentals
of the oral law, and one who
lacks a broad knowledge of
the oral law cannot properly
assess the reasoning and appli-
cation of those laws to new
scenarios, a central component
of Talmud study, which is the
most advanced of the three.

And it is not just a question
of a student’s ability to master
increasingly complex subjects.

Broad curricular exposure is
also essential to a student’s
sense of personal identity. The
Bible and oral law provide her
with a historical and concep-
tual matrix in which she can
locate herself. Only after being
firmly anchored within these
canonical texts can a student
proceed to more specialized
courses of study.

In requiring all qualified
Levites to study the same
subject matter for a full five
years, Rashi suggests a similar
principle. To serve as a Levite,
it is not enough for one to
acquire knowledge of one’s
own tasks in the Temple. The
Levite must first achieve a
comprehensive understanding
of the various roles that Levites
played, how the Levites’ roles
interacted with one another
and with that of the priests,
and how the Levites helped
to ensure the overall impact
of the Tabernacle on God, the
Jewish people, and humanity.

Only from a position of
deep immersion in the relevant
traditions were the Levites
prepared to accept the mantle
of Temple service.

This model of learning exists
more broadly in the Western
tradition. Greece and Rome
offered a parallel model of educa-
tion, best known as the trivium
and quadrivium. The former
consisted of grammar, rhetoric,
and logic, and the latter of arith-
metic, astronomy, music, and
geometry. The trivium provided
a conceptual foundation for the
quadrivium, and students were
expected to complete all seven
courses of study before special-
izing in a particular area, or
moving on to study philosophy.

This was the basis for the
liberal arts curriculum that
was widespread in the medieval
period, and that remains an
important model for many
curricula to this day.

These wide-ranging study
programs recall the familiar
maxim, “Hanokh la-na’ar al
pi darko” (Proverbs 22:6). The
common translation of this
verse, “Educate a youngster
according to his own path,” is a
foundational principle of Jewish
education today, and for good
reason. Learning should be
individualized, and must take
place in a joyous environment
suffused with warmth and
individual attention.

But the Levites’ educa-
tional model urges us to go
further. According to the
overwhelming majority of
classical commentators, the
literal translation of the verse
in Proverbs is not “according to
his own path,” but “in the way
that he should proceed.”
Proverbs, like Bamidbar,
reminds us that individualized
instruction is necessary but not
sufficient. It must be rooted
in an abiding belief in the
capacity of each child, a firm
set of deeply-seated values, and
the conviction that a broad-
based education provides not
just the intellectual founda-
tion, but also a firm anchor
for personal identity that so
many of our young people are
seeking elsewhere.

By instructing each child
in “the way that he should
proceed,” we give our children
the best opportunity to fulfill
the conclusion of the verse in
Proverbs: “Even in old age he
will not swerve from it.” l
year, and he has spoken about the
importance of defending Israel, in
my synagogue and in his church.

I urge you to speak to pastors and
other faith leaders outside of your
community who understand the
dangers facing Israel. Learn from
their support of Israel, a support
that is hardly “blind.”
Finally, you conclude: “We
need to look at the realities
we have been denying, allow
ourselves to feel the hurt, and
build from there.”
I completely agree — let us
begin together with the reality
that the state of Israel has not
just the right, but the respon-
sibility to defend its citizens.

Let us also not deny the reality
that the biggest enemies of the
Palestinian people have been
their corrupt, Jew-hating leaders,
who use Israel as a scapegoat
for their failures, endanger the
lives of their own people and, in
Gaza, build rockets and tunnels
rather than schools.

My aunt and uncle made
aliyah in 1967. They were
studying abroad in Jerusalem
when the Six-Day War broke
out. They witnessed the Torah
scrolls reaching the Kotel for
the first time in 2000 years and
decided they would never leave.

And today, on that Shavuot
anniversary, we read of rabbin-
ical students not willing to
make that same commitment
to the miraculous Jewish state.

We live in the United States
of America, a free country
with a wide marketplace of
ideas. When I returned from
a recent trip to Israel where we
met Israelis and Palestinians,
I penned a column entitled,
“It’s Complicated.” I came
back with more questions than
answers. I have never pretended
that Israel is a perfect country.

Just like the United States, it
has plenty of flaws and serious
and complicated problems and
challenges. But “complicated” does not
mean we cannot support Israel
and her right to defend itself.

If anything, it means we must
support that very basic human
right. Shivim panim latorah —
there are 70 faces and different
interpretations of the Torah.

But there is only one Israel.

Especially while its people are
huddling in bomb shelters, we
ought not abandon her. l
JEWISH EXPONENT
Rabbi Tzvi Sinensky is director of
the Gur Aryeh Judaic Studies and
Hebrew program at Main Line
Classical Academy in Bryn Mawr.

Rabbi Erez Sherman is a rabbi at
Sinai Temple in Los Angeles and
was ordained from the Jewish
Theological Seminary of America
in 2009. His father, Rabbi Charles
Sherman, is the senior rabbi at
Melrose B’nai Israel Emanu-E
in Elkins Park. This article was
originally printed in the Jewish
Journal. JEWISHEXPONENT.COM