Proper Role Playing

Parshat Bamidbar

by Rabbi Avi Billet

The beginning of our new book informs us of the order of travels, and how the people encamped around the Mishkan (Tabernacle). Those most immediately around the Mishkan were the Levite families, whose jobs consisted of carrying the different parts of the Mishkan. The specific assignments given to the families are enumerated at the end of the Torah portion, and spill over into next week’s parsha.

 We are told at the end of the opening chapter that when they would travel and when they would rest the Levites would disassemble and reassemble the Mishkan, with the warning that “the stranger who came close would die.” (1:51) And, as Rashi notes, this death punishment was to be carried out by God, not by Man.

 If only it were so simple.

 Ibn Ezra is of the view that the death penalty was to be carried out by the court, and his definition of a stranger is only an Israelite who attempted to participate in the role assigned to the Levites.

 Chizkuni says, even a Levite who overstepped his boundaries, going beyond his assigned role, could be classified as a stranger. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch elaborates on this distinction reminding us that each Levite, from each Levite family, had a specific area that was that family’s lone purview. No Levite could switch from task to task (based on the Talmud Arakhin 11b) and every Kohen was similarly forbidden to participate in the Levites’ work.

 While the Kohen is forbidden to work in the Mishkan as a Levite, is he subject to the same punishment as the Israelite or the Levite who switched roles?

 According to the Ktav V’Hakabbalah, the answer is Yes. The Kohen is also considered to be a stranger to the work of the Levites. And, taking Rashi’s side, against Ibn Ezra, he claims that any kind of death resulting from miscues in the Temple Service were only punishable by God, “in the hands of Heaven.” He even calls Ibn Ezra by name, as he rejects the approach that the court would carry out such a verdict.

 As we never really know what “causes” natural deaths, it is hard for humans to ever point to a faux-pas and lay blame on it. It is one of the dilemmas we face in trying to understand the deaths of Rabbi Akiva’s students as described in the Talmud, for “not having respected one another.”

 Here, at least, the Torah leaves the death punishment in the hands of God, which suggests that it may happen some time in the near future, or God may bide His time and have it happen way in the distant future.

 Death, in most instances, is viewed as a “kapparah” (an atonement of some kind) for past deeds. And certainly death from overstepping boundaries in the Mishkan would fit into this category.

 But isn’t it fascinating that not even a Kohen can step into the realm of the Levites? Moshe was unique, as he was able to play the dual role of Levi and Kohen. But otherwise, even the Kohen, whose job description is all about service in the Mishkan, cannot branch out to do a job which is not designated to him, for him, or in his realm of possibility. So much so that the Torah depicts his punishment as death at the hand of Heaven.

 We live in an egalitarian world, and in a “the world is for everybody” existence. As much as this is to our benefit in society at large, and particularly in the workforce, it is not necessarily to our benefit in religious life or in family life.

 There are some roles which are meant for Kohanim, for Leviim, for Israelites, for men, for women. And switching these roles is not always in everybody’s best interest. It would be wrong to suggest that there is a punishment to be heaped upon those who cross those boundaries. But maybe, if and when the particular roles are so clearly defined, as they were in the Mishkan, we can recognize and see that crossing those boundaries is more to the detriment of the community than to its advantage.