[Avodah] Taking Responsibility

[Liron Kopinsky]

Here is a dvar torah I wrote on this week's Parsha. I had initially wanted
to write about the responsibility that the nation had to prevent the Mekalel
but looking through some sources, I ended up with the exact opposite
conclusion.


At the end of this week’s Parsha we come across an interesting story. A man,
born to a Jewish mother (from the Tribe of Dan) and an Egyptian father, gets
into an argument with one of the other Jews. In the course of the
disagreement he pronounces the name of Hashem and curses Him. The people
bring the man to Moshe and place him in jail while Moshe asks Hashem for
advice. God instructs them to take the man out of the camp, to have the
people who heard him curse Hashem place their hands on his head and then
stone him to death.

The Midrash, filling in some gaps in the story, tells us that the argument
was about whether this man was entitled to place his tent with the rest of
the Tribe of Dan, since tribal association is patrilineal. The Dan-ites
didn’t want this man camping with them, and are backed by Moshe, who rules
that the Dan-ites have the right to not allow him in their camp. The man
leaves Moshe in frustration, continues his fight with someone else in the
camp, and ultimately curses God.

This Midrash is quite hard to understand. Even if Dan wasn’t obligated count
the blasphemer as a member of their tribe, wouldn’t it still have been a
good gesture to allow him to stay there? He didn’t really have anywhere else
to go, as he surely didn’t belong to any of the other tribes!

Further, even if he wasn’t a particularly nice person and they were
justified in not wanting him around, why did the Jew allow the blasphemer to
pick a fight with him? It was surely possible for them to handle this
situation without getting drawn into one-on-one quarrels with him, and the
man’s temper would not have flared to the point of cursing Hashem. There
seems, however, to be no criticism levied against Dan or the man who argued
with the blasphemer.

Rashi (citing a different Midrash) makes a very insightful comment when
analyzing the punishment given. What is the point of having the people who
witnessed the event place their hands on the blasphemer’s head? We don’t see
this action in other places that stoning is discussed. Rashi says that they
placed their hands on his head to tell him “דמך בראשך ואין אנו נענשים במיתתך
שאתה גרמת לך” (“Your blood is on your own head! We are not to be punished
for your death, for you brought this upon yourself!”).

The lesson here is clear. This is man who comes from a broken family, who
was pushed around by the people he considered the members of his Tribe and
was provoked further by another individual. Yet ultimately he alone is
responsible for his actions and must take full responsibility for them.

How many times do we blame our circumstances for mistakes we make?
http://mydvar.com/2010/04/taking-responsibility/


Shabbat Shalom,
Liron

PS I am looking for other people who are interested in writing Divrei Torah
from time to time for mydvar.com. If you're interested, please let me know
off list.
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