פרשת אמור — שביעי (Aliyah 7)

Parashat Emor | Leviticus 24:1–24:23 | Aliyah 7 of 7

קלאוד על הפרשה

The seventh aliyah of Emor forms the parasha’s coda, and its structure is one of the most striking in all of Vayikra. After the great festival cycle of chapter 23, which moves from Shabbat through Pesach, the Omer, Shavuot, the Days of Awe, and Sukkot, the Torah turns to two cultic items inside the Mishkan, the menorah and the lechem hapanim, and then plunges into a brief but devastating narrative about a man who blasphemes the divine Name. The aliyah closes with a compact restatement of capital and civil law, lex talionis, and the actual stoning of the blasphemer outside the camp. Coda, narrative, legal coda — three layers folded into twenty-three verses.

The opening eight verses (24:1-9) describe the ner tamid and the lechem hapanim, both of which stand inside the Heichal opposite one another, the menorah on the south and the showbread table on the north. Sforno reads the placement of these laws as a continuation of the festival passage that precedes them: just as the chagim mark Israel’s calendar of public service before the Lord, so the daily kindling of pure olive oil and the weekly setting of twelve loaves marks Israel’s perpetual presence before the Lord through the priests. Or HaChaim notices the recurring number seven across these chapters — seven days of Pesach, seven of Sukkot, the seventh month, the seven-branched menorah, the two rows that with the table itself sum to seven — and suggests that the Torah is gathering the laws of sevens into one place. Ibn Ezra’s reading is simpler and structurally elegant: having mentioned the festival fire offerings, the Torah must now mention the showbread, which serves the table that stands directly opposite the menorah. The two cultic items, light and bread, become a single tableau of constancy.

Into this serene picture the Torah suddenly drops a quarrel. A man, the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father, goes out into the camp and, in the heat of a dispute with an Israelite, pronounces and curses the Name (24:10-12). Rashi, drawing on the Sifra and Vayikra Rabbah, asks why the Torah says he “went out” (vayetze) — went out from where? Several answers compete. He went out from his eternal portion; he went out from the parasha just preceding, mocking the showbread by saying that no king eats nine-day-old cold bread; he went out from the court of Moshe, having been ruled against in a tribal dispute. The man wished to pitch his tent within the camp of Dan because his mother was of Dan, but he was rebuffed because Israelite tribal lineage runs through the father, and his father was Egyptian. The Torah therefore identifies him by his mother’s tribe, Shelomit bat Divri of the tribe of Dan, both to expose the singular sin and, as the Sifra says, to teach that a wicked person disgraces himself, his parent, and his entire tribe. Ibn Ezra, with characteristic restraint, says simply that we do not know why this section was placed here, and offers as a possibility that the man spoke ill precisely about the bread, the oil, and the offerings just commanded.

The literary juxtaposition is breathtaking. The One whose Name is being blasphemed has just commanded the most beautiful festival cycle in all of Tanakh, the kindling of the pure light, the setting of the twelve loaves of remembrance. The Torah names the offense in two stages — vayikkov et hashem va-yekallel — he pronounced the Name and cursed. Rashi explains, following the Targum, that he uttered the explicit four-letter Name that he had heard at Sinai. Ibn Ezra debates whether vayikkov means pronounced or cursed and concludes the former: the verse is sequential, first the pronouncing, then the cursing. The man is placed in custody (24:12) until the Lord clarifies the law, and the answer comes in the form of new legislation: take him outside the camp; let those who heard him lay their hands upon his head, transferring the bloodguilt back to the offender; let the entire community stone him. The law is then generalized — anyone who blasphemes shall bear his sin, and one who pronounces the Name shall surely be put to death — ger and ezrach alike (24:14-16). The convert and the native-born stand under one law.

