Thoughts
on The Parsha
Parshas
Emor
Passive
Peace? I'm a Frayed Knot
By:
Daniel Listhaus
וַיֹּאמֶר
ה'
אֶל
משֶׁה אֱמֹר אֶל הַכֹּהֲנִים בְּנֵי
אַהֲרֹן וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם לְנֶפֶשׁ
לֹא יִטַּמָּא בְּעַמָּיו
“Hashem said to Moshe:
Say to the kohanim, the sons of Aharon, and you shall say to
them: to a dead person he should not become impure among his
people...”
-Emor 21:1
וַיֵּצֵא
בֶּן אִשָּׁה יִשְׂרְאֵלִית וְהוּא בֶּן
אִישׁ מִצְרִי בְּתוֹךְ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
וַיִּנָּצוּ בַּמַּחֲנֶה בֶּן
הַיִּשְׂרְאֵלִית וְאִישׁ הַיִּשְׂרְאֵלִי:
:
וַיִּקֹּב
בֶּן הָאִשָּׁה הַיִּשְׂרְאֵלִית אֶת
הַשֵּׁם וַיְקַלֵּל וַיָּבִיאוּ אֹתוֹ
אֶל משֶׁה וְשֵׁם אִמּוֹ שְׁלֹמִית בַּת
דִּבְרִי לְמַטֵּה דָן:
:
וַיַּנִּיחֻהוּ
בַּמִּשְׁמָר לִפְרשׁ לָהֶם עַל פִּי
ה':
:
וַיְדַבֵּר
ה'
אֶל
משֶׁה לֵּאמֹר:
:הוֹצֵא
אֶת הַמְקַלֵּל אֶל מִחוּץ לַמַּחֲנֶה
וְסָמְכוּ כָל הַשֹּׁמְעִים אֶת יְדֵיהֶם
עַל רֹאשׁוֹ וְרָגְמוּ אֹתוֹ כָּל הָעֵדָה:
וְאֶל
בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל תְּדַבֵּר לֵאמֹר
אִישׁ אִישׁ כִּי יְקַלֵּל אֱלֹקיו
וְנָשָׂא חֶטְאוֹ:
וְנֹקֵב
שֵׁם ה'
מוֹת
יוּמָת רָגוֹם יִרְגְּמוּ בוֹ כָּל
הָעֵדָה כַּגֵּר כָּאֶזְרָח בְּנָקְבוֹ
שֵׁם יוּמָת
“The
son of an Israelite woman went out – and he was the son of an
Egyptian man – among the Children of Israel and they contended in
the camp, the son of the Israelite woman and the Israelite man. The
son of the Israelite woman pronounced the Name and blasphemed – so
they brought him to Moshe; the name of his mother was Shelomis the
daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan. They placed him under guard
to clarify for them through Hashem. Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying:
Remove the blasphemer to the outside of the camp, and all those who
heard shall lean their hands upon his head: The entire assembly shall
stone him. And to the Children of Israel you shall speak, saying: Any
man who will blaspheme his G-d shall bear his sin; and one who
pronounces blasphemously the Name of Hashem shall be put to death,
the entire assembly shall surely pelt him with stones; proselyte and
native alike, when he blasphemes the Name, he shall be put to death.”
-Emor
24:10-16
The
Ibn
Ezra1
and the Chizkuni2
write that after commanding all of B'nei
Yisroel to
be kedoshim
(holy)
in last week's parsha,
the Torah now stresses the extra kedusha
that
the kohanim
have
and the restrictions necessary to protect this kedusha.
After all the kohanim
are
privileged with being the servants of Hashem's house. However, as the
Kli
Yakar3
points
out, this has nothing to do with the merits of the kohanim,
but
rather that of Aharon HaKohen
himself. Aharon was the chosen kohen
gadol to
Hashem. His descendents merited to inherit his kedusha
and
role, but it is Aharon HaKohen
who contains the mekor
hakedusha (source
of that holiness).
What
was so special about Aharon that he merited to be the source of such
kedusha
and
have the zechus
(merit)
to pass the role on to his children?
Truthfully,
Aharon was not first pick to be kohen.
