Parshas Naso - the prohibition for one Levi to do work assigned to another Levi

The passuk says in this week’s sedrah (4:23)

מִבֶּן שְׁלֹשִׁים שָׁנָה וָמַעְלָה עַד בֶּן חֲמִשִּׁים שָׁנָה תִּפְקֹד אוֹתָם כָּל הַבָּא לִצְבֹא צָבָא לַעֲבֹד עֲבֹדָה בְּאֹהֶל מוֹעֵד

From 30 years old and upwards until the age of 50 you should count them, all who are subject to work in the performance of tasks required for the ohel mo’ed.

The Medrash Rabbah comments on this passuk

כל הבא לצבא צבא, שהיו שוערים. לעבוד עבודה באהל מועד, שהיו משוררים.

“All who are subject to work,” this refers to the Levi’im who opened and closed the gates of the בית המקדש. “In the performance of tasks,” this refers to the Levi’im who would sing when the korbanos were brought.

In other words, different Levi’im were assigned to different specific tasks in the בית המקדש.

The gemara in Eruchin (11b) explains that because the Levi’im were assigned to specific tasks, it was אסור for one Levi to perform the work of a different Levi. The gemara brings a machlokess if one Levi who performs the avodah of another Levi is חייב מיתה בידי שמים or if he has only transgressed aלא תעשה.

תניא נמי הכי ולא ימותו גם הם גם אתם אתם בשלהם והם בשלכם במיתה הם בשלהם אינן במיתה אלא באזהרה

We have learnt in the beraisah, “If a cohen does the work of a Levi, or if a Levi does the work of a cohen, then they are חייב מיתה בידי שמים. However if one Levi performs the work of another Levi, for example a Levi whose job it is to sing, goes and closes the gates of the בית המקדש, then this Levi is not חייב מיתה בידי שמים and he only transgresses a לא תעשה.”

 אמר אביי נקיטינן משורר ששיער בשל חבירו במיתה שנאמר (במדבר ג', ל"ח) והחונים לפני המשכן קדמה לפני אהל מועד וגו' והזר הקרב יומת מאי זר אילימא זר ממש הכתיב חדא זימנא אלא לאו זר דאותה עבודה

Abaye disagrees and is of the opinion that if one Levi does the work of another Levi then he is also חייב מיתה בידי שמים.

...תנאי היא דתניא מעשה בר' יהושע בר חנניה שהלך לסייע בהגפת דלתות אצל ר' יוחנן בן גודגדא אמר לו בני חזור לאחוריך שאתה מן המשוררים ולא מן המשוערים מאי לאו בהא קמיפלגי דמר סבר מיתה היא וגזרו בה רבנן ומ"ס אזהרה היא ולא גזרו בה

[The gemara explains that] this machlokess is in fact a machlokess tenaim, as we have learnt:

It once happened that Rabbi Yehoshua bar Chananya, who was a Levi who sang in the בית המקדש, went to assist Rabbi Yochanan ben Gudgedah, who was a Levi who opened and closed the gates in the beis hamikdash, and who was having difficulty closing one of the gates.

Rabbi Yochanan ben Gudgedah said to Rabbi Yehoshua bar Chananya, “My son, go back, because you are a singer and not a gatekeeper.”

[Why did Rabbi Yehoshua bar Chananya go to help Rabbi Yochanan ben Gudgedah, and why did Rabbi Yochanan ben Gudgedah rebuff his offer of assistance?] Surely we should understand that the machlokess is as follows:

Rabbi Yehoshua bar Chananya is of the opinion that there is only a לא תעשה if one Levi does the work of another Levi. Therefore this is not a severe איסור, and it is מותר לכתחילה if one Levi merely wants to assist another Levi (and not do his whole work).

Rabbi Yochanan ben Gudgedah on the other hand, is of the opinion that if one Levi does the whole task of another Levi then he is חייב מיתה בידי שמים. Since this is such a severe איסור, we assume that there is an איסור דרבנן even for one Levi to merely assist another Levi, in case he would come to do the whole task by himself.

This is Rashi’s explanation and follows the girsa that appears in our gemara.

The Rambam in הלכות כלי המקדש והעובדים בו (פרק ג', הל' י"א) which brings down the halachah mentioned in this gemara is difficult to understand. The Rambam says:

לוים שעבדו עבודת הכהנים או שסייע לוי במלאכה שאינה מלאכתו חייבין מיתה בידי שמים

If a Levi did the avodah of a cohen or if a Levi assisted another Levi in work that he was not assigned to, then they are חייב מיתה בידי שמים.

The Rambam, who says that even if one Levi merely assists another Levi then he is חייב מיתה בידי שמים, appears to contradict the gemara. The gemara only says that according to the opinion that if a Levi does the entire work of another Levi then he is חייב מיתה בידי שמים, that there is a גזירה מדרבנן that one Levi may not even assist another Levi in his work. However the gemara does not mention any opinion that if a Levi assists another Levi then he is חייב מיתה בידי שמים?

In order to answer this question on the Rambam, the כסף משנה explains that the Rambam had a different girsa in the gemara.