From the singular crime the Torah then opens out into a compact restatement of the law of damages (24:17-22), framed deliberately by the figure of the blasphemer who quarreled and may have struck. One who kills shall die; one who kills a beast shall make restitution; fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Rashi, following Bava Kamma 84a, insists with the unanimous tradition of Chazal that ayin tachat ayin does not mean literal mutilation but monetary compensation — the verb natan, “to give,” signals something passed from hand to hand, money. Ibn Ezra cites Saadiah Gaon’s argument from logic: the original wound was unintentional, made in the heat of conflict; how could the Torah command the deliberate infliction of an identical wound? And what of unequal eyes, of vital organs, of a poor offender or a blind one? The phrase, then, is the Torah’s way of declaring the moral magnitude of the injury: as if you had taken his eye, you owe him the value of his eye. The closing pair of verses (24:22-23) holds the legal frame and the narrative frame together. One law for stranger and citizen, for I am the Lord your God — the God, says Rashi, of all of you alike. And then, finally, the people take the blasphemer outside the camp and stone him, and “the children of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moshe.” Sforno notices that the verse stresses the people’s pure motivation: not revenge, not hatred of the convert, but obedience to the divine command. Or HaChaim sees in the closing line a credit extended to all of Israel for the act, a final note that closes the parasha with the people standing as one community before the Name they had heard cursed and now publicly vindicate.

Leviticus 24:1–24:23 · ויקרא כד:א–כד:כג

פסוק כד:א · 24:1

Hebrew:

וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר יְהֹוָ֖ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֥ה לֵּאמֹֽר׃

English:

יהוה spoke to Moses, saying:

פסוק כד:ב · 24:2

Hebrew:

צַ֞ו אֶת־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל וְיִקְח֨וּ אֵלֶ֜יךָ שֶׁ֣מֶן זַ֥יִת זָ֛ךְ כָּתִ֖ית לַמָּא֑וֹר לְהַעֲלֹ֥ת נֵ֖ר תָּמִֽיד׃

English:

Command the Israelite people to bring you clear oil of beaten olives for lighting, for kindling lamps regularly.

פסוק כד:ג · 24:3

Hebrew:

מִחוּץ֩ לְפָרֹ֨כֶת הָעֵדֻ֜ת בְּאֹ֣הֶל מוֹעֵ֗ד יַעֲרֹךְ֩ אֹת֨וֹ אַהֲרֹ֜ן מֵעֶ֧רֶב עַד־בֹּ֛קֶר לִפְנֵ֥י יְהֹוָ֖ה תָּמִ֑יד חֻקַּ֥ת עוֹלָ֖ם לְדֹרֹֽתֵיכֶֽם׃

English:

Aaron shall set them up in the Tent of Meeting outside the curtain of the Pact [to burn] from evening to morning before יהוה regularly; it is a law for all time throughout the ages.

פסוק כד:ד · 24:4

Hebrew:

עַ֚ל הַמְּנֹרָ֣ה הַטְּהֹרָ֔ה יַעֲרֹ֖ךְ אֶת־הַנֵּר֑וֹת לִפְנֵ֥י יְהֹוָ֖ה תָּמִֽיד׃ {פ}

English:

He shall set up the lamps on the pure*pure See note at Exod. 31.8. lampstand before יהוה [to burn] regularly.

פסוק כד:ה · 24:5

Hebrew:

וְלָקַחְתָּ֣ סֹ֔לֶת וְאָפִיתָ֣ אֹתָ֔הּ שְׁתֵּ֥ים עֶשְׂרֵ֖ה חַלּ֑וֹת שְׁנֵי֙ עֶשְׂרֹנִ֔ים יִהְיֶ֖ה הַֽחַלָּ֥ה הָאֶחָֽת׃

English:

You shall take choice flour and bake of it twelve loaves, two-tenths of a measure for each loaf.

פסוק כד:ו · 24:6

Hebrew:

וְשַׂמְתָּ֥ אוֹתָ֛ם שְׁתַּ֥יִם מַֽעֲרָכ֖וֹת שֵׁ֣שׁ הַֽמַּעֲרָ֑כֶת עַ֛ל הַשֻּׁלְחָ֥ן הַטָּהֹ֖ר לִפְנֵ֥י יְהֹוָֽה׃

English:

Place them on the pure*pure See note at Exod. 31.8. table before יהוה in two rows, six to a row.