Really, it was supposed to go to Moshe; however when Hashem
originally told Moshe that he was to be his chosen messenger to
communicate to Pharaoh, Moshe refused and said that it should be
given to Aharon since Aharon was currently acting as leader for B'nei
Yisroel and
was Moshe's older brother. The Torah4
tells us that Hashem was quite upset with Moshe's reluctance and in
turn, as Rashi5
explains, took the kehuna
away
from Moshe and gave it to Aharon.
At
first glance the story seems difficult to understand. Why should
Moshe's humility and respect for his older brother be a reason to
lose kehuna?
The answer must be that there is a time to be hesitant and worry
about everyone who will be effected and there are times where one is
expected to just grab the bull by the horns. The role of kehuna
requires
a perfect balance of being someone who more than represents peace but
is someone who runs after it, and at the same time being someone who
represents the ultimate truth of the Torah. During the conversation
between Hashem and Moshe, Hashem sensed some flaw in this delicate
balance and therefore took away kehuna
from
Moshe and gifted it to Aharon, who better represented the perfect
middah
(trait)
of knowing when to pursue shalom
(peace)
and the middah
of
being jealous for Hashem, so to speak, in standing up for the truth
of Torah. Indeed, Hillel taught in Pirkei
Avos6,
“Be among the disciples of Aharon: Love peace and pursue peace,
love people and bring them closer to Torah”. As a master of peace,
pursuer of peace, and one who knew when peace was appropriate, Aharon
was chosen to be the kohen
gadol and
source of the special kedusha
that
comes with it. Demonstrating kavod
(respect)
for others is of utmost importance. In fact, the Gemara7
tells
a story of a certain goy
who
came to Hillel wanting to convert on condition that Hillel could
teach him the whole Torah while he stands on one foot. Hillel
responded - “That which you find hateful do not do to your friend.”
Essentially, the axiom of V'ahavta
l'rayacha kamocha”
- treating a fellow person with kavod
is the foundation of the entire Torah.
The
general rule of always caring for others is, for the most part,
objectively true as is the concept of running away from personal
honor. In the same passuk8
of
Hashem being angry with Moshe for inappropriately thinking of the
feelings of Aharon at a time he should have just accepted the role
being given to him by Hashem, we find that the Torah praises Aharon
for coming to greet Moshe with happiness that Moshe was chosen as
leader for B'nei
Yisroel.
Running away from personal kavod
to
give honor to others is an incredible trait. As the Gemara9
states,
“One who runs after greatness, greatness runs away from him; but
one who runs away from greatness, greatness seeks after him.”
However, when Moshe rabbeinu
lost
his kehuna,
he learned that as is the case by all middos,
there are some exceptions to the general rule.
Later
in our parsha10
we find the story of the mekalel
(the
one who cursed Hashem's Name). This shameful story also has its roots
in improper respect. The mekalel
in
our parsha
is
someone's whose history we actually know quite a bit about. The Torah
refers to him as the son of an Israelite woman whose name Shelomis
bas Dibri. Rashi11
comments that the reason her name was Shelomis was because she would
walk around chattering saying “Shalom
alach”
(literally: peace unto you). Although it sounds like she was a very
nice lady, the Torah seems to hold her actions responsible for what
happened to her with a certain incident in Mitzrayim
years before.
The
Torah12
testifies that despite growing up in the royal palace of Pharaoh,
Moshe had his heart alongside his brothers slaving in the fields of
Mitzrayim.
One day, Moshe witnessed an Egyptian man striking one of the Jewish
taskmasters named Dasan. Rashi13
informs
us the reason the Mitzri
was
whipping Dasan was because in the middle of the night the Mitzri
woke
Dasan and told him he had to leave his house at once to continue the
task at hand. When Dasan left, the Mitzri
went
to his house, pretending to be Dasan himself, and tricked Dasan's
wife, Shelomis
bas Dibri, and had relations with her. Dasan returned home home later
on and realized the Mitzri's
disgusting
scheme. When the Egyptian sensed that Dasan had found out, he began
hitting him and threatening him and taunting him throughout the next
day. Moshe rabbeinu
saw
this and could not sit back while one of his brothers was being
beaten up. So, the passuk
(verse)14
describes that Moshe killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand.
Why
was it that the Mitzri
chose Shelomis bas Dibri? It was precisely because her saying shalom
to
everyone was improper. Whether it was improper because she was being
excessively talkative to other men or whether it was improper because
she had selfish hopes or intentions by doing so, the kavod
she
gave to others in this particular way was wrong and because of it, as
Rashi15
explains,
the Torah considered her a zonah.
