Naso: 5782 - Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld with a wonderful insight for the weekly parsha: why is it written three times, "among the Children of Israel," in the counting of the Levites? At the conclusion of the daily Daf Yomi class of…

00:00 Speaker 1 What did Rabbi Shimon write?

00:02 Speaker 2 Following up on what Rabbi Brook[?] said about the Levites. In the weekly parsha it says, “I have taken the Levites from among the Children of Israel.” In Parshas Behaalosecha it says twice more, “Take the Levites from among the Children of Israel.” And a third time: “Separate the Levites from among the Children of Israel.” What does “from among the Children of Israel” mean? Take the Levites from Israel. Why does the Torah emphasize “from among the Children of Israel” three times? I heard a beautiful explanation in my grandfather’s name. He said: If we take the word Yisrael and spell out its letters, what is the middle letter of yud? When we write yud, the middle letter is vav. In shin, the middle letter is yud. In reish, we have another yud. In aleph, there’s a lamed in the middle. In lamed, there’s a mem. If we put together what’s inside Yisrael, we get Levi’im. That’s the explanation.

01:12 Speaker 1 Inside.

01:12 Speaker 2 “Take the Levites from among the Children of Israel.” What’s inside Yisrael is Levi’im.

01:17 Speaker 1 Beautiful.