Let's see what's happening here. Okay. The subject tonight that we're going to discuss is the difference between Kohanim and Leviyim. And the reason I thought of this the subject is because Shabbos, the last Shabbos, פרשת שמות, not this week, but פרשת שמות, actually in Rashi we learned about Kohanim and Leviyim. It says that when Hashem asked Moshe Rabbeinu to go to Paro and take the Yidden out and he didn't want to go, so finally Hashem got upset with him, and Hashem said, \"Well, till now I The plan was that you would be the Kohen, and your brother Aharon would be the Levi. And because you didn't want to listen to me, so therefore, now you're going to be the Levi and Aharon will be the Kohen.\" So I started thinking, okay, so what's so big deal? So let him be the Kohen, Aharon be the Kohen, he'll be the Levi. Obviously there's a difference between Kohanim and Leviyim, and Kohanim are obviously higher, and that's why I thought so let's just discuss a little bit the difference between Kohanim and Leviyim. Now, we all know that Kohanim and Leviyim are both from שבט לוי. Yaakov had 12 sons, 12 שבטים, and שבט לוי was a special שבט, and שבט לוי itself is divided into two. Some, those that are descendants of Aharon are Kohanim, those that are descendants of the others, besides of Aharon, of the other brothers, of the other children of Levi, are Leviyim. The reason שבט לוי was special, we all know, is because of the חטא העגל. When they sinned with the עגל, so many Yidden sinned from different שבטים, and the only שבט that was 100% pure, that nobody from that שבט, not one person from that שבט participated in the sin of the golden calf was שבט לוי. That's why it says when Moshe Rabbeinu came down and he said, \"מי לה׳ אלי, who's to Hashem come to me.\" And it says, \"ויאספו אליו כל בני לוי,\" that all of שבט לוי came to him. And when that happened, Hashem said, \"שבט לוי is going to be special. שבט לוי now is going to be the one are going to be the ones that will serve me specially in the service of the Mishkan and the בית המקדש.\" And then, instead of Till then was the bechorim, till then the firstborns were the ones that served as priests, so to speak, but from then on, שבט לוי became special. But שבט לוי was divided. Some of שבט לוי, as I said, were kohanim, those that are descendants of Aharon, and the rest were all left as leviim. They're all special, but different. We know that the kohanim are in a higher level than the leviim. Kohanim are holier than the leviim. The difference between the kohanim and the leviim is that the kohanim, their job in the בית המקדש was to actually get involved in bringing the korbanot, in bringing the sacrifices, while the leviim were not involved in actual sacrifices. The leviim were only involved in side matters, like the singing that came along with the korbanot, standing guard by the different gates, those are the two titles, some of them were called משוררים, singers, some were called שוערים, from the word שער, gates, and in the Mishkan, when they were still in the desert, the Mishkan, the leviim also had the job of carrying the Mishkan and the כלים and the vessels when they had to travel. But the kohanim were the ones that were involved more, they're the main ones that were involved in doing the service actually of the korbanot. We also find because of that, that the kohanim were more special, that the kohanim have special mitzvot, special dinim that the leviim don't have, even though the leviim are also special. The kohanim are not allowed to become tamei A kohen is not allowed to become tamei by touching a dead body or any type of tumah that comes from a dead body. A kohen is not allowed to marry certain people, not allowed to marry divorcee, allowed to marry, they're, but not a חלוצה, and others as the pasuk says, they have their different restrictions, while the Leviim don't have those restrictions. A Levi has no prohibition of becoming tamei by touching a dead body. The truth is, if a kohen would become, if a Levi, I mean, would become tamei, at that time he would not be allowed to do his part in the בית המקדש. But not because there was a prohibition against him becoming tamei, it's just a general din that a person who is tamei cannot walk into the בית המקדש. So a Levi could not go into the בית המקדש to sing or to do his job if he was tamei, but not because there is an issur, a prohibition, on a Levi for becoming tamei. But a kohen was prohibited from becoming tamei and marrying these women, while a Levi was not. A Levi, in that aspect, was similar to all rest of the Yidden. We also find a difference in the payment or the reward that the Kohanim would get and the Leviim would get. The Kohanim, basically both of them did not have a source of livelihood. All other Yidden, when they entered ארץ ישראל, were given different שטחים, different areas, territories in ארץ ישראל. And the territories were for their place of living, but besides that, they had a lot of land, fields where they would grow things. And that would give them food, plus that would give them a livelihood, they would sell it, and that's how they would make their living. But Shevet Levi was not allowed to have a share in ארץ ישראל. They were given cities to live in because they had to have a place also to live. Around the cities, there was an area where they had just to grow a little bit of fruit, only 2,000 אמה, not much, and that's it. So where did they live from? So Hashem said that we have to give to the Kohanim and to the Leviim things, and that would give them