Dear Members of Congregation Beth Sholom

 

           

In the book of Leviticus there are two narratives in the whole book. The first one is famous, it’s about Aaron’s sons offering the alien fire and perishing as a result. The second story is barely known at all. It’s not an easy story, but I will tell it anyways.

 

Starting in Leviticus 24:10 it goes like this, There came out among the Israelites a person whose mother was an Israelite, but whose father was an Egyptian. A fight broke out between this half Israelite and a particular Israelite man. The half Israelite pronounced The Name, aka God in Blasphemy, and he was brought to Moses. Now his mother’s name was Shelomith daughter of Debri of the Tribe of Dan, and this half-Israelite was held in custody until Adonai decided a punishment. And Adonai made a decision, he told Moses to take the blasphemer outside of the camp, let all who heard the blaspheme place their hands upon this man and then the community leadership shall stone him to death. Then speak to the Israelites and say; “Anyone who blasphemes God shall bear guilt; and one who pronounces the name of the Eternal shall be put to death. The community leadership shall stone that person; stranger or citizen- having pronounced the Name- shall be put to death.”

 

Well, there is much to unpack here. In Judaism we have a lot of weird customs that tiptoe around the name of God and you can begin to understand why from these Torah verses. So, I’m going to start there. What’s a bit problematic is uncovering the specific way in which our half-Israelite blasphemes. It’s possible that he cursed God, which is a big no no. But from the latter part of the story, we see a hint for a different kind of blaspheme, where it states, “the one who pronounces the name of the Eternal shall be put to death.” The Hebrew for God here is Elohim, which is sort of a standard biblical name for God. This name seem fine to utter, no one gets in trouble for saying it out loud. Words like Hashem, which means the name, and Adonai, which translates to my lord, also seem fine to say. The question is what the heck did this half- Israelite say that would instantly require a capital punishment?

        

This is where I get to use one of my favorite words. Tetragrammaton. FYI my spell check did like this word. This long term references a specific name for God which in Hebrew is yod hey vav hey. For non-Hebrew speakers it’s like the Equivalent of YHVH. Though you often see it as YHWH, thanks to German Hebrew Grammar scholars. It’s not terribly pronounceable and lacks any discernable vowels. It’s often pronounced Yahweh which seems somewhat acceptable. But apparently you get in whole heaps of trouble if you say it correctly. This is God’s truest name and it has power. Even though over time we have forgotten how to say this word, apparently this half-Israelites had knowledge of it, much to his demise.

        

Now, that could be the end of it, he said the Tetragrammaton and he was summarily executed for it. However, these verses have a number of problems with it. The next one is why is the half-Israelite anonymous and yet his mother is doxxed. This is the only female name we see in all of Leviticus and it’s to call out her son for blasphemy. Ancient scholars predictably blame her for this blaspheme and treat her horribly. I’m not going to defend their commentary.  

 

Another difficult problem is that you would think that a half-Israelite might be offered some leniency because it’s possible he is not fully aware of the rules of God naming. However, those hope are quickly dashed by Adonai’ proclamation, “The community leadership shall stone that person; stranger or citizen- having pronounced the Name- shall be put to death.” Not even a stranger is offered a reprieve for uttering God’s true name.

 

There is nothing I like about this story. I don’t like how it ends, I don’t like how there seems to be tacit blame for the mom, I don’t like the commentary of these verses. So, you may be asking what am I doing even writing about it? The answer is that we can’t ignore problematic verses in our Torah. If our Torah is a living text then the whole text deserves scrutiny. I happen to believe that it takes a kind of bravery to acknowledge difficult texts. Just like it takes a kind of bravery to acknowledge difficult things that occur in our society, community, or personal lives.

 

If these verses can teach us that one can’t ignore problems, but instead attempt to understand them, then these verses are doing their job. They may not be teaching something we particularly appreciate about Israelite society, but they are teaching us how understanding often requires bravery. If these verses can teach us a little bit about bravery then these were verses well read.

 

Rabbi Abram Goodstein