פסוק כד:ז · 24:7

Hebrew:

וְנָתַתָּ֥ עַל־הַֽמַּעֲרֶ֖כֶת לְבֹנָ֣ה זַכָּ֑ה וְהָיְתָ֤ה לַלֶּ֙חֶם֙ לְאַזְכָּרָ֔ה אִשֶּׁ֖ה לַֽיהֹוָֽה׃

English:

With each row you shall place pure frankincense, which is to be a token offering*token offering See Lev. 2.2. for the bread, as an offering by fire to יהוה.

פסוק כד:ח · 24:8

Hebrew:

בְּי֨וֹם הַשַּׁבָּ֜ת בְּי֣וֹם הַשַּׁבָּ֗ת יַֽעַרְכֶ֛נּוּ לִפְנֵ֥י יְהֹוָ֖ה תָּמִ֑יד מֵאֵ֥ת בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל בְּרִ֥ית עוֹלָֽם׃

English:

He shall arrange them before יהוה regularly every sabbath day—it is a commitment for all time on the part of the Israelites.

פסוק כד:ט · 24:9

Hebrew:

וְהָֽיְתָה֙ לְאַהֲרֹ֣ן וּלְבָנָ֔יו וַאֲכָלֻ֖הוּ בְּמָק֣וֹם קָדֹ֑שׁ כִּ֡י קֹ֩דֶשׁ֩ קׇֽדָשִׁ֨ים ה֥וּא ל֛וֹ מֵאִשֵּׁ֥י יְהֹוָ֖ה חׇק־עוֹלָֽם׃ {ס}        

English:

They shall belong to Aaron and his sons, who shall eat them in the sacred precinct; for they are his as most holy things from יהוה’s offerings by fire, a due for all time.

פסוק כד:י · 24:10

Hebrew:

וַיֵּצֵא֙ בֶּן־אִשָּׁ֣ה יִשְׂרְאֵלִ֔ית וְהוּא֙ בֶּן־אִ֣ישׁ מִצְרִ֔י בְּת֖וֹךְ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וַיִּנָּצוּ֙ בַּֽמַּחֲנֶ֔ה בֶּ֚ן הַיִּשְׂרְאֵלִ֔ית וְאִ֖ישׁ הַיִּשְׂרְאֵלִֽי׃

English:

There came out among the Israelites a man whose mother was Israelite and whose father was Egyptian. And a fight broke out in the camp between that half-Israelite*half-Israelite Lit. “the son of an Israelite woman.” and a certain Israelite.

פסוק כד:יא · 24:11

Hebrew:

וַ֠יִּקֹּ֠ב בֶּן־הָֽאִשָּׁ֨ה הַיִּשְׂרְאֵלִ֤ית אֶת־הַשֵּׁם֙ וַיְקַלֵּ֔ל וַיָּבִ֥יאוּ אֹת֖וֹ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֑ה וְשֵׁ֥ם אִמּ֛וֹ שְׁלֹמִ֥ית בַּת־דִּבְרִ֖י לְמַטֵּה־דָֽן׃

English:

The son of the Israelite woman pronounced the Name in blasphemy, and he was brought to Moses—now his mother’s name was Shelomith daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan—

פסוק כד:יב · 24:12

Hebrew:

וַיַּנִּיחֻ֖הוּ בַּמִּשְׁמָ֑ר לִפְרֹ֥שׁ לָהֶ֖ם עַל־פִּ֥י יְהֹוָֽה׃ {פ}

English:

and he was placed in custody, until the decision of יהוה should be made clear to them.

פסוק כד:יג · 24:13

Hebrew:

וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר יְהֹוָ֖ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֥ה לֵּאמֹֽר׃

English:

And יהוה spoke to Moses, saying:

פסוק כד:יד · 24:14

Hebrew:

הוֹצֵ֣א אֶת־הַֽמְקַלֵּ֗ל אֶל־מִחוּץ֙ לַֽמַּחֲנֶ֔ה וְסָמְכ֧וּ כׇֽל־הַשֹּׁמְעִ֛ים אֶת־יְדֵיהֶ֖ם עַל־רֹאשׁ֑וֹ וְרָגְמ֥וּ אֹת֖וֹ כׇּל־הָעֵדָֽה׃

English:

Take the blasphemer outside the camp; and let all who were within hearing lay their hands upon his head, and let the community leadership*community leadership See note at 8.3. stone him.