their livelihood. The Kohanim had כ״ד מתנות כהונה, that's called 24 presents that were given for a kohen. And the Rambam actually goes through the whole list in different forms, but there are 24. The most famous one is terumah, that from the crop that would grow you would have to give a certain share to the kohen, and that was terumah. Another famous one is challah, that from the dough that you would bake you would have to give a share. Then there was ראשית הגז, the first shearing of the wool from the animals that you would cut their wool, you would have to give to the kohen. You would have to give to the kohen certain parts of the korbanot. A firstborn animal was given to the kohen, and he brought it as a korban, but the meat was eaten by him. Then there's another very famous thing, which is the only, only one that still applies nowadays, and that is pidyon haben, that when you have a firstborn boy, you have to redeem him by the kohen, and you have to give the kohen five shekalim or five selaim, that amount of money. So the kohen had his way of the yidden giving him the different things. The levi only had one thing that they would give. It was much more, but still, when you add up all the things the kohanim had, probably equaled out to what the leviim got. The leviim would get maaser rishon. From the crop that would grow, you'd have to take off 10%, it's a lot, 10%, and give it to the levi. Terumah that they would take off and give to the kohen was not 10%. From d'Oraita, from the Torah, you could give as much as you want, a drop, and you would be yotzei. You could take off, the lashon in the Gemara is חיטה אחת פוטרת את כל הכרי, you could take one piece of wheat, one wheat, one kernel of wheat, and that you would be yotzei to take off from the whole pile. But the rabbanan said, no, that you have to give him some substantial amount. So they said, you have to give an average of 2%, one out of 50. And actually, they made it like this: if you were a very generous person, you should give one out of 40. If you're a very stingy person, you give one out of 60. If you're an average person, you give one out of 50, which is 2%. But the levi, he got 10%. But out of his 10%, he had to take off 10%, and that became terumah that he had to give to the kohen, and that was called terumat maaser, terumah of the maaser that he got, and that was given to the levi, to the kohen as terumah. So the kohen the levi got much more, but adding up all the things the kohen got, it probably evened out to what the levi got. But there was a big difference in the things that the kohen got regarding the things that the levi got. The kohen, not all, but many of the things that he got were holy. When the kohen got terumah, terumah besides it being the possession of the kohen, and that was the food he ate, it had a kedushah, it was holy. No one else was allowed to eat it. A zar, which means a non-kohen, whether he was a Levi or a Yisrael, was not allowed to eat the terumah. And if a person, a non-kohen, would eat the terumah, he was chayav mitah bidei shamayim, which means he would die premature death, similar to karet, but this is the punishment Hashem says for eating terumah by a Yisrael or by a Levi who is not a kohen. Also the kohen himself was not allowed to eat terumah if the kohen happened to be tamei, whether he became tamei by mistake through a dead body or he became tamei through other types of tumah, but if the kohen was tamei, he was not allowed to eat the terumah, or if the terumah became teme'ah, it wasn't allowed to be eaten. While the maaser that the Levi got had no kedushah whatsoever, it wasn't holy. It was just like you give tzedakah to a poor man, and there was an obligation for us to give tzedakah, there was an obligation to give certain amount, which is 10% of the crop, to the Levi, and that was the Levi's money, but not that it had any kedushah. And it's all connected, because what the Levi got, since the Levi was in a lower level, so it wasn't elevated to such a high level of becoming holy, while the kohen, since the kohen is in a higher level, therefore with many of the things that he got, like the terumah or the terumat maaser or the challah, which all were holy things, because they were elevated to the level of the kohen who is holier. And we know that the kohen is holier, and that's why by a kohen there is a special din, וקדשתו, that you have to, vekidashtem, you have to make the kohen holy. It says a person should give kavod to a kohen. That's why when there is a minyan or a group that's bentching, and you want to be mechabed somebody with being the mezamen, the one to say Rabosai mir veln bentchen, it says you should give it to a kohen. If the kohen is mochal, he doesn't mind, you don't have to. That's why nowadays people are not so makpid, because many, most cases the kohanim say, \"We don't want to be the ones to take away all the kibudim, all the honors we should have and no one have.\" That's why it doesn't matter really, because the kohanim we can, we assume and most of them feel that way, but be'emet it says you should give the kohen. When it comes to aliyot, the kohen has to get the first aliyah, we have to give him kavod. Why? Because the kohanim are holy people, and that's why they had these restrictions which a Levi didn't have. So as much as a Levi was holy, because a Levi was special, he was chosen to do a certain service for Hashem, but the kohanim were even holier than the Levi, than the Levi'im, and therefore the kohanim had these special restrictions.

