Parashat Emor- Moderation and Sensibility in the Service of God
Toward the end of Parashat Emor, the Torah relates the troubling story of the "Megadef," the blasphemer, who committed the capital offense of publicly cursing the Name of God. What led a member of Beneh Yisrael to commit such a grave sin?
On one level, this incident was the result of his upbringing. The Torah identifies the Megadef as the son of a woman named Shelomit Bat Dibri. The Sages detect in the name "Dibri" an allusion to this woman’s talkative, flirtatious nature. Her conduct caught the attention of one of the Egyptian taskmasters, who raped Shelomit, resulting in the birth of this man who became the Megadef. Rabbenu Behayeh (Spain, 1263-1340) comments that children often develop the traits of their mother. In this instance, Shelomit’s son developed the characteristic of unrestrained speech. Just as she overindulged in speaking, similarly, her son grew with a lack of discipline in the area of speech, and this is what allowed him to blaspheme God.
Still, the question remains, what led the Megadef to this act? What specifically evoked his anger to the point where he lashed out against the Almighty?
The Sages explain by noting that just before this story, the Torah presents the Misva of the "Lehem Hapanim," the bread that was placed on the table in the Mishkan. The Kohanim would arrange twelve loaves on the table every Shabbat. The bread would remain on the table for a week, and the loaves would then be removed and replaced by new, fresh loaves. This Misva, the Sages explain, irked the Megadef. He felt it was disrespectful to God to leave stale bread on the table. In his view, it would be far more proper to bake fresh loaves each day, rather than have stale bread sit on the table for a week. This Misva ignited his anger to the point where he blasphemed the Almighty.
This sequence of events seems, at first glance, very difficult to understand. If this man was so committed to God’s honor, then how did he come to blasphemy? He argued that the laws taught by Moshe Rabbenu didn’t go far enough in respecting God. How could he then turn around and curse the Almighty?
Some Rabbis explained that this incident warns of the dangers of extreme, intemperate behavior. Religious commitment requires sensibility and moderation. People who veer to an extreme are at risk of quickly shifting to the other extreme. The Megadef, at one point, was "more religious," so-to-speak, than Moshe. He felt that Moshe didn’t give enough honor to God. Soon enough, however, this man found himself at the opposite end of the spectrum, going out to the middle of the Israelite camp and cursing God.
Sure enough, the boy became a Conservative rabbi.
It goes without saying that we must be fervent and vigilant in our Torah devotion. But this must be done sensibly, not in an extreme manner. If the Rabbi rules that something is permissible, there is no sense in trying to be more religious than the Rabbi and insisting that it is forbidden. If we see people who do not follow our standards, there is no value in reacting with anger and venom. To the contrary, as the unfortunate story of the Megadef demonstrates, extremism in one direction often leads to extremism in the opposite direction. We must go about our Torah observance with moderation and common sense, without resorting to extreme conduct.
