MAY 18 • 2023 | 87

SPIRIT

The Key to Continuity 
T

he smiting of the Egyptian 
firstborn that began on 
the eve of the Exodus 
comes full circle this week.
This portion recounts how 
God removed the Israelite first-
born from the honored position 
as His chosen servants, 
replacing them with 
the tribe of Levi.
Until then, the 
Israelite firstborn had 
been God’s own pos-
session, favored and 
beloved. Now, they 
are stripped of their 
status and relegated to 
the ranks of common 
Israelites.
What had they done 
to warrant such an 
ignoble demotion? 
What terrible sin had 
the first sons of Israel committed 
to have earned this degradation?
The text is silent. Nor does the 
Torah provide any indication as 
to what entitled the Levites to 
the promotion to the inner circle 
of God’s court. Firstborn and 
Levites alike must have been baf-
fled by this sudden switch.
The Bible’s assault on primo-
geniture, the right of the first-
born, begins in Genesis. Cain, 
the original firstborn, is spurned 
by God when the Lord rejects 
his sacrifice in favor of brother 
Abel’s.
From then on, story after 
story recalls how the eldest son 
is deprived of his natural birth-
right. Ishmael is passed over in 
favor of Abraham’s second son, 
Isaac; Isaac’s son Jacob will usurp 
Esau’s blessing. Fourth-born 
Judah will become the forefather 
of Israel’s monarchy while first-
born Reuben will disappear into 
obscurity.
Psychologists suggest that 
firstborn children are more 

responsible than their junior 
counterparts, providing a ready 
explanation of God’s initial 
choice of the firstborn to be His 
servants. Charged with ensuring 
the continuity of Israel’s religious 
life, God elected the most consci-
entious candidate.
Alternatively, the Levites’ 
temperament was not 
anchored in responsibility, but 
passion. Fierce and fiery, they 
fought the worshippers of the 
Golden Calf, taking up arms 
against their own people to 
defend God’s honor when it 
was violated in Shechem.
Moses, too, was a zeal-
ous Levite who confronted 
Pharoah “with hot anger” 
and shattered the Ten 
Commandments “in burning 
rage.
”
To whom should be entrusted 
the task of ensuring Jewish conti-
nuity, the steady and dependable 
or the intense and impassioned? 
Perhaps the Torah is teaching us 
that different times call for differ-
ent leaders. Forty years of steady 
leadership united the former 
fragmented slaves into a cohesive 
people. As that era of bondage 
and wandering drew to a close, 
a new frontier arose before the 
nascent people of Israel.
Set against the frontier of a 
new land and identity, the chal-
lenge of a new kind of conquest 
and growth was about to begin. 
This frontier demanded leaders 
capable of lighting the people’s 
way with inextinguishable pas-
sion for, and commitment to, 
God’s truths.
It appears that God reconsid-
ered whom he wished to lead His 
people into this new existence. 

Rabbi Eric Grossman was the head of 

school at Frankel Jewish Academy in 

West Bloomfield. This article originally 

appeared in the JN on May 13, 2010.

TORAH PORTION

Rabbi Eric 
Grossman

Parshat 

Bamidbar: 

Numbers 

1:1-4:20; 

I Samuel 

20:18-42.

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