Now when it comes to the difference between kohanim and Levi'im, besides the technical differences that we said, the kohanim, they had their job in the בית המקדש, the Levi'im had their job, and this was a higher level, this is another level, we find a chakirah, means a discussion, of in which way do we approach, do we look at this difference between the kohanim and the Levi'im? Because this could be explained in two ways. On one way you could explain that שבט לוי was separated, as the pasuk says, שבט לוי was separated from the rest of the Yidden to be a special shevet. From שבט לוי itself, within שבט לוי, there was a certain group which, within that group of specialty, they were even more special, and that's the kohanim. Or you could say that the specialty of the Levi'im and the specialty of the kohanim are completely two different levels. In other words, the kohanim, they were special one way, not that they were special within the group of Leviim. They were an entity on its own, not as a part of the kedushah of the Leviim. They were special, they were different. The Leviim were different. Or, as I said, the first way is that the Kohanim and the Leviim are basically one unit, but within the same unit, you have one more a little bit different. Basically the words would be whether it's a difference in כמות or in איכות. Is there a difference in quality or in quantity? Is it that basically they're both from the same quality, just one has a little bit more kedushah, or it's a complete different quality of kedushah that the Kohanim have over the Leviim? Now when we look inside it seems that this is an argument between Rashi and the Rambam. Which way we look at this? Rashi in Chumash, who usually interprets everything according to פשוטו של מקרא, according to the simple pshat, so it seems from Rashi, the way you look in the simple pshat of the pesukim, the second way, that the Kohanim When did Hashem give the Kohanim their job, and when did Hashem give the Leviim their job? And we look into the pesukim, it seems that way. Where do we find the first time that Hashem said that the Kohanim are special and they have a special job to do? We find that in Parshas Tetzaveh. In Parshas Tetzaveh, when it speaks about the making of the Mishkan, right away when Hashem said to make the Mishkan, which is in Parshas Terumah, it talks about the building of the Mishkan and the kelim, the vessels of the Mishkan, right away, the next parsha, Parshas Tetzaveh, Hashem says to Moshe, tell the Yidden, ואתה הקרב אליך בני אהרן, you bring the children of אהרן closer, and I want you to make the Kohanim. And these Kohanim are going to be the people who will serve Me in the Beis Hamikdash, in the Mishkan, the Beis Hamikdash. And I want you to make for them special בגדים, special garments. There is no mention of Leviim at all. In parsha, in the parsha where it talks about the Mishkan, which is the same as the בית המקדש, it doesn't make mention of the Leviim, that שבט לוי has a special job. It is not till later, in פרשת במדבר, after the whole Chumash of Vayikra, where it talks about the korbanot, and there it keeps on mentioning about the Kohanim, the Kohanim should take, and the Kohanim should do, and the Kohanim should שחט, and it talks about the work of the Kohanim, without mentioning anything about the Leviim. Later on, in פרשת במדבר, it first starts talking about Levi being special. It says there that when you're counting the Yidden, you should count only the 12 shevatim, don't count שבט לוי together with them. שבט לוי is special, and that Rashi explains, שבט לוי is לגיון של מלך, is the legion of Hashem, and they deserve to be counted special. Oh, here we hear about the Leviim as a special unit of Leviim. Then there we find about the Leviim having to carry, so having to carry the different things of the Mishkan. And there it says even that the that Leviim Hashem says that to Moshe, tell Aharon he has his job, and I will give him the לויים, ושרתו אתו, they will serve him, the Leviim will serve the Kohanim. And if we look further there, Rashi explains that the job of the Leviim was such a job that really all the Yidden were obligated to do that job, but you can't have everyone do the job, can all the Yidden do the same job? So Hashem said, so instead of the Yidden, I'm giving you the Leviim. So the Leviim really are taking place of the Yidden. So it comes out like this: if you look at it from the simple peshat, the job of the Kohanim was to be servants of Hashem in the Mishkan. As soon as the Mishkan was put up, and Hashem told him about the Mishkan, right away Hashem also told him that together with the Mishkan come the Kohanim. They're they are the furniture of the Mishkan. Just like we have a Mishkan, which is a holy place, which is different than every other part of the world, we have people who are holy together with the Mishkan, and these are the kohanim. Not mention of the leviim at all. Then comes about the leviim, it says later that Hashem says to the kohanim, you need help, so I'm going to designate some people to help you. And really these people who will help the kohanim, so really they are representing or they are the ones that are doing the job that all the Yidden should have done. So it comes out from here that really the kohanim are the ones that are special, the kohanim are the ones that are connected to Hashem as servants of Hashem, that is their title, that is their מהות, that is the quality of the kohen is that he is a holy person and connected to the serving of Hashem, while the leviim are just שמשים, like helping the kohanim. And also the leviim are part of Klal Yisrael that are just doing for them the shlichut of Klal Yisrael of what all the other Yidden have to do. So it seems like from here, and that's the way it seems from Rashi, that the kohanim are the ones that are separated from Klal Yisrael, the leviim are also different with a special, different job, but basically they're within the same category as all the other Yidden. And this is why we find a difference concerning the presents or, as we call them, the מתנות, or the payment that the kohanim got and that the leviim got. The one that was given to the kohanim, it says in Gemara, many places, that the kohanim when they got their terumah or other anything, all the other כ״ד מתנות כהונה, any one of the 24 special things that were given to the kohanim, it says, כהנים משלחן גבוה קא זכו. What they got, they got from Hashem. What do you mean they got from Hashem? A Yid gave him terumah. So we say no, the terumah that the Yid gave, he gave it to Hashem. And Hashem gave it to the kohen. So really, the kohen has a direct connection to Hashem, and he receives his livelihood directly from Hashem. Hashem says to the Yisrael, \"You give your terumah, but you're really giving it to me.