Although on quite a different level and in a very different way,
Shelomis, like Moshe rabbeinu,
misused kavod
and
gave it at an improper time.
As
mentioned, the mekalel
in
our parsha
was
the mamzer
child
of Shelomis bas Diri and the Mitzri.
The Torah16
does not give much detail other than that there was some type of
fight in the camp of B'nei
Yisorel which
resulted in the mamzer
cursing
Hashem's Name. However, Rashi17
cites a medrash18
which fills in all the blanks.
This
child of Shelomis bas Dibri decided that since his mother was from
shevet
Dan,
he had the right to pitch his tent with shevet
Dan.
He did so and soon afterward the members of shevet
Dan approached
him and told him that the rights to land goes based on the father's
shevet.
Since his father was a Mitzri,
he had no right to occupy shevet
Dan property
despite the fact that his mother was from that particular shevet.
This
started a whole argument and resulted in being brought to the beis
din (court)
of Moshe where the mamzer
son
of Shelomis bas Dibri lost the case. The Da'as
Zekainim19
writes
that at some point while arguing, the members of shevet
Dan taunted
the son of Shelomis bas Dibri saying that Moshe had killed his
father. He asked how he killed him and they responded that it was
with Hashem's Holy Name. He then got up and cursed that Name of
Hashem.
The
Torah20
continues its narrative of this horrible episode illustrating that
Moshe was unsure what to do with the mekalel.
So,
he imprisoned him and waited until Hashem clarified that his
punishment was to be the death penalty via stoning.
The
Rosh21
asks that on the surface, it is difficult to understand what Moshe
was doubtful about. After all, even though it may be true that the
punishment for someone who curses Hashem's Name was never explicitly
stated, still Moshe should have known that the mekalel
be
chayav
meesah (deserving
of the death penalty) from a simple kal
v'chomeir:
We know that one who curses his parents gets put to death22,
so certainly how much more so should one who curses Hashem be put to
death! If so what was Moshe so unsure about?
The
Rosh
answers
that certainly Moshe rabbeinu
knew
that the mekalel
would
be chayav
meesah.
What dumbfounded him was which death penalty to give him. After all,
if the worst form of death, s'kilah
(stoning),23
was for one who curses his parents, what death penalty could there
possibly be that would somehow be worse than s'kilah
in
order to be a befitting punishment for a perpetrator of such a crime
and a possible kaparah
(atonement)
for such a person? This is what stumped Moshe rabbeinu.
Hashem's
response, however, was not that he deserves some extremely cruel and
excruciatingly painful death, but rather that one who is mekalel
shem
Hashem
deserves the meesah
of
s'kilah
just
like one who curses his own parents. The Rosh
points
out that we see from here the incredible humility Hashem has and how
incredibly serious He takes the kavod
of
people. When we hear of someone else's undeserved degradation, it may
upset it but nothing in comparison to how we would react if it were
being said about us personally. We do not feel the pain of others and
certainly not to the same extent as we would for ourselves. However,
Hashem is not as haughty as us humans. Hashem, Who is the Creator and
Director of the entire world takes the kavod
of
people so serious that the punishment for one who curses Hashem
Himself need be no worse than the one given to one who curses his
parents.
We
find this idea in so many divrei
chazal and
practice so many minhagim
(customs)
and
halachos
(laws)
which allude to going the extra mile to properly protect the kavod
of
others. One such example could be seen in Birkas
Kohanim.
The Shulchan
Aruch24
states
that when the kohanim
go
up to duchan
(recite
Birkas
Kohanim),
they should not go up with their shoes on. The Mishna
Berurah25
explains, based on the Gemara26,
that the reason is as follows. If we would allow the kohanim
to
go up and duchan
with
their shoes on, it may occur that one of their shoelaces becomes
untied and out of embarrassment of having an untied shoelace, the
kohen
may
bend down to tie his shoe while the other kohanim
are
reciting the beracha
(blessing).
An
onlooker may then come to say that this kohen
is
bending down and faking to tie his shoelace because really he is a
ben-gerusha
or
ben-chalutza
(a kohen
who
is the son of a kohen
who
married a divorced woman or a woman who had performed chalitza),
and therefore not permitted to recite Birkas
Kohanim.
