Vayikra Chapter 24 – Transcript

Vayikra Chapter 24: Avodas Tamid and the Story of the Blasphemer

Introduction: The Structure of Chapter 24

Today we’re studying Vayikra chapter 24, which comes immediately after the very structured chapter that we had yesterday – the chapter of Moadei Hashem, all the moadim. What we have here is really a very logical continuation to the story, to the parasha, the halachos of the holy days. Because what we have now is two small parashas which, as I’ve titled them, Avodas Tamid, which are really the laws of the korbanos or of the set korbanos. Of course there’s a Korban Tamid that wasn’t mentioned there – it’s mentioned in Parshas Tetzaveh already, and as well as in Parshas Tetzaveh if I remember correctly in some way. And this parasha is somehow a connection, a continuation of those parashas.

But what it adds is the two mitzvos of the menorah and the lechem hapanim, both of which were mentioned already also, as we discussed, in Parshas Terumah. When it gave us the keilim, the building, the creation of the Mishkan, it talked about both of these things. But apparently these are two things that were important to mention here again in the context of how the rhythm, the time, rhythm in time of the Avodas Beis Hamikdash goes.

So just like there’s a rhythm of special times, there’s also the rhythm of daily time, which are specifically maybe something more connected with the elevated idea of the moadim – in these two daily and weekly sets of avodah of the menorah and the shulchan.

Details Added in This Parasha

And they add some details. There’s some details added which we didn’t have in the previous parashas of the menorah that Ramban discusses here and in Behaaloscha, which is another time where it says the menorah – what is added each time. Although it’s questionable if these are really things we wouldn’t have understood from the previous parashas, but I think that it belongs in this context as I’ve discussed.

The Menorah Parasha

The Oil and Its Purity

So the first parasha is צַו אֶת־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל – they should take shemen zayis for the menorah, pure shemen zayis. That’s the first mitzvah. This was literal – these same exact words were already said in Parshas Tetzaveh. So there’s a mitzvah having the correct kind of oil for the menorah.

The Location of the Menorah

Also the next passage was more or less said already. It says where the menorah should be put – מִחוּץ לְפָרֹכֶת – in other words, not in the Kodesh Hakodashim, but outside of it. And it seems like this is not only like a tzav outside of the Kodesh Hakodashim, it seems to also somehow belong to the Kodesh Hakodashim. So it seems like the menorah somehow belongs really to the Shechina which is resting in the Kodesh Hakodashim, but the light is outside.

The Timing: Evening to Morning

And when is it done? מֵעֶרֶב עַד־בֹּקֶר – from evening to the morning, so every night basically. And this is also something – so if you watch this parasha, you’ll see that every part of it finishes תָּמִיד. Same in the next parasha, something similar. That’s where I got my idea that this is the daily, the tamid rhythm, right? It’s not the korban tamid, but the avodah tamid. So these are the three endings of each verse in this small parasha. So that’s the second one.

The Menorah Hatehorah

The third one – here there’s something added, according to the Ramban and others. It’s added that these neiros should be עַל הַמְּנֹרָה הַטְּהֹרָה. This is, I think, one of the only times – it might be one more time – where the menorah is called the menorah hatehorah. Literally tehorah is not some kind of spiritual thing, it just means that it’s made out of pure gold. This is contrary to the other keilim, most of them which were not made of pure gold – they were covered with gold. But the atzitzah, the mizbeach, and all of the other things, the shulchan, were not created out of gold. The menorah was created purely out of gold, so it’s special in that sense.

And the neiros, which are not part of the menorah – neiros are the, not candles, the lamps that are put on top of the menorah, should be on top of it. So they somehow had some way of connecting it, of course, where it came like sort of into one thing, but it’s not like you light directly in the menorah. You put lamps on top of the menorah, and that’s also לִפְנֵי יְהֹוָה תָּמִיד. So that’s the parasha of the menorah.

The Lechem Hapanim Parasha

The Ingredients and Preparation

Then we have one more parasha, which is the lechem hapanim. And it’s in the same way that the parasha of the menorah started with the ingredients – in the same way, the parasha of the lechem hapanim starts with וְלָקַחְתָּ סֹלֶת. So just like you have to have pure oil, you have to have pure soles, pure flour, a very well-sifted flour. And you bake from it 12 challos, 12 breads, and each one made out of two esronos. So that’s the way the Torah always counts, with esronos.