\" And that's the expression משולחן גבוה קא זכו. They got it, they were zocheh from the table of Hashem. They were eating at the table, they were guests in Hashem's table, and that's what they ate, that's what they got. When the Yisraeli, when the Leviyim got their maaser, it doesn't say anywhere that the that Leviyim got משולחן גבוה. They got it from the Yidden. And the reason they got it from the Yidden is very simple. Since they're doing our job, we really had to do it, and they're just doing it for our shlichut, so we're paying them, that's all. So the Yidden are paying them. It doesn't say that the Yidden give the מעשר ראשון to Hashem and Hashem takes that maaser and gives it to the Levi. The pasuk says חלף עבודתכם, it's because of your avodah. Now, by the Kohanim we could say the same thing. We could have said the Kohanim serve in the Beit Hamikdash, they're doing service for the community, so the community has to support them, isn't that normal? Just like a community has to support the Kohen, the priest. Just like community has to support the rabbi, he's serving the communities. They serve the community, the whole Klal Yisrael. It doesn't say that. It doesn't say that Klal Yisrael supported the Kohanim for their service for the Yidden. It says Hashem paid them. And how did Hashem pay them? By telling the Yidden to give the terumah to the Kohen, but Hashem gave them. But by the Leviyim, it says that the Leviyim got it as payment for their service to the community, that they're doing something that really others should do and they did it bishlichut, that's how they do it. So it comes out that there is a difference between, this is the way it comes out from Rashi, that Kohanim, they are the group that are holy. The Leviyim, any Leviyim around here? Hope I'm not offending anybody so far. Okay, we'll see that Rambam doesn't hold exactly like that, so we'll we'll go further. So the that the Leviyim, they're basically part of Klal Yisrael and equal to Klal Yisrael, they're just a little bit have a special job. They have a special position within Klal Yisrael. Different people have different positions, they have a better position. And that's the reason they don't have any restriction, no special halachot. There's no kedushah. A Levi could become a tamei, a Levi could marry a divorcee, all the restrictions a Kohen has, a Levi doesn't have because he is not in that level of kedushah as as a Kohen. This is the reason why, according to simple peshat, in Parshat Korach, when Hashem again talks about the job of the kohanim and the job of the leviim, if you remember Parshat Korach, it says that after the whole argument of Korach against Aharon and all the kohanim, and then people died, and then the people argued again, so there it says after the end, Hashem said, he renewed the job of the kohanim or retold, and he said, \"I'm making a covenant with you to have the kohanim and the leviim.\" And the pasuk says there ויאמר השם אל אהרן, he said to אהרן, בארצם לא תנחל, the kohanim they should not have any share in the land, וחלק לא יהיה לך בתוכם, they should not have a chelek, a share amongst the יידן, אני חלקך ונחלתך, השם says, \"I am your share.\" Hashem is the share. Instead of having a piece of land, we have, the kohanim have Hashem. ונחלתך, I'm your inheritance. And he goes on talking about what the kohanim get. Then later it starts a new part which talks about the leviim. So the pasuk says ולבני לוי, for the לויים, הנה נתתי כל מעשר בישראל לנחלה, I give that they will get maaser as their nachalah. Interesting, the pasuk does not mention when it comes to Levi that Hashem says אני חלקך ונחלתך, \"I am your share.\" It would seem Hashem should say it, \"I am your share,\" because after all, they don't have a share in the land, so who is their share? Hashem. Hashem didn't say that. Why? According to simple peshat again, because they are not like that. When Hashem says a kohen, \"I am your share,\" that means that you are close to Hashem, you are completely given over in your service to Hashem, you are a separate unit of kedushah. By the kohanim it's so, so Hashem says אני חלקך ונחלתך. When it comes to שבט לוי, it is not like that, שבט לוי doesn't say that. Now even though later on we find in other parashiyot, say in פרשת עקב, I'll read you a pasuk in פרשת עקב. The pasuk says בעת ההיא הבדיל השם את שבט הלוי, that that day Hashem separated שבט לוי. This is Moshe Rabbeinu repeating in Chumash Devarim things that happened earlier. So he says, \"That day, at that time השם separated שבט לוי,\" and then he says, על כן לא היה ללוי חלק ונחלה עם אחיו, therefore לוי had no share with his brothers, השם הוא נחלתו. Hashem is his inheritance. And here it seems to be talking about the whole שבט לוי, and it does mention השם הוא נחלתו. But if you look in Rashi, Rashi says, and the Targum says the same thing, that we're not talking about שבט לוי, we're talking about the kohanim. And he mentions that they are part of שבט לוי, but he's talking about the kohanim. Also we have in another pasuk, the pasuk says in פרשת שופטים, it says כהנים הלויים כל שבט לוי, the kohanim the leviim, all of שבט לוי, and then it says השם הוא נחלתו. Hashem is his inheritance. So here again it seems that we're talking about the whole שבט לוי. So again Rashi says it doesn't mean שבט לוי. הכהנים הלויים means the כהנים who are from amongst the לויים, from שבט לוי. And only concerning them we have השם הוא נחלתו. And this is for this reason because the כהנים are the holy, call it, Gemara it refers to them sometimes as an עם קדוש, a holy nation, as if saying they're a nation on their own, it's a separate nation. The לויים we don't say is a עם קדוש, they don't have that holiness, so they're not a separate nation. They're just special people within כלל ישראל, but not in a special level of special קדושה. This is all the way it seems from Rashi.

