THE LORD SAID TO MOSHE: SPEAK TO THE PRIESTS,

THE SONS OF AHARON, AND SAY TO THEM:

NONE SHALL DEFILE HIMSELF FOR ANY DEAD PERSON AMONG HIS KIN...

THE LORD SPOKE TO MOSHE, SAYING:

INSTRUCT AHARON AND HIS SONS...

IF A MAN TOUCHES ANY SWARMING THING

BY WHICH HE IS MADE UNCLEAN

OR ANY HUMAN BEING BY WHOM HE IS MADE UNCLEAN -

WHATEVER HIS UNCLEANLINESS - THE PERSON WHO TOUCHES SUCH

SHALL BE UNCLEAN UNTIL EVENING

AND SHALL NOT EAT OF THE SACRED DONATIONS

UNLESS HE HAS WASHED HIS BODY IN WATER.

AS SOON AS THE SUN SETS HE SHALL BE CLEAN;

AND AFTERWARDS HE MAY EAT OF THE SACRED DONATIONS,

FOR THEY ARE HIS FOOD.

(Vayikra 21-22)

 

Our Is A Torah Of Life

Antique and modern heathenism like so very much to associate religion and religious matters with death and thought of death. For them is where Man ends that the Kingdom of God begins. For them death and dying are the real manifestations of their godhead, who to them is a god of death and not of life. A god who kills and does not animate, and sends death ands forerunners, illness and wretchedness, so that men should fear him, realize his power and their impotence. The places which they dedicate to temples are therefore round about graves, the foremost place of their priest is there at the dead...

Not so is the Jewish priest because not so is the Jewish teaching of God, the Jewish religion. The God, Whose Name assigns the Jewish priest to his office is a God of life. His most sublime manifestation is the elevating power of Life, freeing, animating, raising Man to free will and to eternal life, not the crushing power of death. Not how one is to die, but how one is to live, how, living, one has victoriously to conquer death, death in life, how he will overcome thralldom, enslaved by one's physical urges, moral weakness...

When Death summons the people to come to busy themselves in acts of love with the empty body of nefesh, a soul which God has called home, the Kohanim have to remain away, and by standing away to keep aloft the Standard of Life next to the corpse, and by the thoughts of what life really is prevent the thoughts of death overpowering the truths that the real Man himself is morally free and not subject to forces which kill his power over his own moral free will... they shall strengthen in their hearts the idea of Life, lest they be conquered by the idea of Death.

(From Rabbi S. R. Hirsch's commentary on Vayikra 21:5. Translated from the original by Yitzchak Halevi)

 

 

ON HASTE, DELIBERATION, AND HUMILITY

Avigdor Shinan

 

Among the subjects comprising Parashat Emor we find the short story about the blasphemer (Vayikra 24: 10-23).

The story has a clear four-part structure: [A] Description of the event: "There came out among the Israelites one whose mother was Israelite and whose father was Egyptian. And a fight broke out in the camp between the son of the Israelite woman and a certain Israelite. The son of the Israelite woman pronounced the Name in blasphemy, and he was brought to Moshe..." [B] The offender's incarceration until issuance of the divine sentence: "... and he was placed in custody, until the decision of the Lord should be made clear to them." [C] The sentence: "And the Lord spoke to Moshe, saying: Take the blasphemer outside the camp... and let the whole community stone him." [D] Execution of the sentence: "... and they took the blasphemer outside the camp and pelted him with stones. The Israelites did as the Lord had commanded Moshe."

A similar structure is be found in three other Biblical narratives: The Pesach Sheini (Jews unable to bring the Pesach offering at the appointed time because of distance or ritual impurity were obligated to bring it a month later, on Pesach Sheini - the Second Pesach.) story (Bemidbar 15:6-14), the story of the wood-gatherer (Ibid. 15:32-36), and the story the daughters of Zelophehad (Bemidbar 27:1-11; ibid. 36:1-22). In all these cases, Moshe was unable to resolve the problem which arose, and waited for resolution from above: "And Moshe said to them: Stand, and I shall hear what the Lord commands you", "and he was placed in custody until the decision of the Lord shall be made clear to you", "And Moshe brought their case before the Lord" After the appropriate instruction was received from the Lord, it was carried out and then instituted as law for all generations.

