Torah Pearls – Season 2 – Shlach – Rabbi Tovia Singer
But the person who does anything presumptuously, whether he is native-born or a stranger, that one brings reproach on the Lord, and he shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt shall be upon him. – Numbers 15:30-31
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OK, there were 12 spies but none of them Levites. That made the tribe of Levi exempt from dying in the desert? Anyone over 20 that is. Surely the sons of Aaron who were priests were over 25 or 30 (maybe 50 yrs old) and outlived Joshua in the promised land, according to the last verse of Joshua.
Yes, this made them exempt from dying in the desert.
The Levites did not take part in the wars of conquest for they did not inherit any land. This is explicitly stated 3 times in the Torah. Hence they had NO NEED to be part of the spies and they did not listen to the spies either.
G-d doomed the Jews to wander in the desert for 40 years (One year for every day they spied out the land) until the entire adult male population died out. The punishment was because they didn’t have faith in Him after He had brought them so far. The Levites who did not take part in the spying and they did not listen to the spies so they were exempt from dying off. The women, who always carried the standard of faith in Judaism, didn’t listen to the spies and they also lived to go into the land.
Where does it say the women didn’t die off? Mariam died and was from the Levites.