But when we learn the Rambam, the Rambam it says differently. The Rambam in הלכות שמיטה ויובל, now I'll quote the Rambam, he says like this: כל שבט לוי מוזהרין שלא ינחלו בארץ כנען. All of שבט לוי were commanded, warned, not to take an inheritance in the land of כנען, of ארץ ישראל. And he quotes the פסוק שנאמר: לא יהיה לכהנים הלויים כל שבט לוי, the פסוק that we mentioned before, the פסוק that we mentioned before in פרשת עקב, in פרשת עקב. And then he says, ולמה לא זכה לוי בחלקת ונחלת ארץ ישראל? Why wasn't לוי זוכה, why didn't he get a share in ארץ ישראל? So he says because שבט לוי, and he's talking about the whole שבט לוי, was separated, והוא ברוך הוא, and השם זכה להם, השם takes care of them, שנאמר: אני חלקך ונחלתך. Because it says: I am your part, your share, and your inheritance. And the Rambam is clearly talking about שבט לוי as a whole, not only about the כהנים. So we see from the Rambam that the Rambam learns that this פסוק, השם says I am your inheritance, which means that השם says you are holy, applies to the whole שבט לוי. Also we see in a different place in the Rambam, the Rambam in Hilchot Klei HaMikdash says like this: זרע לוי כולו מובדל לעבודת המקדש. The whole shevet, all the children of Levi are all separated to do the service in the Beit HaMikdash. And he quotes the pasuk, as we said before, בעת ההיא הבדיל השם את שבט הלוי, that at that time Hashem separated shevet haLevi. And then later on in a separate chapter, the Rambam continues and he says, הכהנים הובדלו מכלל הלויים לעבודת הקרבנות. That from amongst the Leviim, Hashem separated the Kohanim separately, that they will bring the korbanot, as it says, the pasuk, he quotes a pasuk in Divrei Hayamim: ויבדל אהרן להקדישו קדש קדשים, that אהרן is קדש קדשים. In other words the Rambam is telling us that basically the Leviim and the Kohanim are both in the same category. Just that within the Kohanim and the Leviim, the Kohanim had a greater job than the Leviim. The Kohanim worked in the mizbeach, they worked for the korbanot, and the Leviim, they worked in just singing, in just watching the gates, closing the gates. But essentially it's all one group. So we see from the Rambam that even though, the Rambam holds that even though we showed all the differences before between a Kohen and a Levi concerning the Kohen having certain restrictions which a Levi doesn't have, concerning the reward he gets, that the terumah is holy and the maaser that the Levi gets is not holy, concerning that we find that the the reward or the matanot that the Kohen got, the Gemara says came from Hashem, while the Levi that he got didn't come from Hashem, it comes from the Bnei Yisrael, they are obligated to pay, the Bnei Yisrael who are working for them, nevertheless the Rambam holds that the Levi is in the same category as the Kohen. The Kohanim and the Leviim are both a special Shevet that were separated. But this doesn't really seem to fit to פשוטו של מקרא, to the simple Peshat in the pasuk as we brought out that we see the way things worked out, the way when the Kohanim got their job, when the Leviim got theirs, and everything else. So there are certain things the Kohanim have, the Leviim not, but not because they're in a separate Kohen category. In other words, according to the Rambam we could say on the Leviim also that they have a special kedushah different than than than the regular Yisraelim. Not as great as Kohanim, but the regular Yisraelim. This is all more or less to describe the difference between Kohanim and Leviim according to the halachah, according to the way it is according to nigleh as we would say.

