The Levites, A Special Case

 Nadene Goldfoot

The Levites were one of the 12 tribes of Jacob.  Levi was the 3rd son of Jacob and Leah.  Moses, son of Amram and his brother, Aaron,  were from the tribe of Levites.  

Leah                                       Rachel with                                                                                          son Joseph       

Jacob had 6 sons by his wife Leah. Reuben was his first son. Then Leah had Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun. He had 2 sons by his wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. He had 2 sons by Rachel’s slave girl Bilhah: Dan and Naphtali. And he had 2 sons by Leah’s slave girl Zilpah: Gad and Asher. These are Jacob’s sons who were born in Northwest Mesopotamia.

Joshua, of the tribe of Ephraim, was chosen by Moses to carry on the Exodus to Canaan, and brought the Tabernacle to Shiloh and divided the territory among the 12 tribes by lot. The Levites were not given any land at all, but were chosen to be the teachers of what Moses had related to them for the past 40 years on the Exodus.  They were to live with their siblings' help.  

Moses did not divide the Levites among their siblings for land; instead, the Levites were given 48 cities scattered throughout the land of the other 11 tribes. Because the Levites were set apart for religious duties and their inheritance was the Lord Himself, they received no specific territorial portion. Each of the other tribes gave up a number of their cities and surrounding pasturelands for the Levites to live in. 

The Torah makes it clear that the Levites were not given a territorial land inheritance because their inheritance was a spiritual one: the service of God and the Sanctuary. The other tribes of Israel were commanded to support the Levites by providing tithes and offerings from their produce and livestock, which constituted the Levites' portion. This ensured that the Levites could focus on their religious duties without being tied to farming and other agricultural work.

• The cities were assigned by lot to the three main Levite clans: the Gershonites, the Kohathites, and the Merarites.
• Six of these cities were also designated as "Cities of Refuge," where someone who had accidentally killed another person could seek asylum.       
  
  
    The 48 cities for the Levites were provided by the other twelve tribes of Israel. According to God's command to Moses, each tribe was required to give cities to the Levites from their own allotted inheritance, with the number of cities given varying based on the size of each tribe's portion. The Book of Joshua details the specific allocation of these cities to the different Levitical families.  

• Kohanim (or Cohens) are a specific priestly lineage within the broader tribe of Levites. The main difference is that Kohanim are descendants of Aaron and were exclusively responsible for performing the sacrificial rituals in the ancient Temple, while other Levites served as assistants, musicians, and temple guards. In modern synagogues, Kohanim have a distinct set of privileges, such as being called first to read the Torah and performing the priestly blessing, whereas other Levites are honored second. 
• When the Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 721 BCE, Levites in the area either were forcibly exiled, fled to the Southern Kingdom of Judah, or remained and became part of the population that later formed the Samaritans. Like the rest of the Northern Kingdom's population, their fate was one of displacement, absorption, or exile. 
• Migration to the Kingdom of Judah
  • Refugee Status: Before and during the Assyrian invasion, many northern Israelites, including some Levites, sought refuge in the more stable Southern Kingdom of Judah.
  • Absorption into Judahite society: These Levite refugees would have been absorbed into the population of Judah, which included the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and a number of Levites who were already based there. The Levite presence was particularly strong in Judah because the Jerusalem Temple was the center of Israelite worship. 
  Remaining in the land and assimilation
  • A "remnant" was left behind: While the elite and a significant portion of the population were exiled, a "remnant" of the common people was left in the land. The Assyrians then repopulated the territory with people from other parts of their empire.
  • Rise of the Samaritans: This remaining Israelite population eventually intermarried and assimilated with the new arrivals, leading to the emergence of the Samaritans. Some Levites who stayed behind would have been part of this new, mixed culture. 
  Shift in religious identity
  The fall of the Northern Kingdom accelerated the religious shift toward Jerusalem as the sole legitimate center for Israelite worship. This was particularly important for the Levites who had served at shrines and temples in the north, as their religious role was now concentrated in Jerusalem. 
• The Y-chromosome DNA of Levite men shows a dominant genetic signature, especially among Ashkenazi Levites, which is part of the R1a haplogroup. This specific lineage, known as R1a-Y2619, appears to have originated from a single male ancestor who lived about 1,500 to 1,700 years ago and has a likely origin in the Middle East. While most Levites share this paternal ancestry, other haplogroups, such as E3b, J2, and R1b, are also found among the remaining Levite men, demonstrating diverse paternal origins. 
• I'm related to oodles and oodles of Cohens.  Most are 4thcousins or more but a few are 3rd cousins. Cohens were spread out among all the 11 other tribes. 
• Dan Eskow knew he was a Levite, the 2nd person to read in the synogogueas most Levites know. Such knowledge should be handed down fromfather to son as it always has been done;  same for Cohens.   
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    Resource:

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/why-jacob-cursed-two-of-his-sons/#:~:text=Share,for%20these%20two%20heinous%20sins.