Chazal, detecting the similarity between the four stories, exploited it in order to teach new ideas. Thus, for example, it was established that the anonymous wood-gatherer was none other than Zelophehad (Bavli, Shabbat 91b), and that the difference between the punishment meted out to the blasphemer ("Let the community pelt him with stone") and that given the wood-gatherer ("And they pelted him with stones") comes to teach us the two-stage process of stoning: "The stoning house was the height of two [men], one of the witnesses pushes him] at his hips... if this [fall] kills him, the obligation has been fulfilled, and if not, the second witness takes the stone a places it upon his heart. If he dies, the obligation has been fulfilled, and if not, he is stoned by all Israel... thus fulfilling "pelted him with stones" and "pelt him with stone" (Sifri, Bemidbar 114). The Midrash further determines that the story of the blasphemer and the story of the wood gatherer occurred concurrently: "And they brought him [the blasphemer] to Moshe' - but they did not bring the wood-gatherer with him... "and they placed him custody' - they did not place the wood-gatherer with him, and both occurred at the same time" (Sifra, Emor 14). Another tradition has both the blasphemer and the wood-gatherer confessing their sins - "they lost this world" but "they inherited the life of the world to come" (Avot d'Rabbi Natan, Version B, 45). The basis for this tradition lies in the assertion that the wood-gatherer, Zelophehad, did what he did in order to publicize the laws of the Shabbat; his intention was pure, but his action was improper. Therefore he was punished only in this world. The similarity of this story to that of the blasphemer led - surprisingly enough - to the transfer of the basis of the former story to that of the latter. And, finally, the Talmud Bavli (Kritut 7b), connects the Pesach Sheni narrative to that of the blasphemer in order to teach us that, as a rule, blasphemers are to be punished by the divinely-meted punishment of karet - as are violators of the Pesach Sheni commandment - and not by stoning - as was the blasphemer of our parasha. Only karet. Many additional examples of linkages which various sources create between stories - primarily by transferring motifs from story to story - have been found.

At least once, Chazalic literature deals with these four separate stories as a single, independent, group. The following segment appears a number of times in Aramaic translations of the Torah titled "EretzYisraeliim" [of Eretz Yisrael], a unit with no parallel:

"This is one of the four judgments which came before Moshe, and he decreed according to divine direction. In two of them, Moshe was quick; in two he was cautious. In all the cases he said, "I have no prior knowledge". In the case of the unclean who could not perform the Pesach sacrifice and in the case of the daughters of Zelophehad, Moshe was quick, because these were civil cases, with monetary ramifications. In the matter of the wood-gatherer who had willfully desecrated the Shabbat and in the matter of the blasphemer who had harshly cursed the Holy Name, Moshe was cautious, because theirs were capital cases. This was in order to teach all future judges to be quick in monetary cases, but deliberate in capital cases, lest in their haste they kill someone undeserving of death - perhaps some unexpected mitigating evidence will be discovered. And so they not be ashamed to say, "We have not heard" - for Moshe, their teacher, said, "I have not heard", and placed him [the blasphemer] in custody until he was divinely informed which method of punishment was to be employed."

This tradition is found in similar versions in connection to the three other stories in various Aramaic translations, in the so-called "Jerusalem Translation", in the translation attributed to Yonathan, and others.

The four stories examined here together, are divided into two separate groups - civil laws and capital laws. True, the classification of Pesach Sheni as a purely monetary issue is somewhat far-fetched, but we can still claim that there is a monetary dimension involved; after all, it necessary to prepare another sacrifice which incurs additional expenses. Thus the division of the four stories into two symmetrical groups is preserved.

