Why Was the Tribe of Levi So Small? The Mystery Behind God’s Chosen Tribe

In the census of the tribes of Israel, a striking detail stands out:
the Tribe of Levi was dramatically smaller than all the other tribes.

This raises an obvious question which the Ramban (Nachmanides) asks: How is it possible that the very tribe chosen by God for sacred service did not receive the blessing of fruitfulness and increase, while the rest of Israel multiplied so greatly?

Blessing Through Suffering

The Ramban explains that the Levites were never enslaved in Egypt. The special blessing of extraordinary fertility — “And the children of Israel were fruitful, increased abundantly, multiplied, and became exceedingly mighty”, was granted precisely to those who were enslaved and oppressed, as a divine counterbalance to Pharaoh’s attempt to destroy them.

Since the Levites were not subjected to Egyptian bondage,
they experienced only natural, ordinary population growth, and not the miraculous multiplication given to their suffering brethren.

The Shadow of Jacob’s Curse

The Ramban adds another layer. Before his death, Yaakov rebuked Shimon and Levi for their violent attack on Shechem, calling their anger “fierce and cruel.” “Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce.” (Bereishit 49:7)

This, says the Ramban, may have led to a spiritual consequence:
the removal of the blessing of great increase from Levi’s descendants.

The Tribe of Shimon, though initially large, later diminished severely — especially after the devastating plague following the sin of Baal Peor. Levi, likewise, remained small throughout the generations.

The Price of Spiritual Devotion

The Ha‘amek Davar (by Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, the Netziv of Volozhin) offers a different insight.

The Levites, he explains, were deeply devoted to Torah study and lived a life of separation and holiness. But spiritual greatness comes with scrutiny: “God is exacting with the righteous to the thickness of a hair.”

Because they lived on a higher spiritual plane, even the smallest failing could withhold divine blessing. Thus, their holiness itself limited their numbers.

The Pain of Compassion

The Ohr HaChaim takes a more emotional view. The Levites, being more spiritually sensitive and introspective, were deeply affected by the suffering of their brethren.

When Pharaoh decreed that all male infants be cast into the Nile,
many Levite men, in anguish and despair, separated from their wives, just as the Midrash says of Amram, the father of Moshe, who divorced his wife Yocheved in protest.

This separation, born from grief and idealism, naturally led to fewer children among them.

The Ark That Killed the Careless

Another tradition among the Sages says that the Ark of the Covenant itself sometimes brought death to the Levites — for if they carried it without full reverence or purity, it could be fatal.

The Netziv adds a final poetic note: “The finest trees bear fewer fruits and demand greater care.”

So too, the Levites — the spiritual elite of Israel, were fewer in number but greater in quality, producing fewer “fruits” in the physical sense, yet sustaining the nation’s spiritual life for generations.