Emor: The Sin of the Mekalel

Twice we read about an individual that is sentenced to death during the Jew’s chronicles in the desert. Both times they are first placed in some sort of solitary confinement before their sentence is carried out. Today, we focused on the story of the בן מצרי who deemed it appropriate to curse God and as such was sentenced to death. It is however unclear why he was imprisoned before he received his sentence.

The Rishonim seem to have four different perspectives:

1. Based on the גמ’ סנהדרין: they did not know if he was obligated in the death penalty
2. They knew he was to be put to death but did not know which capital punishment
3. They had a קל וחומר from מקלל אביו ואמו that he was culpable for סקילה but were not certain they could derive a capital punishment from a קל וחומר
4. The מיוחס לרא”ש argues that they actually thought the בן מצרי did not deserve to be put to death as it would serve as an attornment for his terrible action.

The common theme underlying these perspectives is one simply of an ignorance of the law. However, the Midrash tells us that the מקלל’s sin was that he also mocked the לחם הפנים, why add an additional component to his עבירה? 

Let us take a step back and try to truly appreciate the significance of the מקלל’s curse.

We spent the last few weeks describing intricate details of the משכן. Today, in פרשת אמור, we went to painstaking lengths to describe the incredibly specific rules the כהנים, the servants of God instructed with service of the משכן, must go through to ensure they are fit to serve.

We then describe, with some help of the גמרות, the process through which the לחם המשנה was replaced. The bread must always be on the שולחן and had to be replaced weekly. To ensure there was always bread on the table, each loaf had to be pushed off while the other loaf was being put into its place. The מנרה required candles that were lit all facing the middle branch. The lighting was to follow a specific prescribed order that was not allowed to be deviated from.

One can look at this process and laugh at a ridiculous scene. Imagine a ridiculous the כהנים must have looked. 12 would stand on one side of a table with shelves preparing to remove loaves of bread. Another 12 would stand on opposing sides preparing to push off the last loaf to ensure the table always had the loaves placed on top.

The מקלל was an especially dangerous dissident as he not simply sought to steer chaos, he offered the cynical perspective. After the Jews had experienced the incredibly uplifting spiritual high of building the משכן, having the חנוכת הבית and learning how to bring the קרבנות, he did not marvel on the many מצוות we can now accomplish. He instead illustrated the absurdity of seemingly arbitrary laws. And, in a way, he is right. The laws are nonsensical but that may be the point. To serve God there are many laws, some we understand and some we don’t, but we must adhere to the strict letter of the law regardless. Mocking those laws that are seemingly arbitrary and random poses a danger to the very fabric of our religion.

This may then explain the נציב’s commentary as to the purpose of jailing the בן מצרי. The zealous Jews that were so excited about the opportunity to have a משכן now heard someone mocking what they had worked so hard to achieve. And so, they wanted to murder this man. As soon as they heard him curse, it was all they could do to contain themselves from extrajudicial sentencing. That is why the נציב argues he needed to be jailed. Jail was a means through which to protect him from the offended Jewish people.

I would add, they needed to jail him because they had to ensure that capital punishment was in fact appropriate. It was not difficult to sentence this man to death. He was constantly causing trouble, he was clearly an outsider—still referred to as a בן איש מצרי—and he decided the most opportune time to curse God was right after the amazing ceremony of the חנוכת המשכן. And so, the Jews needed to imprison him, take an opportunity to take a step back and ensure that he was really deserving of death.

The fact that the Jews imprisoned the מקלל highlighted the very opposite point he was trying to make. One who mocks seemingly arbitrary laws should laugh at the irony of debating is the better method to murder him one involving pouring hot lead down his throat or one requiring throwing a bunch of rocks at him. He deserves capital punishment, just kill him and be finished with it.

Instead, the Jews imprisoned him. They debated. Did he deserve to die, did he not? Can you use a קל וחומר to infer the appropriate method to kill the man? They highlighted that while the laws may seem arbitrary, we know that our religious life is built through the prism of the halachic process. A process that at times may seem random but one that defines our way of life.