Blessings and Curses – Emor
It’s not surprising that I am going to be talking about the Lechem Hapanim which appears towards the end of this week’s parsha. It is possible to write hundreds of pages about the five psukim describing the Lechem Hapanim (ויקרא כד, ה-ט) (as I have done in my new sefer מאיר פנים). However davka in this shiur I would like to focus on the episode that immediately follows the Lechem Hapanim - the מקלל or the מגדף as he is sometimes referred to.
י) ויצא בן אשה ישראלית והוא בן איש מצרי בתוך בני ישראל וינצו במחנה בן הישראלית ואיש הישראלי. יא) ויקב בן האשה הישראלית את השם ויקלל ויביאו אתו אל משה ושם אמו שְׁלֹמִית בַּת דִּבְרִי למטה דן. יב) ויניחהו במשמר לפרש להם על פי ה'. יג) וידבר ה' אל משה לאמר. יד) הוצא את המקלל אל מחוץ למחנה וסמכו כל השמעים את ידיהם על ראשו ורגמו אתו כל העדה. טו) ואל בני ישראל תדבר לאמר איש איש כי יקלל א-לקיו ונשא חטאו. טז) ונקב שם ה' מות יומת רגום ירגמו בו כל העדה כגר כאזרח בנקבו שם יומת. (ויקרא כד, י-טז)
The name of the מקלל is not mentioned at all, not in the Torah and not in the mefarshim. What is mentioned is his “yichus”. He is called בן אשה ישראלית, the son of an Israelite woman. Three times it repeats that description, in two consecutive psukim! Following the repetitious use of that phrase, it finally names the Israelite woman - שְׁלֹמִית בַּת דִּבְרִי from the tribe of Dan.
The passuk says that this son of an Israelite woman “went out”, ויצא. Where did he go out from?
This son of an Israelite woman then gets into a fight with an Israeli man איש ישראלי. What was the fight about? The Torah doesn’t say.
This son of an Israelite woman then, as it says in the passuk - וַיִּקֹּב ... את השם ויקלל – he cursed the name of Hashem. The passuk uses two words ויקב and ויקלל. What is the difference between ויקב and ויקלל? Why the need for two different words to describe cursing? It could just say ויקלל בן האשה הישראלית את השם.
Chazal step in to fill in the gaps and answer some of the above questions.
Who was this son of an Israelite woman?
According to Chazal in the Midrash, when Bnei Yisrael were still in slavery in Egypt, Datan (of Datan and Aviram fame) was married to this Israelite woman שְׁלֹמִית בַּת דִּבְרִי. That wasn’t her real name, שְׁלֹמִית בַּת דִּבְרִי was her nickname, as we will soon see. Datan was one of the שוטרים, whose task it was to supervise the work of the slaves. He would leave early every morning and return late every night.
One day while Datan was out, an Egyptian guard entered his house and slept with his wife. Out of this union, a son was born - the מקלל. He was the son of an Israelite woman and also the son of an Egyptian man. Datan then confronted this Egyptian guard who began beating him.
This was the scene that Moshe Rabeinu encountered when he left Pharaoh’s palace – an Egyptian guard beating an Israelite man. Moshe then looked around and when he saw no witnesses, slew the Egyptian. The mefarshim say that he slew him by using the שם המפורש. The only witness to the execution was Datan.
Datan ended up divorcing שְׁלֹמִית בַּת דִּבְרִי, remarrying and giving birth to a son, much to the consternation of Shlomit’s brother – Aviram. Aviram then confronted Datan over this and this was the second incident when Moshe saw two Israelite men brawling – Datan and Aviram. When Moshe tried to stop them, Datan, the only witness to the Egyptian guard’s death, snitched to the authorities and Moshe had to flee Egypt.
When Am Yisrael left Egypt, this bastard son from the union between Shlomit and the Egyptian guard converted and became part of the erev rav. He needed to convert because before Matan Torah, “who was a Jew” was passed down through the father, not the mother.
After חטא העגל Moshe divided the Tribes up into different camps. Before that the erev rav were intermingled with Am Yisrael. Following this tribal division, the erev rav were separated from מחנה ישראל and travelled in the rear, just behind the Tribe of Dan.