The tradition is formulated in many other traditions in the Aramaic translations of the Torah employing "the numerical opening model". The discussion is opened by a numerical determination, which is then detailed. The purpose of the convention, in this instance, is to provide two morals: (A) Pronouncement of judgment in monetary cases should not be delayed. On the other hand, verdicts in capital cases should not be issued in haste. A mistaken monetary verdict can be corrected, but an executed person cannot be resurrected. Therefore, a verdict should not be arrived at without thorough investigation of the facts and extensive deliberation. (B) There is no shame in admission of lack of knowledge. Even Moshe, teacher of all Israel, was not ashamed to admit lack of knowledge. If this be the case with the father of all prophets - so much more so for anyone else!

The translation tradition, which cannot be accurately dated, extracted these stories from their historical one-time context, and imbued them with timeless moral content. And even if the messages would seem to be directed only at those who sit in judgment, it appears that they are intended for every ear, for every listener. Their moralizing and didactic characteristics are obvious. It is proper and appropriate that we continually ask ourselves: Do we, as a society, exercise the correct degree of caution in capital cases? Do we not, as a society and as individuals, only too often delay the verdict in monetary cases? And how many of us have been blessed with that spiritual courage to admit, "I don't know"?

Prof. Avigdor Shinan lectures on Midrash and Aggadah in the Hebrew Literature Faculty of the Hebrew University in Yerushalayim.

 

 

"As the Sojourner, So Shall The Native Be"

"You shall have one standard of judgment " - Equal judgment for all of you.

 (Bavli, Bava Kama 84a)

 

"As the sojourner, so shall the native be"" - Just as I demand reparation for the native, so do I demand reparation for the stranger and his beast.

 (Hizkuni, Vayikra 24:22)

 

"For I the Lord am your God." - Lord of both the stranger and the citizen, no preferential treatment of the affluent over the indigent.

(Seforno, Vayikra 24:22)

 

"As the sojourner, so shall the native be" - The alien who comes from a foreign land and who is separated from his land is termed a ger, related to the word gargir - a berry - which is separated from the tree. One whose ancestors are from the same city is called an ezrach - as in (Psalms 37:35) "Well-rooted like a robust native tree" ("ezrach" = "native tree") resembling a plant planted year ago. Thus the Torah is saying that justice should be equal for all.

 

"For I the Lord am your God". If you do indeed render justice equally, then - "I the Lord am your God." From the positive we infer the negative, for whoever does not apply the same standard in justice discards his divinity and denies the basic principle. It is well-known that all beliefs and laws of the nations are commentary on the Torah, and the rules of the Torah are basic principles of Torah. Ignoring them is a desecration of His Name. Whoever has it in his power to protest, but does not, desecrates the Name and exhibits respect for idolaters, and demeans the Instruction of Moshe, and causes the loss of Jewish money. For the entire world is dependent upon laws

 (Rabeinu Behayey, Vayikra 24:22)

 

 

"As the sojourner, so the native"

It does not say "The sojourner as the native", for that would imply that the level of the sojourner is beneath that of the native, for the lesser is dependent upon the greater. Therefore it says "As the sojourner as the native" - meaning: The native like the sojourner and the sojourner as the native. They are equal before the law.

 (Ohr HaHayyim, Vayikra, 24:22)

 

 

Why was the Torah given in the desert? To inform us: Just as the desert is ownerless, free for all, so the words of Torah are free for whoever wants to learn. So that no one should say "I am a Son of Torah, and Torah was given to me and to my fathers, and you and your fathers were not Sons of Torah, but your fathers were strangers". Therefore it is written (Devarim 33) "An inheritance of the assembly of Yaakov" - whoever assembles in Yaakov, even sojourners who engage in Torah study are equal to the High Priest, as is written (Vayikra 18) "Which when a human does them, he lives by means of them, I am the Lord." - It does not say 'Cohen', 'Levite', and 'Israelite', but rather 'human'. Therefore, "One instruction, one law shall there be for you" (Bemidbar 15:16)

 (Tanchuma, Vayakhel, 8)

 

 

 

Editorial Board: Pinchas Leiser (Editor), Miriam Fine (Coordinator), Itzhak Frankenthal and Dr. Menachem Klein

Translation: Kadish Goldberg

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