וצ''ל שבגירסת רבינו לא היה מסיים וגזרו בה רבנן אלא הכי גריס מר סבר מיתה היא ומר סבר אזהרה היא וקאי גם למסייע שכל ששינה עבודתו אפילו כל שהוא חייב מיתה ומה לי שיהיה מסייע סוף סוף הרי נתעסק בעבודה שאינה שלו

“And you have to say, that in the girsa of the Rambam, the gemara did not say that the machlokess between Rabbi Yochanan ben Gudgedah and Rabbi Yehoshua bar Chananya is if there is an איסור דרבנן or not. Rather the gemara says that that the machlokess is if there is a חיוב מיתה בידי שמים or just a לא תעשה, even if one Levi merely assists another Levi.

And the Rambam paskens according to the opinion that even assisting another Levi incurs the penalty of מיתה בידי שמים.”

The ספר עבודת הלוי asks that it would appear difficult to understand the gemara according to the girsa of the כסף משנה.

This is because according to Rashi, one tanna opined that there is an איסור דרבנן in merely assisting and one tanna opined that there is no איסור  at all. Therefore the one who held there is no איסור at all, went to assist the other, and was rebuffed because the second thought he was transgressing an איסור דרבנן.

However, according to the girsa of the כסף משנה, everyone agrees that it is אסור for one Levi to assist in the work of another Levi. The machlokess is merely if this involves a חיוב מיתה בידי שמים or if this only comprises a לא תעשה. In this case, why did Rabbi Yehoshua bar Chananya go to assist Rabbi Yochanan ben Gudgedah, seeing as even according to Rabbi Yehoshua bar Chananya there would at least have been a לא תעשה had he assisted Rabbi Yochanan ben Gudgedah?

The ספר עבודת הלוי answers as follows:

The initial introduction of the gemara (mentioned previously) in Eruchin talks about a cohen doing the task of a Levi, or a Levi doing the task of a cohen. Rashi comments on this gemara as follows:

אתם בשלהם - הכהנים שנכנסו בעבודת לוים כגון ששררו

You who do their task: Cohanim who entered into the work of the Levi’im, such as if the cohanim sang.

והם בשלכם - לוי שעבד על המזבח ככהן

And they who do your task: A Levi who performed the עבודה on the מזבח like a cohen.

Rashi changes the expression he uses to describe one type of person doing the avodah of another type of person. In the first Rashi which describes a cohen who did the עבודה of a Levi, he says שנכנסו – they entered. In the second Rashi which describes a Levi who did the עבודה of a cohen, he just says שעבד – “who did the avodah.”

The ספר עבודת הלוי explains that this is because there is no strict sequence of actions that defines the עבודה that the Levi’im do. The tasks of the Levi’im are not discretely quantified, for example, how much should a cohen sing so that we should say that he has now performed the avodah of the Levi’im?

Subsequently, the issur for a cohen to do the avodah of a Levi is defined as an issur of השגת גבול, by performing the avodah of the Levi, the cohen has unlawfully entered the רשות of the Levi. Therefore when describing the issur of a cohen to do the avodah of a Levi, Rashi says הכהנים שנכנסו בעבודת לוים – the cohanim who entered into doing the avodah of the Levi’im.

However the issur of a Levi to do the avodah of a cohen is categorically defined as a Levi who does an act which is a מעשה עבודה. Since the avodah of the cohanim is discretely quantified, such as the עבודות of קבלה, הולכה and זריקה, therefore we say that a Levi who performs the entirety of one of these עבודות has transgressed the issur of a Levi to do the avodah of the cohanim. That is why in this case, Rashi says לוי שעבד על המזבח ככהן – because the issur is for him to do the avodah of the cohen, and not to enter into the רשות of the cohen.

Based on this sevara, the ספר עבודת הלוי answers the question on the כסף משנה with the following משל:

Let us say you were walking down the street and saw through a window that the בעל הבית had fallen and was unable to get up. You broke the window to get in, and helped him to his feet. In this case we would not say that you had entered his רשות unlawfully, because you only entered his רשות in order to be of assistance to him.

Similarly, if the issur of one Levi to do the avodah of another Levi is an issur of entering into the other Levi’s רשות, we can say that if he only assisted the other Levi because he was finding it difficult to do his own avodah, then there is no issur of השגת גבול. This was the reasoning of Rabbi Yehoshua bar Chananya who went to help Rabbi Yochanan ben Gudgedah.

However Rabbi Yochanan ben Gudgedah was of the opinion that if one Levi does the avodah of another Levi then he is חייב מיתה בידי שמים. This implies that in addition to the issur of השגת גבול, there is also an element of חילול העבודה if one Levi does avodah that is not his, and the חיוב מיתה is because of the חילול העבודה (i.e. the חיוב מיתה proves that it is a kodshimdiker issur) and it is not because of השגת גבול (which could not possibly be more than a לאו).

Therefore according to Rabbi Yochanan ben Gudgedah, it did not help that Rabbi Yehoshua bar Chananya was only trying to help him when he found himself unable to do his own avodah, because that is only a חשבון in the איסור בין אדם לחבירו of השגת גבול and does not ameliorate the איסור קדשים that may also be involved in a Levi doing an avodah to which he is not allocated.

In other words, although the gemara is discussing an איסור דאורייתא, even if one Levi merely assists another Levi in work which he is not assigned to, we can still understand why it could be possible for this to be permissible, if the איסור is only a לא תעשה, and the fundamental notion of the איסור is השגת גבול.