In Bamidbar 1:49, Rashi explains why the Leviim weren't counted with the rest of the people: so that they wouldn't be in the same category as the rest of the Jewish people who Hashem knew would eventually sin in the chet of the Meraglim.

An obvious question: wouldn't the Leviim also sin in the Chet of the Meraglim? Rather, says the Mizrachi, the rest of the people had sinned in both the Egel and the Meraglim, whereas the Leviim only sinned in the area of the Meraglim; it was both of the aveiros that caused the deaths in the midbar, not only one. Since the Leviim only did one of the sins, not two, they weren't part of the gezeira.

Now I have a question on the above: don't we say that it was only 3,000 people that sinned in the Egel out of the 3 million or so people there? If so, weren't other people equally blameless?

I believe there could be two answers; for the purposes of this dvar Torah, I'll focus on the second. The first is that there were other aveiros ("vayakumu letzachek"), so maybe the leviim were the only ones not to participate in the subsidiary aveiros. The second answer:

The Leviim got up after the fall. They were the ones that were able to get back up, answer to "Mi LaHashem Eilai" and start anew. The Leviim were the only ones that got right back up after the fall in klal yisroel.


If we can get up, even after our falls, and keep on trucking, we, like the Leviim, can be saved from "death in the midbar"--i.e. we will eventually succeed in our struggle.