About Rabbi Jack Abramowitz
Rabbi Jack Abramowitz served as Director of Programs for NCSY before becoming Associate Director of the Pepa and Rabbi Joseph Karasick Department of Synagogue Services. Rabbi Abramowitz holds degrees in Jewish studies, communications and Higher Education Administration. Among his accomplishments, he authored NCSY's Torah on One Foot series of educational pamphlets and created negiah.org, the first abstinence web site for Jewish teens. Rabbi Abramowitz is the author of The Shnayim Mikra Companion on Torah, The Nach Yomi Companion volumes 1 and 2 on the books of the Prophets and the Writings, and The Tzniyus Book.

Recent Posts

Taryag: A Mitzvah a Day

Questions? Contact us at taryag@ou.org

PARSHAT Shoftim
MITZVAH COUNTER
Mitzvos to date: 504
Positives:206
Negatives:298
That can be performed today:215
Plus those that can be performed only in Israel:22

504. Squatters: The prohibition against giving the Tribe of Levi a hereditary portion in Israel


There shall not be for…the entire Tribe of Levi…an inheritance… (Deuteronomy 18:1)

The Tribe of Levi was not to have an inheritance in the land of Israel among the other Tribes. This is not to say that the Levites had no place to live; they were given a number of cities, scattered among the other Tribes. (This also fulfills the patriarch Jacob's deathbed prophecy that the Tribe of Levi should be scattered - see Genesis 49:7. For the record, the Tribe of Simeon likewise had non-contiguous real estate, as per this verse.)

The reason for this mitzvah is that the Leviim are designated to officiate in the Temple, in exchange for which they receive tithes. God has told the Levites that He is their portion, to the exclusion of real estate (see Ezekiel 44:28).

This mitzvah is an excellent rebuttal to cynics who have historically claimed that Moshe “made things up” to favor his Tribe. (God forbid!) If such a thing were conceivable, wouldn't he give his own Tribe tithes in addition to real estate rather than instead of it? Logically, a human being practicing nepotism would not exclude his own kinsmen from inheriting a share in the land. An objective third party, however, would quite logically exchange a territory for tithes.

This mitzvah applies to Levites at a time when the land is settled by the nation. In the Talmud, it is discussed in tractate Baba Basra on page 122a-b. It is codified in the Mishneh Torah in the thirteenth chapter of Hilchos Shemittah. This mitzvah is #169 of the 365 negative mitzvos in the Rambam’s Sefer HaMitzvos.



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