The Alien: Parashat Emor

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Jewish Protesters, Ellis Island, 1936

Parashat Emor
Leviticus 21:1 – 24:23

Among the many legal sections that make up the complex composition of our Torah portion, there is one section that is introduced by a story that serves as the background for those laws. It is one of the few stories in the book of Leviticus, and it is distressing and tragic.

It tells of two nameless men who get into a quarrel. The cause of the dispute is not explained. As understood by some commentators, one of the disputants was a person who felt marginalized and wronged by the community, and in rage and frustration cursed God in public. What may have started as a fight between two private individuals immediately became a public crisis. The people are shocked and bring the blasphemer to Moses to find out the proper judgment. Moses must wait for God to speak. God decrees that anyone guilty of blasphemy has committed a capital crime and must be put to death. And so it was.

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Syrian Refugees Land in Greece

This story has many enigmatic elements to it. In our modern, open society, we are appalled that anyone should be put to death for blasphemy. In a sense the unease we feel is already hinted at by the text and subsequent commentaries. Many suggest that the omission of the names of the two participants in the fight is meant to tell us that both of them are guilty parties. One, more socially privileged and secure, is guilty of provoking the fight. The other, alien and unwelcome in the community, is nevertheless guilty of losing his control and attacking God instead of his tormentor.

The episode leads to the declaration of two basic principles of justice. Both involve the demand that justice be meted out fairly. Thus, we have a repetition here of the famous dictum, “An eye for an eye.” (Lev. 24:20) Our tradition from earliest times, and against the plain meaning of the text, understood this rule to mean, not that we must poke out the eyes of those who cause physical injury to others, but that injury requires fair compensation. This reading decides that explicit Biblical laws must be read, not literally, but with a sense of compassion.

The second principle is quite radical: “There shall be but one law for you, as aliens and as citizens, for I am the Eternal, your Almighty God.” (Lev. 24:21) This rule is explained by Rashi: “I am the Eternal, your Almighty God” [God is saying:] I am the God of all of you. Just as I join My Name with you, so do I join My Name with the alien ones.” And a later commentator added: “The Torah did not say ‘for the alien as for the citizen,’ because that still would have implied that the citizen is the standard and the alien is secondary. Rather, the Torah says ‘as aliens and as citizens’ to establish complete equality between them.” (Or ha-Hayyim) Social distinctions are artificial conventions. We are all, ultimately and equally, God’s children.

This principle simultaneously creates two opposing results. On the one hand, based on this rule, the marginal alien was subject to the same punishment for blasphemy as a full citizen would be. But, on the other hand, this principle seeks to uproot the very sense of marginalization that led to so tragic an end in this story.

The purpose of this story is thus, in some sense, to help us learn from our mistakes and to continue to strive to create a more compassionate and just society. For, in the Torah’s equation, a more just society is a more holy society.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi David Greenstein


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Images: Jewish immigrants protesting on Ellis Island, 1936. Photo: Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo / Forum, public domain.

A Syrian migrant holds a young girl in his arms upon arriving on a dinghy to the Greek island of Kos, Greece. (EPA/Yannis Kolesidis) Used with permission via Freedom House

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