Thursday, May 1, 2014

Emor 5774



The son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian man went out among the Children of Israel. And this son of the Israelite woman quarreled in the camp with an Israelite man. And the son of the Israelite woman pronounced the [Divine] name and cursed. So they brought him to Moshe (Moses). His mother’s name was Shlomit, daughter of Divri, of the tribe of Dan.” (Vayikra/Leviticus 24:10-11)

Why does Torah include the name of the blasphemer’s mother?

Rashi comments that the mother’s name provides insight about her character. He writes: “[The name Shlomit denotes that] she was a chatterbox, [always going about saying to men] “Shalom aleich (peace unto you or how are you?) [She would] greet everyone and ask about their welfare. Divri [from the verb mDaBeRet, denotes that] she was very loquacious, talking with every person. This is why she sinned.”  Rabbi A.L Scheinbaum in Peninim on the Torah suggests that shalom aleich is an opening to a conversation that could lead to idle gossip.

The Midrash explains that the blasphemer’s biological father took advantage of Shlomit. She greeted the Egyptian taskmaster with a smile when he came to her home to pick up her Israelite husband for slave labor. When the husband left the house, the Egyptian entered and Shlomit mistook him for her husband. The blasphemer was conceived during that interaction.

Writes Rabbi Zvi Teichman on BaltimoreJewishLife.com: “When dibur (speech) becomes merely a tool by which one gets noticed, bereft of any significant feelings, where one seeks merely to satisfy one’s instinctive craving for attention, it leads so often to indulgence and sin…Why does one ‘seek the welfare’ of everyone indiscriminately? Why does one enjoy purposeless chatter? Because it gives a false sense of being valued. But when the attention is not based on values or true self worth, then it descends rapidly to depravity.”

“She [Shlomit] was…someone just desperate for attention, a shallow relationship devoid of content…The blasphemer who was bred in an environment of superficiality cannot possibly possess the depth necessary to deal with frustration. He knows of only one way to draw attention – by cursing in a knee-jerk expression of utter frustration devoid of any meaning.”

Writes Rebbetzin Chana Bracha Siegelbaum in Women at the Crossroads: “Scripture refers to the uncontrolled speech of the mother of the blasphemer to teach us that a mother has a special responsibility to teach her children proper behavior by example. The way we use our Divine capability of speech has repercussions in our children…As mothers, we must realize our great responsibility in building the character of our children. They are influenced by who we are rather than what we preach.”

The Rebbetzin strongly cautions against blaming the mother for the child’s actions; she notes that many factors besides the mother’s character influence the child’s outcome. She gives this blessing: “May our continued endeavor to perfect our character and get closer to G-d eventually rub off on our children.”



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