레위기 24:11의 주석

ויקב — Translate this as the Targum does: ופרש “and he pronounced”, thus ויקב … ויקלל means that he uttered the Tetragrammaton and by so doing blasphemed. It was the “Proper Name” which he had heard on Mount Sinai (cf. Sifra, Emor, Section 14 2 and Jeremiah Targ.).

ושם אמו, and the name of his mother, etc. Why was the name of this woman only mentioned here instead of at the time her existence was mentioned in verse 10 prior to the confrontation of her son with Moses? One may answer this in either one of two ways. 1) It reflects credit upon her seeing the Torah wrote: "they brought him to Moses, whereas the name of his mother was Shlomit." This implies that his mother was one of those who brought the blasphemer to Moses to be judged. 2) Mention of Shlomit at this stage reflects discredit upon her. Had it not been for the fact that others brought the blasphemer to Moses for judgment his mother could have remained anonymous. The general tenor of the story indicates that the blasphemer's mother could not overcome her feelings of pity for her son. The Torah teaches the lesson which we learned in Proverbs 12,10 that compassion for the wicked is actually an act of cruelty. The Torah discloses the name of the woman who had been foolish enough to display such feelings for her son the blasphemer. The fact that the Torah also reveals the name of her tribe is an indication that members of a tribe have a tendency to be protective of members of that tribe. This is why the Midrash we quoted earlier stated that when a person disgraces himself he also disgraces his tribe.

ויקוב, he mentioned the holy name of G’d before cursing same.

She alone. Re’m asks: In Parshas Shemos (2:11), Rashi explains, “She thought that he was her husband.” If so, she erred and [did] not [sin] voluntarily, so why does he call her wayward? It seems to me that she was not modest before men as Rashi explains, “She would chatter..., inquiring [about] everyone’s wellbeing.” Therefore, she stumbled into waywardness and suffered this mishap, just as we find with Dinah. (Nachalas Yaakov)

למטה דן, “a member of the tribe of Dan;” it was that tribe which had initiated the quarrel described in the last verse. Compare Talmud, tractate Pesachim folio 4, where we are told that there was a person who whenever he disagreed with someone immediately suggested that he and his adversary take the matter to court. Eventually, people who knew him concluded that he must have been descended from the tribe of Dan, a word which means: “judging.” [This incident occurred many hundreds of years after the tribe of Dan and nine other tribes had been exiled, and no one could trace his antecedents to a particular tribe of the ten tribes whom the Assyrians had transplanted. Ed.]

ויקוב בן האשה הישראלית ויקלל, “the son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name and cursed;” as a result of the quarrel he began to curse;

ושם אמו שלמית בת דברי AND HIS MOTHER’S NAME WAS SHELOMITH, THE DAUGHTER OF DIBRI, [THE TRIBE OF DAN] — it is to tell how praiseworthy Israel was that Scripture publicly mentions her name (exposes her), telling us implicitly that of all the women of Israel she alone was a harlot (Leviticus Rabbah 32 5).

ויקוב, ויקלל, the Torah does not use the expression ויברך which is traditionally used someone who curses the name of G-d, as for instance in Kings I 21,13, where Navot had been accused (falsely) of cursing the King and G-d, in order for the King to have a pretext to have him executed for not selling him his vineyard. It uses the word: ויקלל, instead, which refers to someone cursing without using the tetragram as the Lord’s name, a sin not punishable by the death penalty. (Sifra)

שלמית (connected with שלום “peace”) — she was so called because she was always babbling: “Peace be with thee”, “peace be with thee”, “peace be with you” — she used to continually babble with many words (she was a בת דברי) — she enquired after the health of everybody (Leviticus Rabbah 32 5).

את השם ויקלל, he also used the tetragram when cursing. Rabbi Yossi is on record as saying that the Egyptians who were ritually contaminated, also conferred their ritual contamination on the Israelites. His colleagues claimed that the wife of Neriah, a grandson of Dan, was Shlomit, daughter of Divri, and that during the night following the day when Moses slew the Egyptian who was one of the supervisors checking the number of bricks delivered by the Jewish slaves, raped her. History has a way of repeating itself. According to Tanchuma, Emor 24 as well as Vayikra Rabbah 32,4 when the quarrel broke out, and a Jewish man accused this man to be a bastard, this man asked the accuser where his father had been on the night when he claimed that his mother had been raped. The night he referred to was the night when his mother had supposedly been raped by an Egyptian overseer, who had used a pretext to send her husband on an errant. The reason why this blasphemer used the tetragram when cursing G-d, was that he had overheard how Moses had used that name as a means to kill his father. [I do not follow this, because if he had not been born yet, and his mother became pregnant with him as a result of the rape, how could he have overheard Moses? Ed.][This is why the Torah in Exodus 2,14 has one of the two quarrelling Israelites ask Moses whether he planned to kill him also by using the tetragram to curse him, so that he would fall dead. (הלהרגני אתה אומר: “are you going to utter a word which will kill me?”)]

בת דברי (from the root דבר “to speak”) — she was talkative — talking with any man, and in consequence of this she got into trouble.

למטה דן, “from the tribe of Dan.” He had been the one causing the quarrel. He had justified his action by saying that he would now rectify an injustice done to him. This may also have been hinted at when in Genesis 49,16, according to the Talmud in Pessachim folio 4, Yaakov on his deathbed, using prophetic vision had said דן ידין עמו, “Dan will judge his people.”

למטה דן OF THE TRIBE OF DAN — This mention also of the parent and tribe of the woman teaches us that the wrong doer brings shame upon himself, shame upon his parent, shame upon his whole tribe. Similarly we find the name of the tribe Dan mentioned to express praise; (Exodus 31:6) “Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan”, where the details of Oholiab’s descent imply praise for him, praise for his father and praise for his tribe (Sifra, Emor, Section 14 4).