What is the difference between Kohanim and Leviim according to Chassidus, according to Kabbalah? So we find in the Zohar, the Zohar says that the difference between a Kohen and a Levi is that a Kohen is connected to מידת החסד, the מידה of kindness, and a Levi is connected to מידת הגבורה. גבורה, which is strictness. The fact that a Kohen is connected to מידת החסד is actually a clear pasuk. The pasuk says to in פרשת ברכה, תומיך ואוריך לאיש חסידיך, that the אורים ותומים, the אורים ותומים which was one of the בגדים, one of the garments that the Kohen Gadol wore, he had the חושן, the breastplate, and inside he had the אורים ותומים. So the פסוק says that the אורים ותומים was given לאיש חסידיך, the man of chesed, to the kohen, which is a man of chesed. So a kohen is called a man of chesed. In spite of what people usually say, that a kohen is always a כעסן they say, a kohen is a person who has a temper. That's what they that's what it says. And it's not just that people say that, the Gemara says that. And the Gemara it even gives reasons because it was always cold, they were going barefooted and it was cold, and they ate so much meat because of the korbanot that eat so they got stomachaches, and there's anyway, it says other reasons. But that's just a superficial thing. The real real מידה of a kohen is chesed, says, and the מידה of Shevet Levi is gevurah. And that's why it says in the The Zohar says that's why in the Beit HaMikdash their jobs were different jobs. The jobs of the kohen, the job of the kohen was korbanot, and he says the job of korbanot was called המשכה, to bring down Godliness into the world. When you brought a korban, there is a fire that was came down from heaven that consumed the korban, so it was he calls it המשכה. And a Levi, it says, was ברעותא דלבא was העלאה, was elevating themselves to a higher level. And that's connected to chesed and gevurah. Because chesed, we always learn in Chassidut, chesed is המשכה. Chesed is always compared to water, gevurah is compared to fire. Water, the nature of water is to go down, it always goes down to the lowest point. Fire, the nature of fire is always to go up. So chesed, usually it's called אהבה כמים, is when a person's מדרגה is to take something and to bring it down. Bring down in our case, bringing down Godliness into the world, that is connected to the מידה of chesed. And gevurah is to take the worldly matters and to elevate it up, to purify it and elevate it up to Hashem. So their job was singing, and singing is something that represents the fact that you bring yourself higher. When a person sings, he could lift himself, his spirits, he lifts himself to a higher level mentally, or with his feeling, emotionally, through singing. So that's why the job of the Leviim was singing, because that represented the aliyah, the elevation of things from this world, while the Kohanim their job was to bring down the fire from Hashem, and to which means bring Elokut into the world, and to consume the korbanot. Which of the two is greater? Well obviously, chesed is greater, chesed is first. And that's why Kohanim are greater than Leviim. But on the other hand we all know that when Mashiach will come, the Leviim will become Kohanim, and the Leviim will be higher than the Kohanim. And the reason is because it says Now I'm going to a little bit go into Kabbalah, because it says in Kabbalah that the שורש, the root of מידת הגבורה is higher than the root of מידת החסד. Chesed. In the lower levels, when you have, like in Atzilut let's say, chesed and גבורה, חסד is higher than gevurah. But in the שורש, the way it's in Keter of Atzilut, so there gevurah is higher than chesed. So על פי קבלה when Mashiach will come, and things will go back to its source and the root, so then gevurah will be higher, and therefore the Leviim will be higher. Which is by the way the mistake that קרח made. You think Korach was arguing against the kehunah. He was a Levi, and he wanted to be greater than Aharon. So we think Korach is a big rasha, and look what he did, the trouble he made, true! But it all started with a mistake that he made in Kabbalah. קרח was such a high level, that he already lived in a level the way that it will be when Mashiach will come. And when Mashiach will come, when gevurah will be higher, that means that Levi will be higher, so he was at that level. Otherwise you could imagine you couldn't be competition of Moshe Rabbeinu. He was a competition of Moshe. In his time, so many people followed him, not Moshe Rabbeinu. I mean to be a competition of Moshe you've got to be a very, very, very great person. So he was so great, he was already at the level of the time of Mashiach. And what he wanted was, it says in Kabbalah, to already start at that time that level. But Hashem said no, the time hasn't come yet, and it's not there yet. So he was wrong. And if it's against Hashem's will, we don't care what his ideas are, and that's why it was wrong and then it turned out that he became a he started a revolt against Moshe, and then he turned out to be a big רשע, and it was swallowed, all the things. Just like we find by the meraglim, by the twelve spies. That we look at them as fools, the ten of the twelve were רשעים and a terrible thing, but in chassidus we learned they had high, great level. They wanted to stay in the desert, to be connected to Hashem. But because it wasn't exactly Hashem's will, it was wrong and then they went all the way down, fell down so fast and so low that they turned out to be the biggest רשעים. And the same thing with Korach. But the point is that when Mashiach will come, which גבורה will be higher than חסד, so then the לויים will be higher than the כהנים.

