Parshat Emor: The Egyptian Man
THE LESSON OF THE EGYPTIAN MAN, PARSHAT EMOR WHEN THEY DISTANCE A PERSON FROM ABOVE, THIS NEEDS TO BE ACCEPTED WITH LOVE Rashi writes: From Mosheâs courtroom, they would come out guilty. He came and planted his tent amongst the camp of Dan. They said to him, whatâs your reason for being here? He said to them, because Iâm from the Tribe of Dan. They bought the passuk, verse, where itâs written âeach person according to their own flagâ â according to their fatherâs house. I.e. each tribe follows the father. The âEgyptian Manâ[1] went into the courtroom of Moshe and he came out liable, and then he stood up and started blaspheming. The commentator called the Mei Shiloach says: The fact that they wanted to throw him outside of the camp, this was his tikkun (spiritual rectification). When a person wants to go into his succah and rain starts to fall, this is the same thing. A person wants to go into his succah, but suddenly where his succah is standing, he gets sent a flood. He gets soaked from his head to his feet. He needs to say: > Ribonu Shel Olam, thank you very much! I'M NOT WORTHY OF BEING A JEW The Mei Shiloach explains that when a Jew leaves his Succah when it rains, he does so with submission, because he accepts the judgment with love. They throw a jug of water in his face, and he says Iâm not worthy of fulfilling the mitzvah of Succah! Iâm not worthy of being in the camp of Israel! Iâm not worthy of being a Jew at all! This is similar to what Ruth said, when said [to Boaz] âspread your robe over your maidservantâ. [She was saying] Iâm not worthy of being a Jewess! How can I be a Jew? How can I attach myself to a holy nation? JEWISH SOULS CAN ACCEPT SHAME AND HUMILIATION A person whose soul is from the people of Israel, whose soul is from Ruth the Moabitess, which is the soul of King David, this soul can receive all the shame and humiliation in the world; they can throw him out of the Succah and they can throw him out of the camp. So too, with the Kohanim. They can say to a Kohen youâve got a blemish, you canât participate in the Temple services. You have some sort of scratch, some sort of callous, or wart, you canât perform the service. Those that have a neshama that comes from the root of Israel, when these people are told to go outside the camp, they accept this with love, and they leave with humility. I believe I canât properly fulfill the mitzvah of succahâŚIâm not worthy to perform such a wonderful mitzvah like sitting in the succahâŚIâm not worthy to sit in the shade of the succah. > But this isnât the case with the nations of the world.[2] GOD IS DISTANCING US, NO-ONE ELSE He, the Jew, knows that Hashem is the one who has distanced him and pushed him away. Itâs not Moshe who pushed me away and distanced me, and itâs not because there is protekzia. And Miriam also knew that it wasnât Moshe who pushed her away and distanced her. It wasnât Moshe who was insulting her. Therefore, when he distanced her, she accepted the judgment with love, and therefore, she merited to bring down the well, which was revealed to her, for Am Yisrael. > And this parsha, which talks about the âEgyptian Manâ, this is something that each and every one of us goes through. Translated from Aish Moharan, Rav Eliezer Berland's commentary on the Parsha of the Week [1] The âEgyptian Manâ was a Jew whose mother had had relations with an Egyptian, and he was born of that union. Thus, he had no real âtribeâ that he belonged to because while he was still a Jew, which tribe a person belonged to is decided by patrilineal descent. [2] See the Zoharâs explanation on: âWhy do they kick the succah?â When the non-Jews leave the succah [because it is too hot], they leave it appropriately because a person who is suffering from sitting in the succah is exempt from being there. But he explains that the main reason they sat in the succah in the first place is only because they were doing it for their own benefit. Even if they once do a mitzvah, itâs only to show other people that they did it. Therefore, they kick the succah [on the way out], because they didnât manage to achieve what they wanted to do. But a Jew, who only wants to do the will of his Master in Heaven, he believes that if Hashem wants it to happen, then great, but if Hashem doesnât want it to happen, like when a person is suffering and thus is exempt from sitting in the succah, that means that Hashem doesnât want him to fulfill the mitzvah. So this person agrees to do Hashemâs will, from a place of self-nullification.