This bastard son of the Egyptian guard then found himself in a situation, that although he was the son of an Israelite woman from Dan, since the lineage passed through the father and not the mother, he was excluded from the camp of Dan, while the son born of Datan’s second marriage was born Jewish and thus included.
It was these two men who were fighting in this week’s parsha - the son of the Israelite woman שְׁלֹמִית בַּת דִּבְרִי, Datan’s first wife and the son of Datan from his second wife.
Chazal say that her real name was not שְׁלֹמִית בַּת דִּבְרִי - that was just a nickname. This Israelite woman was a chatterbox בַּת דִּבְרִי. Every person she encountered she would greet with “Shalom”, hence the nickname שְׁלֹמִית. It began with saying hello to the Israelite women, then progressed to greeting the Egyptian women and finally also the Egyptian men. This verbal exuberance and lack of tzni’ut finally degenerated into her liaison with the Egyptian guard and the birth of a bastard son.
It says that this son of an Israelite woman went out – ויצא. Where did he “go out” from? The Midrash in Vayikra Rabba gives three different perushim. The one we are interested in this shiur is the opinion of Rabi Brechya –
רבי ברכיה אמר מפרשה של מעלה יצא, דכתיב "ולקתח סלת"
According to Rabi Brechya there is a connection between this episode of the מקלל and the psukim immediately prior to it, describing the Lechem Hapanim. According to R’ Brechya the מקלל mocked the Lechem Hapanim, saying how is it fitting to “serve” bread that is cold and 8 days (in the case of chagim sometimes up to 11 days) old to Hashem.
So we have seemingly superfluous repetitious reference to the מקלל’s maternal ancestry. We have seemingly superfluous double terms describing how he cursed Hashem . We have a link somehow between this whole story and the Lechem Hapanim. How are all these things connected?
The following perush is taken from my new sefer מאיר פנים, (פרק טו').
Korban Lechem Hapanim is a תיקון and כפרה for חטא עץ הדעת.
Chava’s part in the חטא was that she was duped by the נחש into trying to create life without the partnership of HKB”H (or even Adam for that matter). She took the fruit of the עץ הדעת which was חיטה, ground it up fine into a powdery dust, mixed that together with water and left it to rest and become inflated with "רוח חיים". The נחש told her that this was the way HKB”H created Adam, חלתו של עולם – by collecting dust from the earth, mixing it with water and “inflating” it with נשמת חיים.
Chava’s sin was trying to “bypass” שלושה שותפין הן באדם (קדושין, ל, ע"א) and subsequently and appropriately her punishment was בעצב תלדי בנים.
Korban Lechem Hapanim comes to repair that. It symbolizes a blessing of material wealth ושיעשיר יצפין (בבא בתרא כה, ע"ב).
The greatest wealth a person can have are his children. The Shulchan and the Lechem Hapanim represent the סוד הנוקבא, which, in the Sifrei haKabbalah, refers to the process of creating life, not like the animals, but life with a Divine neshama.
The Shulchan represents מלכות – likened to the golden table of a king. As we count Sfirat Ha’Omer in the weeks between Pesach and Shavuot, we incrementally elevate ourselves to the highest level of טהרה in preparation for מתן תורה. The highest level, on the 49th day, that is possible to achieve in this material world is מלכות שבמלכות. In the structure of the עשר ספירות, the highest spiritual level is כתר which represents HKB”H, while the highest level a human can achieve in this world is מלכות - the ability to create life in partnership with HKB”H - שלושה שותפין הן באדם.
An existential foundation upon which Am Yisrael is built is that there are שלושה שותפין הן באדם. The father contributes the לובן, the mother the אודם and HKB”H the spiritual neshama. In Am Yisrael, this neshama is more highly developed than the other nations - the concept of סגולת ישראל and the Twelve Tribes. The twelve loaves of Lechem Hapanim on the Shulchan represent the Twelve Tribes of Am Yisrael.
