Highlights for the Cohens and Tribe of Levi
Contents:
1. Levi with Judah.
2. Levi and Music.
3. More Levites.
4. Levi the Rabbi.
5. Levites among the Gentiles.
6. Levi Joins Judah.
7. The Sons of Moses.
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1. Levi with Judah.
The present-day Jews are descendants of all the 12 Tribes BUT the dominant Tribes are Judah, Benjamin, and Levi. The rest of the Tribes broke away and created their own kingdom. This was later conquered and all its inhabitants exiled and lost.
When the Tribes separated only those of Judah and Benjamin remained. Later most of the Tribe of Levi joined them as well as minority elements from the other Tribes.
2-Chronicles (TCT) 11:
14 FOR THE LEVITES HAD ABANDONED THEIR OPEN LAND AND THEIR HERITAGE, AND THEY WENT TO JUDAH AND TO JERUSALEM, BECAUSE JEROBOAM AND HIS SONS HAD COERCED THEM TO ABANDON THEIR POSITION OF MINISTERING TO THE LORD.
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2. Levi and Music.
The duties of the Levites including guarding the Temple and singing during the services.
Musical abilities were a characteristic of Levi.
The Levites served in the Temple. They had their own choir. There was also an orchestra of musicians which as well as Levites included ordinary Israelites.
The emphasis however was on the Levites and some of the Psalms were especially written for them.
Jews are renowned as musicians and Levites (including Cohens) are to be found amongst them.
the Book of Psalms is replete with songs that were traditionally sung in the Holy Temple by the Levites.
My grandfather on the side of my mother was from Levi. His name was Leo Jacoby aka Joseph Levi.
His father was a violinist and at one stage had been appointed to the King of Denmark.
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3. More Levites.
The Prophet Elijah (Eliyahu) was from Levi.
Benjamin Netanyahu the present PM of Israel is also from Levi.
Many great Rabbis were descended from Levi.
One source claims that most Rabbis quoted in the Talmud were from Levi. This may be an exaggeration but it shows that Levites were prominent amongst the Sages.
The Maccabees (Hasmoneans) who freed Judah from the pagan Hellenist Seleucids were Cohens from the Tribe of Levi.
The later Rabbi Mair Kahana, having been a Cohen, was also from the Tribe of Levi.
In the time of King David Benaiyahu the son of Yehoiada the Priest (Cohen from Levi) was a great warrior of renown. He was chief officer of the Cherethi and Pleti (special forces) and at times in charge of the whole Israelite Army.
A Chief of Staff of the present Israeli Army (IDF) was named Levi.
Karl Marx the founder of Communism was also allegedly a Levite though his parents had changed their religion and he hated Jews and wrote against them.
A Midrash says that albino blond and red-haired types ("Bohakanim") were common amongst the Tribes of Simeon and Levi.
The Levites were in effect divided into three sections: (1) The Priests (Cohens) descendants of Aharon the brother of Moses, and (2) the ordinary Levites including descendants of Moses.
(3) Another group from Levi were known as the Children of Moses. They intermixed with the Lost Ten Tribes and evidently settled in the west of Europe including Britain and Wales.
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4. Levi the Rabbi.
Levi as Rabbi
Fulfillment of Prophecy by Levites who are ALSO Rabbis!
https://hebrewnations.com/articles/tribes/rabbilevi.html
Levi
The Companion of God and his Tribe
https://hebrewnations.com/articles/tribes/levi.html
Concerning the Tribe of Levi it was said:
Deuteronomy 33:
10 THEY SHALL TEACH JACOB YOUR JUDGMENTS,
AND ISRAEL YOUR LAW.
THEY SHALL PUT INCENSE BEFORE YOU,
AND A WHOLE BURNT SACRIFICE ON YOUR ALTAR.
11 BLESS HIS SUBSTANCE, LORD,
AND ACCEPT THE WORK OF HIS HANDS;
STRIKE THE LOINS OF THOSE WHO RISE AGAINST HIM,
AND OF THOSE WHO HATE HIM, THAT THEY RISE NOT AGAIN.
Jeremiah 33:
19 THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME TO JEREMIAH: 20 THUS SAYS THE LORD: IF ANY OF YOU COULD BREAK MY COVENANT WITH THE DAY AND MY COVENANT WITH THE NIGHT, SO THAT DAY AND NIGHT WOULD NOT COME AT THEIR APPOINTED TIME, 21 ONLY THEN COULD MY COVENANT WITH MY SERVANT DAVID BE BROKEN, SO THAT HE WOULD NOT HAVE A SON TO REIGN ON HIS THRONE, AND MY COVENANT WITH MY MINISTERS THE LEVITES. 22 JUST AS THE HOST OF HEAVEN CANNOT BE NUMBERED AND THE SANDS OF THE SEA CANNOT BE MEASURED, SO I WILL INCREASE THE OFFSPRING OF MY SERVANT DAVID, AND THE LEVITES WHO MINISTER TO ME.