פסוק כד:טו · 24:15

Hebrew:

וְאֶל־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל תְּדַבֵּ֣ר לֵאמֹ֑ר אִ֥ישׁ אִ֛ישׁ כִּֽי־יְקַלֵּ֥ל אֱלֹהָ֖יו וְנָשָׂ֥א חֶטְאֽוֹ׃

English:

And to the Israelite people speak thus: Anyone who blasphemes God shall bear the guilt;

פסוק כד:טז · 24:16

Hebrew:

וְנֹקֵ֤ב שֵׁם־יְהֹוָה֙ מ֣וֹת יוּמָ֔ת רָג֥וֹם יִרְגְּמוּ־ב֖וֹ כׇּל־הָעֵדָ֑ה כַּגֵּר֙ כָּֽאֶזְרָ֔ח בְּנׇקְבוֹ־שֵׁ֖ם יוּמָֽת׃

English:

and one who also pronounces the name יהוה shall be put to death. The community leadership*community leadership See note at 8.3. shall stone that person; stranger or citizen—having thus pronounced the Name—shall be put to death.

פסוק כד:יז · 24:17

Hebrew:

וְאִ֕ישׁ כִּ֥י יַכֶּ֖ה כׇּל־נֶ֣פֶשׁ אָדָ֑ם מ֖וֹת יוּמָֽת׃

English:

If any party kills any human being, that person shall be put to death.

פסוק כד:יח · 24:18

Hebrew:

וּמַכֵּ֥ה נֶֽפֶשׁ־בְּהֵמָ֖ה יְשַׁלְּמֶ֑נָּה נֶ֖פֶשׁ תַּ֥חַת נָֽפֶשׁ׃

English:

One who kills a beast shall make restitution for it: life for life.

פסוק כד:יט · 24:19

Hebrew:

וְאִ֕ישׁ כִּֽי־יִתֵּ֥ן מ֖וּם בַּעֲמִית֑וֹ כַּאֲשֶׁ֣ר עָשָׂ֔ה כֵּ֖ן יֵעָ֥שֶׂה לּֽוֹ׃

English:

If any party maims another [person]: what was done shall be done in return—

פסוק כד:כ · 24:20

Hebrew:

שֶׁ֚בֶר תַּ֣חַת שֶׁ֔בֶר עַ֚יִן תַּ֣חַת עַ֔יִן שֵׁ֖ן תַּ֣חַת שֵׁ֑ן כַּאֲשֶׁ֨ר יִתֵּ֥ן מוּם֙ בָּֽאָדָ֔ם כֵּ֖ן יִנָּ֥תֶן בּֽוֹ׃

English:

fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The injury inflicted on a human being shall be inflicted in return.

פסוק כד:כא · 24:21

Hebrew:

וּמַכֵּ֥ה בְהֵמָ֖ה יְשַׁלְּמֶ֑נָּה וּמַכֵּ֥ה אָדָ֖ם יוּמָֽת׃

English:

One who kills a beast shall make restitution for it; but one who kills a human being shall be put to death.

פסוק כד:כב · 24:22

Hebrew:

מִשְׁפַּ֤ט אֶחָד֙ יִהְיֶ֣ה לָכֶ֔ם כַּגֵּ֥ר כָּאֶזְרָ֖ח יִהְיֶ֑ה כִּ֛י אֲנִ֥י יְהֹוָ֖ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃

English:

You shall have one standard for stranger and citizen alike: for I יהוה am your God.

פסוק כד:כג · 24:23

Hebrew:

וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר מֹשֶׁה֮ אֶל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵל֒ וַיּוֹצִ֣יאוּ אֶת־הַֽמְקַלֵּ֗ל אֶל־מִחוּץ֙ לַֽמַּחֲנֶ֔ה וַיִּרְגְּמ֥וּ אֹת֖וֹ אָ֑בֶן וּבְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֣ל עָשׂ֔וּ כַּֽאֲשֶׁ֛ר צִוָּ֥ה יְהֹוָ֖ה אֶת־מֹשֶֽׁה׃ {פ}

English:

Moses spoke thus to the Israelites. And they took the blasphemer outside the camp and pelted him with stones. The Israelites did as יהוה had commanded Moses.

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