Through her lack of tzni’ut, שְׁלֹמִית בַּת דִּבְרִי eventually descended to the lowest level of טומאה and slept with an איש מצרי (the only Israelite woman to do so during Am Yisrael’s entire exile in Egypt), resulting in the birth of the מקלל. Amongst the goyim there is no concept of שלושה שותפין הן באדם, it is simply procreation between a male and a female, like the animals, and the concept of the spiritual neshama, HKB”H’s involvement, is absent.
In Am Yisrael however, we have a highly developed neshama and are descended from the twelve sons of Yaakov Avinu, each with their own purpose and role to play in Am Yisrael.
The erev rav, who Moshe allowed to accompany Am Yisrael after leaving Egypt (without consulting with HKB”H first), were a constant thorn in their side and almost all the misfortunes that befell Am Yisrael in the midbar (aside from Korach and the spies) were caused by the erev rav. The erev rav were not meant to be there to begin with and in fact they perished in the midbar. No mention of them is made after the incident of קברות התאווה.
The מקלל who was part of this erev rav tried to claim his right as part of the tribe of Dan, because of his mother Shlomit. However, as we said - he converted before Matan Torah, when the lineage passed through the father not the mother and was therefore not deserving of such a right according to the halacha. Another perush of ויצא in the Midrash - where did the מקלל come from? The בית דין of Moshe - he went there to claim this right, but Moshe rejected it according to the halacha.
As a result he cursed Hashem and he mocked the Lechem Hapanim.
The passuk uses dual language for him cursing - ויקב and ויקלל. Why not just say ויקלל? What does ויקב mean? It comes from the root of נקב. The מקלל was not simply cursing Hashem (which is severe on its own), he was also denying the סוד הנוקבא – the fact that HKB”H is a partner in creating life. If HKB”H is not a partner and the neshama is extraneous, then there is no סגולת עם ישראל, there is no concept of the Twelve Tribes and their נחלאות and therefore even though he is part of the erev rav, he has just as much right to live in the camp of Dan as anyone else. How did he know the שם המפורש so he could curse that name? His mother knew it because Datan heard Moshe use it to kill the Egyptian and he told her and she told the מקלל.
Why davka mock the Lechem Hapanim of all things? The Lechem Hapanim hadn’t even come into existence yet. The Mefarshim say that the מקלל and the מקושש עצים, happened at the same time – a year before the Mishkan was even built! So why davka mock the Lechem Hapanim and not just the Lechem Hapanim, but the only part of the Lechem Hapanim that HKB”H was personally involved in – the miracle that the bread remained fresh the entire week?
The answer is hinted at in the passuk by the repetition of the words בן אשה ישראלית three times in two psukim. The מקלל was his mother’s son. Just as she denied the סוד הנוקבא and slept with the Egyptian, so too did the מקלל deny HKB”H’s involvement, both in שלושה שותפין הן באדם and also in the miracle of the Lechem Hapanim. According to him HKB”H is not involved at all, there is no miracle of the Lechem Hapanim, it is just 8-11 day old bread, which he mocked and also – there are no Twelve Tribes - anyone can pitch his tent wherever he likes and therefore the twelve loaves of Lechem Hapanim were just stale bread to him. Davka the Lechem Hapanim, or at least the concept of it which he learnt after Matan Torah, was a symbol of everything he and his mother despised.
So Moshe imprisoned him and asked HKB”H what to do with him. He was deserving of death, Moshe just didn’t know which type of death. HKB”H’s response –
ונקב שם ה' מות יומת רגום ירגמו בו כל העדה כגר כאזרח בנקבו שם יומת. (שם, טז)
The gematriya of סקילה is the same as המקלל.
Anyone who denies HKB”H’s partnership in the creation of life must perish. Human life is not like an animal. If you kill an animal you must pay reparations. But if you take a human life, a life with a spiritual neshama, you must pay for it with your own life, hence the following passuk –
ואיש כי יכה כל נפש אדם מות יומת . (שם, יז)
The Korban Lechem Hapanim is the diametric opposite of the curse of the מקלל. It is a blessing and celebration of life and an affirmation of שלושה שותפין הן באדם.
