Beha’aloscha – Levi’im

I have something fascinating to share with you this week.

There is an interesting literary tool used to see a more profound depth in the words of the Torah. To make this as unabstracted as possible I am going to physically show you what I mean (if you are reading this in public I apologize in advance). Blink one of your eyes, then open that one and blink the other. Alternate blinking both of your eyes and you’ll see (no pun intended) that the two pictures that each individual eye sees are different. This is called stereo vision. Your retinas get two slightly variated pictures and your brain melds them into one, allowing for a more profound depth than if you are looking at the world with one eye closed.

What on Earth does this have to do with Torah you ask? Great question!

We find that the Torah will sometimes arrange a piece of text in what is called an Atbash structure, or in English, a chiasm. The Torah will have a story where the first element mirrors the last, the second mirrors the second to last and so on, in a structure where if you follow the story from the two ends you’ll find both sides converging on a center element. Kind of like a loose palindrome running through a story. And these parallels leave you with two sides of the story with elements on each side that are inversely ordered and similar yet slightly different from the corresponding elements on the other side. And when we trace this structure we can find a “stereo text” if you will, that can give us a much deeper view into what the Torah is trying to show us. Allow me to show you the text that has this structure in this week’s Parsha to make this a little clearer.

We have the sanctification of the Levi’im in this weeks Parsha. The Mishkan is inaugurated and Hashem’s house is ready to open. But He needs servants. Hashem tells Moshe to take the Levi’im from within the Jewish people in the place of the firstborns and take them through a detailed process to make them holy to Hashem.

Immediately following this, in Perek 8 Pesukim 15-22 we find this Atbash structure. I am going to copy the text in Hebrew with the mirroring elements color coded so that you can visually make it out. The structure has 1 2 3 4 5 6 elements on the first side, one center and focal element, then 6 5 4 3 2 1 elements on the second side, and it looks like this:

טו) ואחרי כן יבאו הלוים לעבד את אהל מועד וטהרת אתם והנפת אתם תנופה. טז) כי נתנים נתנים המה לי מתוך בני ישראל תחת פטרת כל רחם בכור כל מבני ישראל לקחתי אתם לי יז) כי לי כל בכור בבני ישראל באדם ובבהמה ביום הכתי כל בכור בארץ מצרים הקדשתי אתם לי יח) ואקח את הלוים תחת כל בכור בבני ישראל יט) ואתנה את הלוים נתנים לאהרן ולבניו מתוך בני ישראל לעבד את עבדת בני ישראל באהל מועד ולכפר על בני ישראל ולא יהיה בבני ישראל נגף בגשת בני ישראל אל הקדש כ) ויעש משה ואהרן וכל עדת בני ישראל ללוים ככל אשר צוה יקוה את משה ללוים כן עשו בני ישראל כא) ויתחטאו הלוים ויכבסו בגדיהם וינף אהרן אתם תנופה לפני יקוה ויכפר עליהם אהרן לטהרם כב) ואחרי כן באו הלוים לעבד את עבדתם באהל מועד לפני אהרן ולפני בניו כאשר צוה את משה הלוים כן עשו להם.

We come out with 6 elements on each side of the chiasm, and an 7^th element in the center (which I bolded and made the font red so it would stick out). So, we definitely see the structure here, almost like climbing up a staircase from the beginning, reaching the peak and then climbing the parallel stairs down the other side. But what do we make of it? How do we decipher it?

This brings us back to our Mashul above, stereo vision. Your brain takes the 2 slightly different pictures, and by overlaying one on the other, the differences pop out and when the brain notes those differences the depth is born. So, let’s look through the text and see what are the differences on the 2 sides.

The primary differences are at the edges. On the first side, we don’t hear mention of people, all we read is that the Levi’im are to come to work at the Ohel Moed, they are purified and waved, then given to Hashem. However, at the end of the chiasm, the Levi’im are given to Aaron, waved by Aaron, purified by Aaron, and finally the last element, the Torah says they are coming to do THEIR work in the Ohel Moed, contrast that with the beginning where they are simply coming to work for the Ohel Moed. The second half puts much more of an emphasis on the human aspect. Almost as though once we have read the central theme of the fact that every Bechor belongs to Hashem since He killed the Bechorim in Egypt, then when we read again about the process that the Levi’im went through, we are able to see it as much more associated and integrated with the Levi’im themselves. They are the subjects in the second half as opposed to the objects in the first half.

It seems to me that the center tells us the reason why the Levi’im were chosen. Hashem says that when I took you out of Egypt and killed their firstborn, I showed My sovereignty to the world, that I am truly in charge of all power in this world. Once the Levi’im know this, and come to the Ohel Moed with this humbling knowledge, it is in the very humility itself that they acquire this process as their own. Aaron takes the place of Hashem in this world, and the work for the Ohel Moed becomes THEIR OWN work. By the fact that they realized that Hashem runs their world and has the control, it is for that reason that Hashem chooses them to do His work, which is considered their work as well.

When we live life realizing that Hashem is truly in charge and that everything comes from him we can be his true servants and act on His behalf in this world.

As I once heard: “the entire world is filled with light, we just need to move our shadows out of the way”.

May we all be zoche to understand and internalize this message and may we be able to let out Cheilek Elokai Mima’al shine through.