Or HaChaim on Numbers 3:39/אור החיים על במדבר ג׳:ל״ט

1 כל פקודי הלוים, all the Levites who were numbered, etc. Nachmanides wonders at the small number of Levites seeing that we are dealing with a tribe who had proved loyal to G'd during the episode of the golden calf and had not sustained losses in their number at that time. Moreover, they were beloved of G'd already while in Egypt. How is it that their number was so small? Although they were counted from the age of one month, as opposed to the other tribes who were counted only from the age of twenty and over, the number of Levites was smaller than the numerically least populous tribe? Nachmanides provides two possible answers. 1) Seeing the phenomenal increase in the population of the Jews in Egypt was due to the cruel oppression of the Israelites by the Egyptians (Exodus 1,12), this blessing did not extend to the Levites who did not have to perform slave labour in Egypt. 2) Jacob's anger at his son Levi. I believe that the second reason cited by Nachmanides is quite difficult to accept. We do not find any source for assuming that the anger of a father caused lack of fertility in his sons. Besides, when you examine Chronicles I 23,3, you will find that the Levites between the ages of thirty and fifty who were numbered at that time (near the end of David's life) comprised 38,000. When we compare this number with the number given in Parshat Nasso, i.e. some 8,500, we certainly do not notice any lack of fertility on the part of that tribe. This means that during the approximately 480 years between our count and the count in Chronicles the Levites increased four-fold. When you compare the numbers given for the other tribes in Israel at that time when they were counted in Chronicles you will find that the other tribes had only doubled in number since being counted by Moses in the desert. In view of this, it is difficult to see how Jacob's anger at his son Levi impeded the development of his descendants.

2The first reason Nachmanides cites why the Levites increased far less during their stay in Egypt is correct and is supported by Bereshit Rabbah 79,1 according to which Jacob did not die until his descendants numbered 600.000. In order to reconcile the various verses in the Torah quoting numbers, it is necessary to understand the word כן in Exodus 1,12 as telling us that the Israelites who had first decreased in numbers after Jacob's death increased again after Pharaoh's attempt to reduce their numbers by the various measures described in the Torah. As to the statement in Exodus 1,7 about the Israelites being fruitful and multiplying exceedingly until the land appeared full of them, we must interpret that whereas during Jacob's lifetime the Israelites were not prominent in Egypt though numerous, after his death they became more and more visible so that the Egyptians were revolted by this phenomenon. If the original increase in the Jewish population included the tribe of Levi in full measure, why did they not increase the second time in similar measure? The answer is that Pharaoh's harsh decrees did not apply to them so that G'd did not need to compensate them for their suffering. Our sages in Bamidbar Rabbah 5,1 describe that the Levites suffered numerous deaths in connection with carrying the Holy Ark. This occurred however, only after the Levites had already been appointed, i.e. after the count described here.

3I believe the simplest explanation for the relative small number of Levites is the fact that they copied the example of their leader Amram who had divorced his wife when the decree to drown the male babies was published. The Levites, precisely because they were not subjected to hard physical labour and all kinds of abuse, remained very sensitive so that they were not prepared to sire children only to have them drowned at birth. They therefore remained largely celibate after having produced a minimum number of children. Their fellow Israelites who were subjected daily to all kinds of cruel experiences had lost some of their erstwhile sensitivity so that the prospect of some of their children facing death at birth did not concern them quite as much as it did the Levites. As a result, they practiced the commandment of being fruitful without restraint giving G'd the opportunity to reward them with large families. Their wives did not mind giving birth in the fields, something which more civilised people would not do. The Torah did not spell all this out in detail; it mentioned what Amram had done only because he reversed himself when his daughter accused him of being worse than Pharaoh who wanted to kill only the males. The fact that Amram remarried his wife does not mean that the other Levites followed his example. As a result they had a far smaller base from which an increase in their numbers could result. We are all familiar with the comment in Sotah 12 about Miriam's having watched anxiously when Moses was in a basket in the bulrushes to see if her prophecy that Moses would become the redeemer of Israel showed signs of becoming true.

4As to the question why a G'd-fearing tribe such the Levites largely ignored the most basic of G'd's commandments namely to be fruitful and to multiply, they may have applied to themselves the verse in Isaiah 65,23: "in order that they may not labour in vain and give birth to confusion." We find in Taanit 11 that in years of famine one may not sleep with one's wife in order not to fulfil the commandment of being fruitful when circumstances are such that suffering of existing human beings would be further increased. The Levites applied this kind of reasoning when considering the fate in store for their male children. Later on when they too fulfilled the commandment they increased their number to compensate for the selfless attitude they had displayed while in Egypt.