Q. It is forbidden for a Baal Keri to be in the area designated as Machaneh L’viah. How then did the Leviim engage in marital relations in the Desert?

A. Meshech Chochmo (P. Bamidvar 1:50) addresses this question and answers that the Levite encampment was divided into two discrete areas. One was close to the Mishkan, where indeed no Baal Keri or marital relations were permitted. Whereas their private family tents, were outside of the Machane Leviim, close to the Israelite camp,. He thus explains the need for a full Mil (approximately one kilometer) of distance between both machanos.

Nachalas Binyomin (Bamidvar 5: 2) further elucidates that the encampment area close to the Mishkan contained the sentries’ positions where the Leviim guarded and protected the Mishkon.

See also Chidushei Hagri’z as the two distinct obligations of the Leviim.

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit”a