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As a Levite I have found my purpose in verse and music. Not my own music mind you, I couldn't write a chord to save my life and wouldn't know a rhythm if it came up and bit me in the face.

But, through my life's journey, I have found that music and lyrics have a way to express one's emotions and it doesn't have to be your song to express them. So usually on this forum when someone has a question or is seeking a deeper explanation or just a bit of enlightenment, I post song lyrics that are usually hacked up a bit and adapted to the situation at hand. Usually I feel that's better than me pontificating about the current situation.

I actually wrote a little prose about that. I think it's crap but still it's all I have.

Music is a drug, music is a weapon, in can fuel the fire or silence pain. It can make a coward brave and can bring light to the darkness. But like all drugs, people can build tolerances to them, what works for some does not work for all, and the song that made you realize your purpose of existence may do nothing for you after a while. So keep listening and always wake up with a song to get you through the day, because one day you won't wake up.

Very important. Leivi (pronounced LAY-vee, not LEE-vye, thanks) was one of the 12 Tribes of Israel. He was the third of the twelve brothers born to Ya'akov (Jacob), born of his first wife Lei'ah (Leah). The L'viim (luh-VEE-eem), Levites, are Leivi's descendants. They were chosen for sacred duty because, while they did participate in the sin of the Golden Calf during the departure from Egypt, they were the first tribe to repent: to feel and express shame and sorrow at their wrondoing, and to accept the consequences of their actions, whatever Hashem decreed those consequences to be. True contrition was what set the Levites apart from the rest of us, and so Hashem made their punishment and reward the same: they would, for all generations, be responsible for helping all of Yisrael reconcile and return themselves to their duties as children of Israel and members of the covenant made at Sinai. They would guide others to feel and express true remorse over their own wrongdoings, and help them turn their ways back to the ways Hashem has ordained.

L'viim are the Temple workers, when we have a standing Holy Temple. The duties associated with all the Temple's functions fall to them. They collect tithe money and distribute it to the outcast, the widow, the orphan, and the poor. They maintain the Temple building in small and large ways -- cleaning, repairing, maintaining the fixtures and objects. L'viim also make up the Temple choir, singing prayers and songs to help focus the worshippers' minds upon the holiness of Hashem.

Levites known as Kohanim (singular = Kohein), descendants of the Levite known as Aharon (Aaron, the brother of Moshe/Moses), perform the rituals and sacrifices associated with Temple worship, and they bless the people.

In these times, when we have no standing Temple, Levites' chief duty is of giving the second blessing over the Torah reading in synagogues; a Leivi who is also a Kohein gives the first blessing.

Out of random curiosity, why were the borders so different?

Menashe and Efrayim (Manassah and Ephraim) were the two sons of Yoseif (Joseph), who were given a double-portion, so that effectively there are 13 tribes rather than 12 tribes of Israel.

L'viim were and are a separate tribe, however they were not given a land-inheritance. Rather, they were scattered among all the tribes so that they could educate them in their religious duties as Yisrael, and some/many were concentrated at the Holy Temple itself in order to do Temple service. As I understand/recall (though I could be wrong; someone correct me with appropriate citation, if so), there was a rotation by which each Levite spent some time at the Temple and some time living with his family out in the rest of the Land of Israel. That way everyone got a chance to do both duties.