Now what does it mean גבורה will be higher than חסד? So I said before, well, the shoresh because על פי קבלה the root of גבורה is higher than the root of חסד. But there is even more a simpler explanation of why גבורה the לויים will be higher than the the כהנים, why גבורה is higher than חסד. We said before that חסד in this case represents the fact that we bring godliness down into this world. It's hamshachah it's called. We have two ענינים, העלאה and hamshachah, going up and going and pulling down. So the avodah of the כהנים, which is חסד, means that they are able to bring godliness into this world. The avodah of the לויים is that we bring up the world higher, we're ma'aleh the world, we bring up the world higher to a point where it's able to be a keli, a vessel, to have godliness in it. Now which of the two is higher? So let me explain. On one hand, and the way it seems now, the first one is higher: when you bring godliness into the world is a higher level than elevating the world to godliness. But in truth, when that second thing comes into completion, that is higher. And I'll explain what I mean. When you bring godliness into the world, it is in a way, if we're going to use the terms of chassidus, it could bring the world to be in a level of bitul. If godliness comes into the world, the world becomes batel, the world becomes nullified to Hashem. And since it comes, we call it מלמעלה למטה, from up down, from Hashem down, what it causes is a complete bitul, a complete nullification of the place where it came. Just like it says by Matan Torah: וירד ה' על הר סיני, השם came down, and therefore when השם came down to the world the whole world stopped. It'd be the bitul to the world. So when kedushah, Elokus, godliness comes milmaalah lematah from up down, it causes the bitul in the highest level. But when you start working of trying to work with the gashmi and elevate it, so then it doesn't go that high. See, Hashem from above could bring down the greatest spiritual level if He wants, and He does, and that was what the kohanim were mamshich in the Beis Hamikdash, the greatest spiritual level. And when the greatest spiritual level comes down, so the gashmi gets that great level. But when you work at the gashmi, the physical part of the world itself should elevate itself and reach a level, it goes very slow. It goes very slow. You reach a little bit, you reach higher, you reach higher, but to reach it completely is very hard and it doesn't usually go. So it comes out that when there is a גילוי אלוקות מלמעלה למטה, when there's an elevation of revelation of Hashem from above, that causes wherever it comes, it should turn into bitul b'metzius. Bitul b'metzius means that it becomes completely batel. Batel b'metzius means that it This whole thing is nullified. When you work milmatah lemaalah from the up down up down going up, so even if you reach a level of bitul, it's only what we call bitul hayesh. That means there is bitul, but you're still a little bit of a yesh. There is still your own selfish being still exists. So which one is higher? Well obviously the first one is higher, cuz there the bitul, it causes a great bitul that you're batel b'metzius, you're completely batel. And the second level, which is milmatah lemaalah, from down up, it's only a bitul hayesh, we call it, only a bitul that you still remain a yesh. So on one hand, that's higher, and that's the reason why the kohanim are higher than the leviyim, because that's their job. But in essence, if we think a little bit deeper, the second level is higher than the first. Because the second level means that it came from within the thing itself. It's not something from the side came and had an effect and caused a bitul. In truth, when that happens, when that wears off, the bitul is gone, because it didn't change, didn't change the thing where it came. That's why by Har Sinai itself, Hashem came down to Har Sinai, Har Sinai was holy, when the Shechinah left, Har Sinai has no more kedushah. But if the if it comes milmatah lemaalah, if something of this physical world gets elevated, works to elevate it, then whatever it reaches, it stays there because it's reached it because of its own kochos, of its own power, and therefore that stays. And besides that, there's another point here: when it comes, when you have bitul bimetziut, that means that the thing is completely nullified in front of Hashem, because it feels the greatness of Hashem, it doesn't exist anymore, it doesn't have its own feeling of existence. The second level is bitul hayesh. That means it it's batel, but it still has a feeling. In truth, the second level shows that even something that is a יש, that is a being of its own, is also nullified to Hashem. See, the first level makes it so that you're not a being of your own. In theory, that means that if you would be a being of your own, you would be a contradiction to Hashem. In order for you not to contradict Hashem, you're not a מציאות. The second level shows that even though you're still a מציאות, you're still batel to Hashem. That means that in essence, the second level, as much as it's lower, it's really higher. But we don't see it now. And when Mashiach will come, we will actually see the truth that the second level is higher than the first. And that's why nowadays the כהנים are higher because when you're talking about the level of bitul that the כהנים are able to cause, or the bitul, level of bitul that the כהנים are themselves, it's a higher level of bitul to Hashem. They are completely servants of Hashem, that's all they are. And that's why they're such a high level. The לויים are not. They're not that, those servants of Hashem. On the other hand, the fact that while they are not servants of Hashem and nevertheless they serve, that's a higher level. And when Mashiach will come, that level will