Take
a moment to think about how far the Torah goes to protect the kavod
of
an individual. For thousands of years kohanim
have
had to take their shoes off before duchan-ing,
all in order to protect against the hypothetical possibility of an
embarrassing loose shoelace which could ultimately lead to a kohen's
debasement.
This is the level of kavod
and
concern the Torah has for us and this is the level of kavod
and
concern that we are expected to demonstrate towards each other.
In
this week's parsha
we
find the mitzva
of
Sefiras
Ha'omer27
which
is the time period we are currently in between Pesach and Shavuos.
The Gemara28
tells
us that it was during this time period that the 12,000 pairs of
talmidim
(students)
of
Rabbi Akiva died because they did not act with kavod
with
each other. Now, we must consider the fact that Rabbi Akiva's
talmidim
were
not immature school children. Rather, they were outstanding
individuals who certainly were not physically or verbally abusing
each other nor were they treating each other improperly. Yet, there
was still something lacking. They did did not actively give kavod
to
each other. They all learned in the same yeshiva
and
all attended the same minyanim
and
shiurim,
yet their closeness was one of body, not of spirit. Perhaps when they
passed each other they did not say hello, or perhaps they just did
not go out of their ways to ask how others were doing. Either way,
something was lacking in their kavod
to
each other and therefore they could not be the ones selected to
continue the mesorah
(tradition)
to
the next generation. Imagine how different our nation would look
today if those 24,000 talmidim
would
have lived to be the next generation's rabbeim!
The Orchos
Tzadikkim29
writes
that a person learning Torah could be compared to filling up a barrel
with wine. However, no matter how high the quality of this wine, if
there is a whole in th ebarrel, it will all leak out. So too if
people have a hole in their barrel of proper middos,
the quality of the learning itself is misleading because it will all
leak out. These talmidim
had
the best wine available, but they were missing not only an essential
part of the Torah, but its single prerequisite: Derech
Eretz for
each other – the barrel necessary to contain their Torah.
In
the late 1700's, a person known as Blaj, invented the first aglet. An
aglet is the small plastic peace at the end of shoelaces to keep the
fibers from separating and fraying. The physical closeness of the
individual fibers that the shoelace is comprised of is not enough to
stop them from separating. Rather, additional reinforcement is
necessary to keep them as one. So too when we think about our levels
of shalom
and
kavod
with
and for others we must keep in mind that we have to be rodeif
shalom (run
to peace) and bore'ach
mei'gedulah
(run away from our own greatness [and instead honor others]). That is
our aglet to reinforce the physical closeness and make it a real one
of spirit as well.
This
is precisely our avodah
to
work on during the y'mei
sefirah
(days
of sefirah).
We are tasked to work on kavod
habriyos
in order to properly prepare ourselves to be complete keilim
(vessels)
to be able to contain the Torah we receive on Shavuos. This is why
there is a minhag
to go through Pirkei
Avos
during these weeks. We focus on the fact that middos and derech
eretz
to others is just as much part of Torah as any other halacha,
and even more so – they are prerequisites.
May
Hashem help us during these weeks of sefira to
work on v'ahavta l'rayacha ka'mo'cha and
giving
proper kavod to
others by running away from our own honor and instead pursuing peace.
After all, ask any
talking shoelace if it could imagine what
it would be like in the long run without the reinforcement of an
aglet
holding the strands together constantly, and it will most
definitely respond: I'm a frayed knot.
1Vayikra
21:1
2Ibid.
3Ibid.
(in his first approach)
4Shemos
4:14
5Rashi
ibid.
6Pirkei
Avos 1:12
7Gemara
Shabbos 31a
8Shemos
4:14
9Gemara
Eiruvin 13b
10Vayikra
24:10
11Rashi
Vayikra 24:11
12Shemos
2:11
13Rashi
ibid.
14Shemos
2:12
15Rashi
Vayikra 24:11
16Vayikra
24:10
17Rashi
ibid.
18Vayikra
Rabbah 32:3
19Vayikra
24:10
20Vayikra
24:12
21Ibid.
22See
Vayikra 20:9
23See
mishna Sanhedrin 49b. This
is the opinion of the Rabbanan
24Orach
Chaim 128:5
25Ibid.
128:5:15
26See
Gemara Rosh Hashanah 31b and
Gemara Sotah 40a
27Vayikra
23:15
28Yevamos
62b
29See
Introduction to Orchos Tzadikkim.
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