The Arrangement in Ma’arachos

And these are put in two rows. Also, this is another thing where the menorah and the shulchan lechem hapanim are similar. Both are said to have ma’arachos, right? There’s a ma’arachah. In one place, it’s called explicitly neiros hama’arach. Ma’arachah just means a line or a row, something organized. We have also ma’arachos Yisrael, which is the lines in an army where they set up for war or for battle in a line. Here, these are also set up in a line.

So both the shulchan lechem hapanim – and where is it set up? So it’s two of six, right? So we had 12, so they’re getting the two lines. עַל הַשֻּׁלְחָן הַטָּהֹר – on the shulchan hatahor. And here also the shulchan is called shulchan hatahor, and that’s really unclear. Because menorah hatehorah we understood a second ago – that means that the menorah is pure, made out of pure gold. But the shulchan is not made out of pure gold. So it’s not entirely clear why the shulchan here would be called pure. I don’t know right now.

The Levonah as Azkarah

And now, besides that, on these two rows, עַל הַמַּעֲרֶכֶת – on these organized rows of breads, we put לְבֹנָה זַכָּה – levonah, which is a good smelling thing. Levonah was also put into the ketores. So pure levonah – same, everything here is pure. Kosses lamar, shemen zayis zach, soles, pure flour, and the same thing, levonah zakah.

And this is לַלֶּחֶם – this seems to function in the same way as the levonah put on the menachos. So lechem hapanim is a kind of mincha, it’s a kind of offering of grain, not of animal, but of grain. And as we’ve discussed in the parasha of mincha, most of the mincha, at least, is not burnt on the mizbeach, it’s not offered entirely on the mizbeach, but we put levonah on that. Levonah is offered besides for a kemitzah of each mincha, but there is no kemitzah. So the levonah becomes the azkarah – it’s what reminds it, it’s the part that actually gets given to the mizbeach.

The Weekly Cycle: Shabbos

Now this is done not every day, but each Shabbos. בְּיוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת בְּיוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת – so this goes back to the Shabbos with which the story of the moadim started. Shabbos, every Shabbos it goes back, we order it, we order it on the table on Shabbos. And this is מֵאֵת בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל – so similarly to the shemen zayis, which is tzav bnei Yisrael, v’yikchu alecha, and other places it says explicitly me’eis bnei Yisrael. And here this is also me’eis bnei Yisrael, so they give this flower.

Who Eats the Lechem Hapanim

And then they don’t eat it – who eats it? וְהָיְתָה לְאַהֲרֹן וּלְבָנָיו – it is Aharon and his children eat it, the kohanim eat it. They eat it בְּמָקוֹם קָדֹשׁ, because it’s kodesh, קֹדֶשׁ קׇדָשִׁים – like the chatos, kodshei kodashim, which are considered kodesh, have to be eaten bimakom kodesh. They can’t be eaten everywhere, only in the azarah.

Chukas Olam

And חׇק־עוֹלָם – chukas olam is mentioned many times in Vayikra. It means the law that is for forever, for always, but also here has the meaning of something that is given. So I think originally the word chok might come from that, like chok lakohanim – something that is a portion given to the kohanim forever. This is their portion and this is always their portion, that’s what belongs to them, and that’s who eats it.

So that’s really the end – this is really the end, in a certain sense, the end of all of these parashas, this whole series of parashas of kodesh.

The Narrative of the Blasphemer

A Unique Narrative in Vayikra

Now we get, also in this chapter, although it’s an entirely new thing – what we get is now a story, a narrative. And as we’ve discussed in the beginning of Vayikra, this can be said to be the only narrative in Sefer Vayikra. In other words, the second one. There’s one narrative, which is the story of the Hakamas Hamishkan, including mostly the story of Nadav and Avihu, which can be said to be a narrative. But here we have the story of the ben ish Yisraelis, who was nokev v’shem Hashem, and there’s a story of his punishment.

The Nature of This Narrative

Just to be very clear, there is some story here. Of course the story isn’t mentioned – we don’t get the background, we don’t get what’s going on, what was the reason, what was the fight about. So we don’t really get a story here, there isn’t really a human story. It’s more that the story is a framing for the law, as we’ve seen.

In some sense, Nadav and Avihu also comes to frame certain laws, or maybe all the laws of tumah vetaharah. In some sense, we’ve discussed then – if we haven’t learned it officially, we’ve still discussed it, really.

The Structure: Question and Answer

In any case, this has the structure of many narratives in the Torah whose function is only to get us to say: there was a question, and because of this question, we need to get the answer, and the answer is a certain law. And that law is chukas olam – that law is not just answering a specific particular problem in time and place. It’s the time in which this law was given, so to speak. Or the – I don’t even know if we can say that so much – we can say more like, this is the framing in which the law is given.

