Parshas Emor The Blasphemer Including the Excluded

(10) The son of an Israelite woman and the son of an Egyptian man went out in the midst of the Children of Israel and the son of the Israelite woman and an Israelite man fought in the camp. (11) The son of the Israelite woman profaned 'The Name' (of Hashem)- he blasphemed, they brought him to Moshe, his mother’s name was Shlomis the daughter of Divri of the tribe of Dan.(12) They placed him in custody, to clarify for them according to the mouth of Hashem (13) Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying: (14) Take the blasphemer outside the camp; and let all who heard lay their hands upon his head, and let the whole community stone him.

(16) and one who also pronounces the name ה' shall be put to death. The community leadership shall stone that person; stranger or citizen—having thus pronounced the Name—shall be put to death.

(27) You shall not curse Gd/Judge, nor put a curse upon a chieftain among your people.

Moses spoke thus to the Israelites. And they took the blasphemer outside the camp and pelted him with stones. The Israelites did as Hashem had commanded Moshe.

It is possible that the reason the Torah does not disclose the name of this man is that it was he who caused the name of Hashem to be blasphemed by the son of the Jewish woman, Shlomit bat Divri. Hashem does not want to to condemn a person, especially not in a book such as the Torah which will be read for all future generations so that a dishonourable mention is especially painful to the party concerned.

בן איש מצרי THE SON OF AN EGYPTIAN MAN — It was the Egyptian whom Moses had killed (Leviticus Rabbah 32 4)

Some time after that, when Moshe had grown up, he went out to his kinsfolk and witnessed their labors. He saw an Egyptian man beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsmen.

Israel were redeemed from Egypt on account of four things; because they did not change their names, they did not change their language, they did not go tale-bearing, and none of them was found to have been immoral.

(2) ושם אמו שלמית בת דברי AND HIS MOTHER’S NAME WAS SHELOMITH, THE DAUGHTER OF DIBRI, [THE TRIBE OF DAN] — it is to tell how praiseworthy Israel was that Scripture publicly mentions her name (exposes her), telling us implicitly that of all the women of Israel she was the only one who behaved engaged in lewd behaviour (Leviticus Rabbah 32 5).

(3) שלמית (connected with שלום “peace”) — she was so called because she was always babbling: “peace be with you”, “peace be with you” — she used to continually babble with many words (she was a בת דברי) — she enquired after the health of everybody (Leviticus Rabbah 32 5). (4) בת דברי (from the root דבר “to speak”) — she was talkative talking with any man, and in consequence of this she got into trouble.

Once an Egyptian taskmaster went to an Israelite officer and he set his eyes on his wife who was beautiful without blemish. He called the man and brought him out of his house, then the Egyptian returned and had relations with his wife and she thought that he was her husband and she pregnant from him. Her husband returned and found the Egyptian leaving his house. He asked her, Did he touch you? She said yes, but I thought he was you. When the taskmaster saw that he suspected him he returned him to hard labor and struck him and sought to kill him..... he slept with the wife of Dasan...

ויצא בן אשה ישראלית AND THE SON OF THE ISRAELITISH WOMAN WENT OUT — Where did he go out from? Surely not from the camp, since Scripture states “and they strove in the camp”!

1) Rabbi Levi said,“He went out from (by his blasphemous utterance he lost) his eternal life

2) Rabbi Berechya says He went out after the passage above (about the Show Bread) He said sneeringly: “Every Sabbath he shall set it in order!? Surely it is the way of a king to eat fresh (lit., warm) bread every day; is it perhaps his way to eat bread nine days old (lit., cold bread of nine days)?!(Midrash Tanchuma 38 23).

3) A Baraitha states that ויצא means, he came out of the judicial court of Moses where he had been pronounced to be in the wrong in the following matter: although his father was an Egyptian he had gone to pitch his tent in the camp of the tribe of Dan to whom his mother belonged (cf. v. 11). They (the men of Dan) said to him, “What have you to do here" (lit., what is your character that gives you the right to come here?). He replied. “I am one of the children of the tribe of Dan”. Thereupon they said to him, “Scripture states: (Numbers 2:2) “Every man [of the children of Israel shall encamp] by his own standard, that bears the signs of their father’s house”! He thereupon went in to the judicial court of Moses to have the matter decided and came forth (יצא) declared to be in the wrong. He then stood up and blasphemed (Sifra, Emor, Section 14 1; Leviticus Rabbah 32 3).

THE ISRAELITE MAN — this was his opponent (Sifra, Emor, Section 14 1) who had prevented him from pitching his tent in the camp of Dan.

