In the first of this week’s parshiot, Matot, the Torah writes: “God spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Avenge the Israelite people against the Midianites; then you shall be gathered to your kin.’ Moses, in turn, told the army, ‘Let troops be picked out from among you for a campaign, and let them fall upon Midian to wreak God’s vengeance on Midian. You shall dispatch on the campaign a thousand from every one of the tribes of Israel.’”

Rashi comments that, from the words in the verse “all the tribes of Israel,” we learn the Levites and the Kohanim were also included in the army.

In contrast, Maimonides wrote: “Why did the Levites not receive a portion in the inheritance of Eretz Yisrael and in the spoils of war like their brethren? Because they were set aside to serve God and minister unto Him and to instruct people at large in His just paths and righteous judgments, as [Deuteronomy 33:10] states: ‘They will teach Your judgments to Jacob and Your Torah to Israel’” (Laws of the Sabbatical and Jubilee Years 13:12).

Therefore, the Levites and Kohanim were set apart from the ways of the world. They did not wage war like the rest of the Jewish people; they did not receive an inheritance; nor did they acquire for themselves through their physical power. Instead, they are God’s legion, and “God has blessed His legion” (ibid.:11). He provides for them, as (Numbers 18:20) states: “I am your portion and your inheritance”.

Rabbi Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel, the first Sephardic chief rabbi of the state of Israel, resolved this contradiction in a responsa (Mishpetei Uziel 8:21). He was answering an important halachic question relevant in the beginning years of the modern state of Israel: should Kohanim be drafted into the army?

He quotes the passage above from Maimonides and qualifies it: “The Levites and Kohanim do not go to war as a tribe like other tribes, after the land was divided, but in the initial wars to capture the land they did have to go to war. In our wars, which are of self defense…there is no doubt that every Jew, including Kohanim and Levites, must go to war…”.

Even though the Kohanim and Levites are the class of scholars, teachers and spiritual leaders, they too must go to war at times like everyone else. There can be no double standard, as Rashi points out in our parsha. Though, of necessity, there are different classes and groups among a people, there are times in which we must all be equal.

Thus the tension between classes is age old, even in Jewish society. This was true not only in war, but also in education. We see that the Babylonian Talmudic academy under Rabban Gamliel was highly selective, but when Rabbi Yehoshuah took over, the admissions policies completely changed. As the Talmud says in Brachot 28a:

“It was taught: On that day that they removed Rabban Gamliel from his position and appointed Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya in his place, there was also a fundamental change in the general approach of the study hall as they dismissed the guard at the door and permission was granted to the students to enter.

Instead of Rabban Gamliel’s selective approach that asserted that the students must be screened before accepting them into the study hall, the new approach asserted that anyone who seeks to study should be given the opportunity to do so. As Rabban Gamliel would proclaim and say: any student whose inside, his thoughts and feelings, are not like his outside (i.e., his conduct and his character traits are lacking) will not enter the study hall.

The Gemara relates: On that day several benches were added to the study hall to accommodate the numerous students. Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Abba Yosef ben Dostai and the Rabbis disputed this matter. One said: Four hundred benches were added to the study hall. And one said: Seven hundred benches were added to the study hall.

When he saw the tremendous growth in the number of students, Rabban Gamliel was disheartened. He said: Perhaps, Heaven forbid, I prevented Israel from engaging in Torah study.”

I consider the Jewish people quite blessed to have such a copious body of theological and legal writing that whatever happens in our world, even in current American legal and social struggles, the Torah has something to say which we can bring to bear.