לוי בן יעקב

Levi, Jacob's third son, is the root of the holy tribe, whose burning zeal was in the end directed toward the service of God. At first he is mentioned in reproach alongside Shimon, in the affair of Shechem and in Jacob's blessing, 'cursed be their anger for it was fierce' (Genesis 49:7), a zeal that went beyond bounds. But that very fire, when rightly directed, became holiness.

At the affair of the Golden Calf, when Moses called 'whoever is for God, to me,' all the sons of Levi gathered to him, and did not show favor even to their kin for the sake of Heaven's honor. By the merit of that faithfulness the tribe of Levi merited to be the tribe of priesthood and Levites, serving in the Temple, 'they shall teach Your judgments to Jacob and Your Torah to Israel' (Deuteronomy 33:10).

The tribe of Levi received no portion in the Land, 'God is his inheritance,' for his portion is the service and the Torah. From the fire Jacob warned against, 'and I will scatter them in Israel,' came something good: the Levites were dispersed among all the cities of Israel as teachers and instructors of Torah. The zeal became a mission of teaching.

What do we learn from him? That a strong trait like zeal is not good or evil in itself; all depends on where it is directed. Levi teaches that the same fire that can destroy, when directed toward Heaven's honor, becomes holiness, and that precisely one warned about his intensity can be the tribe that serves God and teaches Torah to all Israel.