וינצו במחנה, “they quarreled inside the camp.” This son of an Egyptian father was belittled by a normal Israelite who told him that it had been Moshe who had killed his father. When this man asked the Israelite how Moses had killed his father, he was told that Moses had killed him by cursing him using the ineffable name of the Lord. Having heard this, this half Egyptian immediately retaliated by cursing this Israelite using the name of Hashem to do so.

(14) He retorted, “Who made you chief and ruler over us? Are you saying that you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Moses was frightened, and thought: Surely the matter is known!

הלהרגני אתה אמר lit. WILT THOU SPEAK IN ORDER TO SLAY ME — From this we may learn that he had killed him by the mere utterance of the “Shem Hamephorash” (Midrash Tanchuma, Shemot 10; Exodus Rabbah 1:30).

AND THE SON OF AN ISRAELITE WOMAN, WHOSE FATHER WAS AN EGYPTIAN, WENT OUT, etc. This means that he went out among the children of Israel, similar to the expression: and he went out into the midst of the city, meaning that he [Mordecai] went out from his house or from where he was abiding into the city. Similarly, this [son of an Israelite woman] went out from his tent or from his place, and came into the midst of the people, and they strove there. The meaning of the word bamachaneh [“in the camp” — and the son of the Israelite woman and a man of Israel strove together ‘in the camp’], is that the quarrel took place in the camp and many people heard it, and [when they heard the son of the Israelite woman blaspheming the Name], they took hold of him and they brought him unto Moses into [his] tent. And the reason why Scripture mentions this episode here, is as the words of the Sage who says: “He ‘came forth’ from the section above [i.e., he began his argument by speaking contemptuously of a law mentioned in the above section], for he sinned with his lips concerning the fire-offerings of the Eternal, and an Israelite man rebuked him, whereupon they strove and he became angered and then blasphemed “himself.”
The intention of the expression the son of an Israelite woman and a man of Israel, is to teach that if a non-Jew has sexual relations with a Jewish woman, the child is not deemed Jewish. And although we have rendered the final decision in the Gemara that if a non-Jew has sexual relations with a Jewish woman whether she is single or married, the child is a fully-qualified Jew, yet they have said, “the child is ‘rejected,’” meaning that it is disqualified for the priesthood; and certainly it is not considered a fully-qualified Israelite by name as far as genealogy is concerned, with respect to the standards [i.e., as to where he was to take his place under one of the four main standards that were set up], and inheriting of the Land, for it is written of them, according to the names of the tribes of their fathers. And that which the Rabbis have said in the Torath Kohanim: “Among the children of Israel, this teaches that he had become a proselyte,” does not mean that he needed conversion, for he was like all Israelites who entered into the covenant by circumcision, immersion, and the expiation by blood, at the time of the Giving of the Torah. But the intention of the Rabbis [in this text of the Torath Kohanim] was to state that he was reared by his mother and became attached to Israel, this being the meaning of the expression among the children of Israel, that he was with them and he did not want to go after his father to be an Egyptian. Similarly, that which the Rabbis have said in the Torath Kohanim: “Although there were no mamzerim at that time, he was like one,” this text follows the opinion of a single Sage [who says that if a non-Jew has sexual relations with a Jewish woman, the child is deemed a mamzer], but the final decision of the law is that the child is a fully-qualified Jew.
And the French Rabbis say that the reason why this son of the Israelite woman required conversion [according to the Torath Kohanim mentioned above], was because he lived before the Giving of the Torah, and his status was determined by that of the male parent, as is to be deduced from what the Rabbis have said: “Where [the parents of a child are of] non-Jewish nations, we go [as far as the status of the child is concerned] by that of the father.” And when this [son of the Israelite woman whose father was an Egyptian] was born, they did not circumcise him, for his status was that of an Egyptian, but when he grew up he voluntarily converted and was circumcised. But such is not my opinion, for since the time that Abraham entered into the covenant [with G-d], they [i.e., his descendants through Isaac and Jacob] were Israelites and were not to be reckoned among the nations, just as the Rabbis have said with respect to Esau: “Perhaps the case of an Israelite who is an apostate is different!” [Thus the Rabbis referred to Esau, who was long before the Giving of the Torah on Sinai, as an “Israelite.”] And is it not an argument from minor to major! “If after the Giving of the Torah when a Cuthean has sexual relations with a daughter of Abraham, and he is forbidden to her by a negative commandment and his betrothal to her is not valid, yet she is the source of purification of the nations, so that her child becomes fully-qualified and of her own standing — does it not follow all the more so that before the Torah was given, she purifies her child to be of her own standing, so that circumcision be incumbent upon him as upon the seed of Abraham, and that he be part of the community of the children of Israel!”

(3) בתוך בני ישראל AMONG THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL — This teaches us that he had become a proselyte (Sifra, Emor, Section 14 1).

(22) You shall have one standard for stranger and citizen alike: for I am Hashem your God.