The following is a brief summary of some of thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce these vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.
R' Frand's first vort related to the number of children the tribes had in the census taken in the parsha. Binyamin had a population of 35,400 men over the age of 20, whereas Dan had 62,700, making it the second largest tribe behind only Yehuda. R' Frand quoted R' Chatzkel Levenstein who observed the curiosity of the count of the number of men from Dan and Binyamin. Binyamin had 10 sons, but his tribe had so many fewer members than Dan who only had one son. This is indicative of the hand of Hashem and His involvement in the fruitfulness of the tribes.
R' Frand next said a related vort about the number of members of the tribe of Levi. Unlike the other tribes, Levi's count was of males over the age of one month. [Although not mentioned by R' Frand there is a Medrash quoted by Rashi in which Moshe is reluctant to count as he did not want to enter the tents to count the babies. Hashem said to him to not worry about and when he approached the tents, a Bas Kol got involved in the inquiry and response]. But even though they were counted from a younger age, the tribe of Levi had only 22,000 members, making it the smallest tribe.
R' Frand quoted the Ramban who said that he believes that this was Chizuk for the other tribes. When the Jews were in bondage in Egypt, all of the tribes were involved in hard labor, but not the tribe of Levi. One might have thought that since Levi was not involved in back breaking labor, they would have had more children. However, the number of children was in directly correlation to the pasuk in Shemos 1:12 - וְכַֽאֲשֶׁר֙ יְעַנּ֣וּ אֹת֔וֹ כֵּ֥ן יִרְבֶּ֖ה וְכֵ֣ן יִפְרֹ֑ץ.
The final vort had to do with the role of the Levi'im and their substitution for the Bechorim. We learn in the parsha that the Bechorim were "redeemed" in that their Kedusha was transferred to the Levi'im as a direct result of the Egel. However, there were 273 extra Bechorim who needed to be redeemed. In order to address this deficit, Hashem commanded Moshe to create a lottery system so that they would be redeemed for money instead of by the Levi'im. However, the Bechorim resisted this as they were willing to be redeemed by having their Kedushah transferred to a person, but not by money.
R' Frand quoted the sefer Leket Yehudah which explains that these people were concerned about their legacies. When the Bechorim saw their Kedusha being transferred to a person, they felt that at least their legacy would endure. But if it was transferred to money, it was not the same. Just like in today's era, a person can have a legacy through their children and grandchildren or through their good deeds and philanthropy. But these Bechorim felt like their legacies would end if it was a monetary redemption and this is why they were resistant.
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