So this is also really a part that’s here to tell us a law, and it explicitly has the framing of not knowing a certain law and then it being taught, which is a framing which we have, I think, two other times, at least, and three other times in many stories that go like this.

Why This Story Belongs Here

In any case, this is the story. And as I’ve said here, I think that the main reason why this story belongs here – so one reason I said is because this is a framing for a law. As we’ll see, the parasha – so we have the story, and then here it’s – I wrote it as a narrative, I’m going to change it to be the font of a law, because this is really a parasha of a law.

It includes also the halachah – what’s the onesh for someone who is mekalel Hashem. But also the onesh for all kinds of nezek, which is something which was apparently missing from the laws of Sefer Vayikra. There’s kodashim, there’s a lot of laws, but there isn’t these basic laws which are in Parshas Mishpatim in Sefer Shemos. We had them, but it seems like Sefer Vayikra also wants or needs his version of these laws. And this is the place where it’s said as a continuation, but derech agav, to the whole story of the mekalel.

So this is the parasha of the law – that’s not only about mekalel Hashem, it’s also about every kind of damage or any kind of injury, that someone injures another person. And we can talk for a second about why that is agav, that’s something that belongs to the logic of Sefer Vayikra.

Chillul Hashem

But in any case, second thing that this is doing is that this is, we could say very clearly, a story of chillul Hashem, just like we’ve discussed, all these—

The Story of the Mekallel (Blasphemer)

The Identity and Background of the *Mekallel*

There’s a story of someone, *ben* Israel. It’s weird because this is one of the ways Vayikra sometimes cuts up a sentence – really the continuation of the sentence I think is here. So there’s a person, his mother is Jewish. She has a name, her name is not mentioned in the beginning, it’s mentioned in the second *pasuk*. In any case, we understand that apparently, by omission, we understand that his father was not Jewish.

What was the story? Of course, there’s the *Midrash* that imagines what the story was, but there’s something off with this person. Vayeitzei v’machavyeitzeh sometimes just means like a story started – like I’m not sure it really went from somewhere to somewhere. But they had a fight, b’machaneh, in the camp, ben Yisraelis and ish Yisraeli. So some unnamed *ish Yisraeli*, who was apparently not only maternally Jewish, he was also paternally Jewish. And it seems here that there’s something called a *ben Yisraelis*, which doesn’t make him entirely Israeli. Of course, the *halacha* is just the opposite. And they have a fight.

The Act of Blasphemy

And now as part of their fight, and apparently as part of this person being mad at this concept of *Yisrael* – so of course, we can imagine, we could fill in the story by ourselves – he is nokev Hashem. So he takes – *nokev* is not clear what exactly the verb means, right – he makes it explicit or something like that, the name of Hashem. We know, we don’t even say it at all, and apparently that might be an elaboration of this, because like, just saying someone’s name sometimes in the way of honor is not to say someone’s name, or we speak about it in third person, and so on. So he says the name, vayekallel. Of course, just saying the name isn’t really the *issur*, but it’s part of the like, part of the *chillul Hashem* that he’s doing, and he’s *mekallel Hashem*.

The Judicial Process

Now the people, the people around, the judges that were made by *Yisro*, and so on, right – this is an example of them being judges, as *Yisro* said, but they’re not knowing what to do. They don’t know what to do, so they put him in jail, until Hashem will tell them what to do. And as they’ve, their expectations come true, Moshe – Hashem speaks to Moshe and tells them, hotze – so *vayeitzei* is *Yisrael*, so now *hotze*, take him out of the camp.

The Punishment: *Semichah* and Stoning

And bring him, everyone – so there’s like a *semichah*, some kind of – we have this similar in different death penalties – like there’s a *semichah*, like everyone, because somehow this person’s *chet* is like, pollutes the camp. So we have to like, it’s similar to our *korban*, we have to all like, and say that this is not us, we’re purifying ourselves by this. So that’s all of them, and everyone.

The General Law of Blasphemy

Now, what is – and then, this is a language that we had, this is not the first time we did this language, which is like, it’s not clear to me, I will interpret it today as being something like, this is something said like, for once, like as if the answer to this question that they had today, but really, speak it as a law. So make it a law, put it down to the law book, right into the *Chumash*, right, make it into a law for always. And it’s just always the language that’s ish ish, which sees any person, right, any man ki yekallel Elohav, v’nasa cheto – he will carry his sin. In other words, what I think what this means is that he doesn’t have a *kapparah*, like this is where one of the *mekoros* said, in other words, the *Kohanim’s* job with the *korban* is to say, that’s what they’re doing all the time, but he will have to suffer his own sin, he will have to carry it, like suffer it.