be revealed. And actually, we saw that in the בית המקדש itself. The fact that the לויים were not actually servants of Hashem directly didn't give them, so to speak, that, I'll be in simple term, that ga'avah. See, a כהן could have a certain ga'avah: I'm a כהן. And you hear people say, I'm a כהן. So, as much as a כהן is supposed to be completely close to Hashem, completely nullified to Hashem, completely batel, but there is still a certain ישות that still exists there. Because the fact that he is so great gives him that feeling of greatness, and the fact that he has a feeling of greatness automatically defeats the purpose, then it's not complete batel, bitul. But a לוי can't say that, cuz a לוי, on one hand, he's not holy, there's nothing special of him, and at the same time, this לוי, who is not special, serves Hashem, then this לוי has a, we could say, both מעלות. He serves Hashem and he doesn't have that that ישות, that ביטול. It's similar just to the it's not exact, not the same, but just to bring out the idea, there used to be chasidim that would fast very often, and it says if you fast a whole day, there is a great things in doing in fasting. But there were certain chasidim that would fast all day, and a minute before the שקיעה, they would eat something to break their fast. So they asked them, why are you doing that? It's very simple. The whole idea of fasting is because then it takes away from your blood and fats, it says, and you're doing it not to indulge in תאוות, you're doing it for the sake of Hashem. In other words, you're doing to break your ego and to recognize that it's nothing but Hashem, right? That's the purpose of fasting. But you know what happens? At the end of the day, and you fast for the whole day, and finally at the end you break your fast, you have the satisfaction, \"I fasted.\" So, on one hand, you're accomplishing your ביטול to Hashem by fasting, but at the same time, you're ruining it because look who I am, I'm a person, I fast very often. And the truth is that there are some, I don't know which one of the Rebbeim said, by a certain person who fasted very often, and he said about this person that every time he fasts, he adds חיות in קליפה, he gives nourishment to the evil forces, because he himself feels good and he goes around bragging, \"I fasted.\" So, it defeats the purpose. So here, you did this, but to the same time, your ביטול is spoiled. But what he said, \"I'm doing this because Chassidus said I fast in order to do what a fast is supposed to do. But in order I should not have that satisfaction and good feeling, you know, I fasted, if you break your fast before the שקיעה, you didn't fast. In according to halacha, it's not a fast. So I don't have, I can't say, I go around say I'm fasting.\" So the fact that he didn't fast completely accomplished more than the fact that he fasted. But like there's another story of another great chasid that actually used to fast very often. And he was once sitting in his house, and he saw his wife, I'm going to finish in a moment, saw his wife standing on the porch, and he was sitting right there in front of the porch, speaking with a neighbor across the porch, another person. Across the porch lived a misnaged, not a chasid. And that lady, the wife, was talking to his wife. And that woman was telling his wife about her husband, what kind of big תלמיד חכם he is, and how much he learns, and he davens, and all the great things that he does. So this one said, \"Yeah, what do you think? Your husband? My husband also!\" And she started telling her, \"My husband, he learns, he davens, he fasts very often. As a matter of fact,\" she says, \"today, actually he is fasting.\" And he sat there and overheard it, overheard her saying, so he went over, I was going to say to the fridge, wasn't to the fridge, it was the Alter Rebbe's a chasid, he went over to the cupboard and took out a piece of cake, and he sat down at the table right across the place where that other lady was sitting, and he started eating. So she says, \"What are you talking about? You said he's fasting today, and just I could see from far, I see that he's eating.\" She had nothing to say. He did it special, because if you're fasting in order to break your ego, and here he sees that his fasting gives him more ego because his wife is telling her, you know, \"My husband fasts.\" So in order that shouldn't happen, so he specially broke his fast in front of them, so now no one can say he can't, people can't talk about him that he's fasting. The same thing here is with the Levi. See, the Kohen, he is great, and he is special, and he is בטל to Hashem, and he's the servant of Hashem, all the great things he has, so he's more בטל, while the Levi is not so great, he does only ביטול היש, a little מציאות. But the problem is that the Kohen could have that feeling of satisfaction, made that it ruins the ביטול. But the Levi can't have that either, because you ask him, \"Are you special?\" \"No.\" \"Is your תרומה, is your מעשר holy?\" \"No, this.\" So he has a job, basically it's a burden that he has, he has a job to work, and nevertheless, if he feel that he's serving Hashem, the Levi, he has the real ביטול. And now we don't see it, because after all, physically the Kohen is higher. But when Mashiach will come, the truth will be revealed and the Levi'im are going to be higher than the Kohanim. And we hope this is going to happen very, very soon, so as much as try, I hope I didn't offend the Levi'im, and now I hope I don't offend the Kohanim. The end is they're both good, and Hashem gave them, and what do we Yisraelim say? We're happy with Hashem gave us, and the main thing is we all serve Hashem to what we're supposed to, with what we're supposed to do, accomplish as the mission that's given to us, and by doing that we will bring משיח צדקנו. Amen.