Out of This World

By Rabbi Joshua (earthily known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

Towards the end of parshas Emor, the Torah relates that the son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian man went out among the Jewish people and fought with an Israelite man. The son of the Egyptian then cursed the name of God. Rashi cites the midrash which asks where this man went out from, and gives several answers. The first answer is that he went out of his world. Rav Eliyahu Meir Bloch zt”l, in his Peninei Da’as, explains this to mean that he left his real world, the world of spirituality. A person’s real life, he says, is rooted in his soul, which is connected to God. The curser, by breaking off his connection to God, literally left his world.

Rabbi Bloch goes on to explain the second answer in the midrash as well. The curser, says the midrash, went out from hearing of previous section in the Torah, which deals with the lechem hapanim, or showbread. This bread was baked and placed on the table in the mishkan for nine days, whereupon it was distributed to and eaten by the kohanim. The curser scoffed at this offering to God, remarking that behold a king gets fresh bread every day, and here nine-day old bread is being offered? The Rabbis, however, tell us that the bread miraculously maintained its freshness throughout that time period. Rav Bloch says that the cynical remark of the curser revealed that he denied that the spiritual world can affect the physical world. Our purpose in this world, in fact, is to develop that connection, and, so, through his remark about the lechem hapanim, the curser left his world, and, ultimately cursed God, the source of all spirituality as well.

Rabbi Bloch’s explanations help us understand why the account of the curser is placed in parshas Emor, which begins with the laws of the kohanim, and proceeds to bring the laws of Shabbos and the festivals. The task of the kohain is to bring holiness and spirituality into our lives. We have mentioned the comment of Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l, who said that the reason it is the kohain who presides over the process is because the kohain must not limit his activity to the mishkan alone, but, rather, bring holiness into all aspects of life.

Rabbi Dov Kanotopsky, in his work, The Essence of Simplicity, writes that Shabbos teaches us that God created and controls the world, so that all the physical bounties we benefit from come from Him. The festivals teach us that this is so throughout all the seasons of the year. Rabbi Kanotopsky then says that this is the dynamic between the section on the menorah, which follows that on the festivals, and the immediately following section on the lechem hapanim. The light of the menorah, representing God’s presence in the world, always shines on the lechem hapanim, which represents our physical sustenance, to show the connection between them. The section on the curser, then, in sharp contrast, teaches us what happens when a person denies that connection.