And what specifically will happen? So it’s interesting, first it was – I’m not sure how to read this in a simple sense. We said before, it says, and here it’s split, like, maybe, without being nokev Hashem, doesn’t get the *misa*, but somehow, if he does both – obviously, *nokev* is not only if he says the name. If he is *mekallel*, sometimes we can say that *kelalah*, we see *kelalah* means curse, but like I said before, *vayikol*, *vayekallel*, maybe that’s not the same thing, maybe it is the same thing, I don’t know. So he’s put to death, and kol ha’eidah, there’s this *kol ha’eidah*, the entire community has to stone him. So that’s why, as I said, there’s something like a *pgam*, like a hill in the entire community. Kageir ka’ezrach doesn’t matter, and this is very clearly, right – just like this *bnei Yisrael*, this might have been only a *ger*, maybe he wasn’t considered a *ezrach*, but it doesn’t matter, b’nokvo shem yumas.

Laws of Injury: Connection to *Chillul Hashem*

And now we go on to laws of injuries, laws of injuries, *b’nadon l’chaveiro*. So, k’ilu we say, the *nokev Hashem* is an injury *b’nadon l’Makom*, right – he’s *mekallel Hashem*, he’s *maka Hashem*. And then he could be *mekallel* or *maka*, not curse, but hate, the person if you curse him, it doesn’t make a big difference, unless it’s apparent, which is, has more of a spiritual thing.

But maka kol nefesh, also put to death. And the feeling we get from this juxtaposition of these two laws is that *maka ish chaveiro*, is k’ilu *maka b’Shechinah*, is in some sense, also *mekallel Hashem*. Is you murdering a person, as the *Chazal* would say, is *b’tzelem Elokim*, and therefore murdering a person is similar to k’ilu *selim t’oleh*, it’s similar to murder, cursing God, and therefore you get the same death penalty. So that’s a thing.

Graduated System of Penalties

And then, if you hit or kill someone who’s not a human being, so makeh nefesh behemah, you don’t get the death penalty, you shall never pay, let’s say, one animal for the other animal.

In the same way, for a lower thing, for things that are not death, but injury – ki yitein mum ba’amiso – you don’t kill someone. *Maka* earlier means yakeh kol nefesh, he destroys his soul, in other words, he kills him. But if you don’t destroy his soul, if you don’t kill him only, you put a *mum*, then he gets what he’s got. If you broke his bone, you break his bone. Of course, you know already the story, what this means in practice, but this is the logic of it. You get what you – so the logic is, you get what you’ve solved. You murder someone, you get murdered. In the same way, if you hurt someone, you get hurt. Maybe that can be changed for money, but that’s still the basic logic of it.

And if you hurt – now, what about an animal that you only hurt? He didn’t kill, not *makeh nefesh behemah*, but *makeh* animal, he gets only paid.

Summary of the Penalty Structure

So the literal meaning is:

– If you injure a human being, you have to be injured

– If you kill a human, right, you kill a human, you get death penalty

– You kill the animal, you have to pay, nefesh tachas nefesh – maybe you kill your animal, it doesn’t say exactly what happens

– You injure a human being, you get injured

– You injure an animal, you don’t get injured at all, you only have to pay

Makeh adam yumas – it goes back, obviously, to *makeh nefesh*, right. *Makeh adam yumas*, I think, is only, for some reason, re-saying the law of *makeh nefesh adam yumas*. Not clear to me why. Maybe this is really should be short, *makeh nefesh adam yumas*, *makeh behemah* – maybe these are the same thing, but we could think about why it says, again, it seems like a recap. This is something that the *pasuk* does always, of course, there’s the *Rashi* and things to explain.

Universal Application of the Law

And all of this is, for everyone, kageir ka’ezrach, doesn’t matter, the same law. And there’s the signature.

Execution of the Judgment

And then we get the end of this. So this is as if the whole, this whole long *parasha*, all these laws were given to Moshe at that moment, at that time, when he asked Moshe what to do with this *maka adam*. And then they do it, they’re *mekayeim*, Moshe tells us the *deidim*, and they take the *maka adam* out of the camp, and they stone him, and they do what Moshe said. That’s their standard ending for every time that Moshe says something, and we follow it.