The Prophet Malachi also spoke of a covenant with Levi:
Malachi (TCB) 2:
4 AND YOU SHALL KNOW THAT I HAVE SENT YOU THIS COMMANDMENT, THAT MY COVENANT BE WITH LEVI, SAYS THE LORD OF HOSTS.
5 MY COVENANT WAS WITH HIM, LIFE AND PEACE, AND I GAVE THEM TO HIM [WITH] FEAR; AND HE FEARED ME, AND BECAUSE OF MY NAME, HE WAS OVER-AWED.
6 TRUE TEACHING WAS IN HIS MOUTH, AND INJUSTICE WAS NOT FOUND ON HIS LIPS. IN PEACE AND EQUITY HE WENT WITH ME, AND HE BROUGHT BACK MANY FROM INIQUITY.
7 FOR A PRIEST'S LIPS SHALL GUARD KNOWLEDGE, AND TEACHING SHOULD BE SOUGHT FROM HIS MOUTH, FOR HE IS A MESSENGER OF THE LORD OF HOSTS.
Malachi 3:3 AND HE SHALL SIT REFINING AND PURIFYING SILVER, AND HE SHALL PURIFY THE CHILDREN OF LEVI. AND HE SHALL PURGE THEM AS GOLD AND AS SILVER, AND THEY SHALL BE OFFERING UP AN OFFERING TO THE LORD WITH RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Talmud, Kiddushin 70;a
# Said Rabbi Hama Bar Hanina: When God decides to let it be known who belongs to which Tribe, he clarifies firstly who belongs to the Tribe of Levi, as it says, 'AND HE SHALL SIT AS A REFINER AND PURIFIER OF SILVER: AND HE SHALL PURIFY THE SONS OF LEVI...' (Malachi 3:3).#
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5. Levites among the Gentiles.
Rashi (1040-1105): AND I WILL ALSO TAKE OF THEM FOR PRIESTS [Isaiah 66:21]: HE WILL TAKE FROM THE PEOPLES WHO BRING THEM [i.e. THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL] BACK AND FROM THOSE [ISRAELITES] WHO ARE BROUGHT BACK AS PRIESTS AND LEVITES. AT PRESENT THESE HAVE BEEN FORCIBLY ASSIMILATED AMONGST THE GENTILES. BEFORE ME [i.e. GOD] IT IS CLEAR THOSE AMONGST THEM WHO ARE PRIESTS AND LEVITES. I WILL SEPARATE THEM OUT AND THEY WILL SERVE BEFORE ME, SAYS GOD. WHERE DID GOD FIRST SPEAK OF THIS? “THE SECRET THINGS BELONG UNTO THE LORD OUR GOD” [Deuteronomy 29:29]. THIS IS WHAT IS EXPLAINED IN THE MIDRASH ON PSALMS.
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6. Levi Joins Judah.
Levi was a Tribe of Priests. The Levites had not received an area of their own in the one place but rather scattered cities throughout the whole of Israel (Joshua 13).
Under Moses the Israelites conquered the eastern section of the Promised Land. Moses passed away and was followed by Joshua from the Tribe of Ephraim. They conquered the rest of the Land and divided it among the different Tribes.
Jeroboam son of Nebat from the Tribe of Ephraim eventually with 10 of the Tribes broke away from Judah. He changed the religion and instituted the worship of golden calves, one in Dan and the other in Beth-el of Ephraim.
He also appointed religious officiates who were not from Levi. Consequently, most of the Levites went and migrated to Judah.
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7. The Sons of Moses.
despite most of Levi having moved to Judah we still find references in Jewish Midrashim and legends referring to the Children of Moses as being very numerous and located close to the Lost Ten Tribes.
If we can locate one we will assumedly find the other.
Descendants of Moses were also to be found together with, or alongside of, the Lost Ten Tribes (LTTs). Like the LTTs they had been taken captive and assimilated and lost awareness of their ancestry. Nevertheless, in the future they shall return.
The Prophet Moses was from the Tribe of Levi and the Sons of Moses were his descendants. Moses is understood to have been promised an enormous number of descendants (cf. Numbers 14:12 I WILL MAKE YOU INTO A NATION GREATER AND MIGHTIER THAN THEY).
Traditions associated with Al-Abbas (also known as "Abba Abas") said that the "Sons of Moses" were in the Far East in Gabrassa and in the far west in Gabalk. These terms are considered to be Jewish in origin. "GABALK" was a term for Western Europe especially the Frankish realm of France. He therefore placed the Sons of Moses in areas of the West.
Other sources of apparent JEWISH ORIGIN derived through Arab intermediaries relate a similar tale. These other versions state that the CHILDREN OF MOSES were in the far west in "Djabarka” (i.e. "The Golden Castle"), in the "Islands of the Happy", dwelling in a town wherein the remnants of AAD (i.e. other Tribes of Israel) were also to be found (A. J. Wensinck, “The Ocean in the Literature of the Western Semites,” Amsterdam, 1918, pp.31-31). The "Islands of the Happy" in Classical Terminology meant the Islands of Britain and Ireland.