[Avodah] How were Levi'I'm Counted?

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 12:16:35AM -0400, T613K at aol.com wrote:
: It certainly does imply, as you say, that they did not use machatzis
: hashekel to count the Levi'im, but I'm not sure what your question is.  The
: Rashi you cite says that Moshe stood at the door of each Levi's tent and a  bas
: kol announced how many Levi'im were inside.  Rashi says "how many  babies"
: but clearly means babies plus.

Rashi could mean "how many people too young to give a machatzis
hasheqel". Although I thought the Leviim were counted by peteq, which I
would deduce from RKBloom's post was something I saw in HaEmeq Davar
once. But the same answer would work either way, that the bas qol was
only needed for those too young for the manual method.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha