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Tribal symbol of Levi.

Levi (לֵוִי; Standard Levy; Tiberian Lēwî; "attached", "joining" was, according to the Book of Genesis, the third son of Jacob and Leah, and the founder of the Israelite tribe of Levi (the Levites).

Biblical account

In the Torah:

• Jacob had twelve sons and one daughter: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, daughter Dinah, Joseph, and Benjamin.
• Levi was the third child of Jacob and Leah, born in Paddan Aram after Jacob had been working for his uncle and father-in-law Laban for more than seven years of a 20-year employment.
• The name "Levi" ("attached", "joining") refers to Leah's hope for Jacob "at last [to] become attached to" her.
• Levi's name is derived from לוה, lavah, "to unite, to remain", and related to לויה, livyah, "something attached"^[1].
• Levi traveled with his family when Jacob left Paddan Aram suddenly, and was blessed by his grandfather Laban, who departed in peace.
• Levi's family then traveled through Mahanaim, Peniel, Succoth, and Shechem.
• Speaking for Jacob, Levi and his older brother Simeon misled the people of Shechem, promising to become one people with them if they would become circumcised, and consenting, on that condition, to Shechem marrying their sister Dinah after he had raped her; Levi and Simeon killed all the male Shechemites on the third day after the circumcision surgeries, when the painful and crippling effect was the greatest on the townsmen.^[2]
• Levi was castigated by Jacob, but replied without answer, "Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?" (Genesis 34:30-31).
• At this time Levi and Simeon also rescued their sister Dinah, who had been kidnapped by Shechem; their brothers plundered the city and seized its wealth (Genesis 34).
• Levi's family then traveled through Bethel, Ephrath (now Bethlehem), Migdal Eder, and Mamre, where he met his other grandfather, Isaac.
• Because Joseph was the favorite of his father, the ten older brothers sold Joseph into slavery and convinced their father he had been killed by a wild beast.
• Joseph became viceroy of Egypt at age 30; after 7 years a famine struck, and Jacob sent his ten oldest sons to Egypt for food during the first year of famine, where they met but did not recognize Joseph.
• Levi returned to Jacob with his brothers, who were sent back to Egypt during the second year of famine; Joseph revealed himself and asked them to bring Jacob's entire family to settle in Egypt.
• After Levi returned to Jacob the second time, all Jacob's family, including 66 direct descendants, moved to Goshen in Egypt; Levi brings his three sons, Gershon, Kohath, and Merari (Genesis 46:11).
• Seventeen years later, Jacob blessed his twelve sons individually from his deathbed; Levi's portion was to be scattered and dispersed, and his anger and fury were cursed, in punishment for his killing men and hamstringing oxen in anger (Genesis 49:5-7).
• When Reuben lost the firstborn right ( kingship, priesthood, and the double-portion ), Levi received the priesthood instead.
• In a state funeral arranged by Joseph, the sons carried Jacob's body back to Canaan to be buried at Machpelah; Joseph's brothers submitted to him, and he pledged to provide for them.
• Levi's grandson Amram married Jochebed, Amram's father's sister (Masoretic) or one of his father's sisters (Septuagint), implying that Jochebed was Levi's daughter or one of them, or that she was otherwise closely related to Levi^[3].
• Levi's family grew rapidly into one of the twelve tribes of Israel (Jacob); Levi died at the age of 137.
• The tribe of Levi was the only tribe in Egypt to be free of slavery since when the Egyptians asked the Hebrews to work for them ( before the labor was forced on them) the Levites said that they were to busy judging the rest of the tribes, and as a result, were ignored by the Egyptians.
• In the later kingdom of Israel, Levi's tribe, the Levites, were set aside for tabernacle and temple service, an office they fulfilled for millennia.
• In the Blessing of Moses, Levi and his tribe are referred to as being particularly pious, with some events of the life of Moses (a Levite) given as examples (Deuteronomy 33:8-11).
• God told the later prophet Malachi that he had made a covenant to give life and peace to Levi, and that Levi revered Yahweh, was in awe of the Tetragrammaton, instructed truly, upheld peace and morality, and turned many people from sin (Malachi 2:4-6).

Children

• Gershon
• Kohath
• Merari
• Jochebed

Other accounts

James Kugel posits two sources of the apocryphal Aramaic Levi Document, based on Malachi 2:4-7; Levi is a sage, inducted into the priesthood by angels.^[4]

In the apocryphal Book of Jubilees, Isaac told Levi of the future of his descendants, again predicting priesthood, prophets, and political power,^[5] and Jacob entrusted Levi with "the secrets of the ancients", so that they would be known only to the Levites.^[6] The same Milkah appeared.^[7] Jubilees is also regarded as a Maccabean document by scholars.^[8]

In the Aramaic Levi Document, which Kugel dates to the Hasmoneans 133-100 BCE, Levi's descendents will be kings.^[9]

In the apocryphal Testament of Levi, Levi's wife and the mother of his children was Melcha or Milkah, a daughter of Aram.^[10] In the Testament, Levi had two visions: one of eschatological issues, the seven heavens, the Jewish Messiah, and Judgment Day; and one of seven angels bringing him seven insignia of priesthood, prophecy, and judgement. In the latter vision, angels anoint Levi, initiate him as a priest, and tell him of the future of his descendants, mentioning Moses, the Aaronic priesthood, and a future time of priest-kings. Scholars date the Testament toward the end of the period of Maccabean priest-kings (153 to 107 BC). The apocryphal Prayer of Asenath, which scholars believe dates from within the first to fifth centuries AD,^[11] describes Levi as a prophet and saint, able to forecast the future and to understand "heavenly writings", and someone who admonishes the people to forgive, and to be in awe of God.^[12]

Hagaddah takes the Blessing of Moses as characterizing Levi and Levites as being by far the greatest of their brothers in respect to piety.^[13]

In classical rabbinical literature, the names of Gershon, Kohath, Merari, and Jochebed are interpreted as being reflections on their future destiny.^[14]

Form critics

Scholars attribute Levi's genealogy to the "book of generations"^[15]. Scholars attribute Moses's birth narrative, which also mentions Amram and Jochebed, to the earlier "Elohist source". According to these scholars, the genealogy is an aetiological myth reflecting there being four different groups among the Levites, the Gershonites, Kohathites, Merarites, and Aaronids,^[16] and Aaron, the eponymous ancestor of the Aaronids, could not consistently be portrayed as a brother to Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. The "Elohist source" mentions only that both parents were Levites (without identifying their names; Exodus 2:1-2). The "Elohist source" accounts to Moses both matrilineal and patrilineal descent from Levites in order to magnify his religious credentials^[16].

The Blessing of Jacob dates to a period between one and two centuries prior to the Babylonian captivity^[13][15]. Jacob's "curse" and Dinah as an aetiological postdiction to explain the fates of the tribe of Simeon and the Levites; they propose as a simpler explanation of the Levites' scattered nature, that the priesthood was originally open to any tribe, but gradually became seen as a distinct tribe itself (the Levites).^[13][16]

Scholars attribute the Blessing of Moses to the period just before the "Deuteronomist source".^[15]

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

See also

• Levite
• Testament of Levi
• Levi (disambiguation)
• Miscegenation
• List of minor Biblical figures: Levi

Citations

External links

• “The Tribe: The Cohen-Levi Family Heritiage” (cohen-levi.org)

• Jacob, Father

From Wikitravel

Levi [1] is one of the largest winter sport resorts in Finland. It is in the Kittilä municipality in Finnish Lapland. Levi is very popular place among young people, especially those living in rural areas in Lapland, and has significant nightlife.

Get in

By plane

Kittilä airport (IATA: KTT, ICAO: ETKT) [2] is some ten kilometers south from Levi. Airport has direct connections to Helsinki by Finnair and (during season) Blue1. Busses coming from south travel via airport to Levi. You may also use taxi.

By train

Overnight trains operate from Helsinki and Turku to Rovaniemi and Kolari (getting from Turku to Kolari require change in Tampere). From these you have to take bus. Trip takes 2:30 hours from Rovaniemi and 1:15 hours from Kolari.

By bus

Busses operate from Helsinki to Levi requiring change in Rovaniemi. Trip takes over 16 hours!

Get around

Levi has internal bus traffic. In the Levi center you may easily walk or ski around. For longer trips to the forests, hire a snowmobile. Although a driving licence is not required it's illegal to drive snowmobile if you're under 15 years old or drunk.

See

There is not too much to see. Almost everything is concentrated around tourism and virtually all visitors come here for wintersports. At the summertime hiking in nature is popular and at the autumn incredible colors of ruska will offer unforgettable experience.

From the top of Levi fell there are great views to surrounding forests and nearby fells (Aakenustunturit, Pallastunturit, Ylläs). Town Kittilä is about 10 kilometers south. On the northern side of Levi center there is Sirkka village inhabited by local people.

At the summertime nights are lit by midnight sun while during winter auroras are visible almost every cloudless night.

Do

Winter sports. There are 230 kilometers of skiing tracks and 886 kilometers of snowmobile routes. For downhill skiing Levi has 45 pistes longest piste being 2500 meters long and maximum vertical drop is over 300 meters. Piste information is available at Levi.fi [3].

Hotel Levitunturi [4] has a spa.

Eat

Local restaurants offer good variety of local delicacies. Especially worth of trying are reindeer (poro) in all its forms, willow grouse (riekko) and several fishes such as salmon (lohi) arctic char (nieriä) and common whitefish (siika). These are usually fried or smoked and eaten with mashed potatoes.

In addition to local specialities also hamburgers, pizzas and kebabs are available.

Sleep

Being one of the largest resorts in Finland one could think there will be no problem to get bed in Levi. However, during the holiday season it may appear surprisingly difficult to find one! Most popular times are around christmas and New Year, Easter and Finnish winter holiday held during three weeks period in March. Right after the New Year, when local people get back to work, skiing resorts get crowded with Russian tourists. There are (incredible) 20,000 beds available making Levi actually one of the largest human concentrations in Lapland. Accommodation alternatives vary from camping to luxurious cottages and spa hotel. List of accommodation resources is available at levi.fi [5].

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

Wikipedia has an article on:

Levi

Wikipedia

English

Etymology

From Hebrew לֵוִי, a name in the book of Genesis.

Proper noun

Levi

1. (Biblical) Third son of Jacob, by his wife Leah.
2. (Biblical) One of the Israelite tribes, descended from Levi; the tribe from which priests were selected.
3. A male given name.
4. A Jewish surname.

Quotations

• 1611 — King James Version of the Bible, Genesis 35:22b-26

  Now the sons of Jacob were twelve: ²³ The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun: ²⁴ The sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin: ²⁵ And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali: ²⁶ And the sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid; Gad, and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padan-aram.

• 1611 — King James Version of the Bible, Joshua 13:33

  But unto the tribe of Levi Moses gave not any inheritance: the Lord God of Israel was their inheritance, as he said unto them.

Derived terms

• Levite
• Levitical
• Leviticus

Translations

See also

• Levi (Bible) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia:Levi (Bible)

Anagrams

• Anagrams of eilv
• evil
• live
• veil
• vile
• vlei

From Wikispecies

(b. 1921)

Arachnologist

External links

• List of books about spiders he has written

From BibleWiki

Meaning: adhesion.

1. Levi (son of Jacob)
2. The father of Matthat, and son of Simeon, of the ancestors of Jesus (Lk 3:29).
3. Lk 3:24.
4. One of the apostles, the son of Alphaeus (Mk 2:14; Lk 5:27ff), called also Matthew (Mt 9:9).

what mentions this? (please help by turning references to this page into wiki links)

From Familypedia

Siblings

• Reuben
• Simeon
• Judah
• Zebulun
• Dinah
• Issachar
• Dan half brother
• Naphtali half brother
• Gad half brother
• Asher half brother
• Joseph with Rachel
• Benjamin with Rachel

References

• Book of Genesis