<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16825" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"
bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>From: rabbirichwolpoe@gmail.com<BR><BR>Rashi Bamidbar 3:16 <BR>Levi'I'm
were counted "al pi Hashem"<BR><BR>Does this imply that they did not use
Mahatzis Hasheqel?<BR><BR>Do any Midrashim or Mefarshim elaborate upon this
method?<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>>>>>></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>This is probably not an answer to your question but Eliyahu Kitov in his
Sefer Haparshios says that after the bas kol announced how many children were in
each tent, Moshe added up the total and announced how many Levi'im there were,
and then the bas kol repeated the number that Moshe had said, confirmed Moshe's
count. He says the reason for this was so that all would know that Moshe
had counted accurately and had not purposely undercounted the number of Levi'im
in order to gain more silver for his shevet (because each of the "extra"
first-borns who did not have a corresponding Levi had to pay silver, if you
recall).</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>(Kitov gives sources in his chapter endnotes but I can't make sense of all
the abbreviations.)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><B>--Toby
Katz<BR>==========<BR><BR><BR><BR>_____________________</B></FONT></DIV></FONT><DIV CLASS="aol_ad_footer" ID="702fccefa65e4c8cfef8314623051746"><br/><font style="color:black;font:normal 10pt arial,san-serif;"> <hr style="margin-top:10px"/>We found the real 'Hotel California' and the 'Seinfeld' diner. What will you find? <a href="http://www.whereitsat.com/?ncid=emlwenew00000004">Explore <b>WhereItsAt.com</a></b>.</font></DIV></BODY></HTML>