PARASHAT EMOR

INTERMARRIAGE -THE EXCEPTION AMONG ISRAEL

"And the son of the Israelitish woman, whose father was an Egyptian man, went out among the children of Israel: and this son of the Israelite woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp; and the Israelite woman's son blasphemed the name of the L-rd, and cursed. And they brought him to Moshe: And his mother's name was Shlomit, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan." (Vayikra 24:10-11) This parsha tells the story of a son born to a relationship between a Jewish mother, Shlomit Bat Dibri and a non-Jewish father. This Egyptian was a taskmaster in charge of 120 Jewish slaves. He used to go to the houses of the workers in order to assemble them. This is how he met Shlomit Bat Dibri who was an extremely attractive woman. With his eye on her, he called her husband out for his duty and returned to her house pretending to be her husband. When Shlomit's husband saw the Egyptian exit his house, he was concerned and asked her whether he had touched her. She answered, "Yes, but I thought that he was you." When the taskmaster found out that Shlomit's husband was aware of what had taken place, he whipped him. This is the Egyptian, which Moshe killed, when he saw with Ruach Hakodesh that this taskmaster deserved death for committing adultery. (Tanchuma Parsha 9)
Whereas, the name of the person who cursed is not mentioned at all, it seems peculiar that the name of his mother is stated. Rashi explains that Scripture publicly mentions her name to tell the praise of Israel, that among all the Jewish women during the Egyptian exile, she alone had relations with a Gentile. B'er Yitchak clarifies how we learn Israel's praise from Shlomit's deviation. When someone acts in a strange and unexpected way, people want to know who acted this way, whether for good or for bad. Therefore, the fact that the name of this Israelite woman is noted, clearly shows that although her fellow Jews had lived among the perverse Egyptian society for years, being a victim of a relation with a non-Jewish person was considered foreign and strange to them. Therefore they noticed her name.

THE POWER OF SPEECH BY WAY OF EXAMPLE

Although one should never automatically blame the victim, in this particular case Rashi explains that Scripture hints through the meaning of her name that Shlomit was disposed towards getting assaulted. Shlomit Bat Dibri was called so, because she was always babbling: "How are you?", "How are you?", "How are you?" (The name Shlomit is related to the Hebrew salutation Shalom.) She was a "Bat Dibri" meaning talkative: talking with any man in the street, this is what eventually caused her to get into trouble. (Rashi 24:11) Scripture refers to the uncontrolled speech of the mother of the blasphemer to teach us that a mother has a special responsibility to teach her children proper behavior by example. The way we use our Divine ability of speech has repercussions in our children. This does not imply that the mother is responsible for all actions of her children. It certainly is not our job to judge why many righteous parents have children who deviate from the path. Every person has free choice, however, within the intricate make up of a person's features, there is a certain element of the children's character that reflects the nature of the mother to whom they were attached throughout the formative years.

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