02 May EMOR: COMPASSION FOR THE BLASPHEMER

The end of Parshas
Emor contains the
tragic incident of the

Megadef (Blas-
phemer). Moshe and

the rest of the Jewish

people did not initially know the appro-
priate punishment for one who cursed

the Name of G-d, so the violator was

placed under guard pending clarifica-
tion from Hashem what his fate was to

be.
Rashi deduces from use of the pronoun
“they placed HIM (vayanichuHU) in
confinement” that the blasphemer was
placed in confinement by himself. Even
though the incident of the chopper of
wood on Shabbos (mekoshesh eitzim)
happened at the same time and he too
was placed in jail pending further
instructions from the Almighty, they
were not placed in the same jail cell. [In
the case of the Shabbos desecrator, it

was known that he was deserving capital
punishment, but it was not known at the
time which form of punishment was
appropriate.]
I saw a very interesting insight in the
Sefer Ikvei Erev by a Rav Azriel
Lankeh. Rav Lankeh asks why the two
sinners were not placed in the same cell.
Rav Lankeh explains that it was not yet
known that the Megadef was going to
be killed. If a person has not committed
a capital crime he does not want to be
put in the same cell as a person on death
row. It would have been inappropriate
“inueey hadin” [anguish of judgment]
to place him on death row if in fact he
himself would not have been destined
for that fate. Until they actually heard
what his punishment was going to be,
they put him in a separate jail cell so
that he shouldn’t have the worry and
concern “Look, they have placed me on
death row with another person who is

going to be executed.”
This is a beautiful sensitivity on the
part of the Torah that we do not want to
cause this person undue distress.
Consider what type of person we are
dealing with: a person who committed
the terrible crime of blaspheming the
Name of G-d! This is not a crime of
passion or a crime of lust. This is
outright rebellion against the Master of
the Universe. What pleasure does a
person receive from cursing the Name
of Hashem? This is a bona-fide wicked
individual. Why should he be shown
any sensitivity and compassion? Our
initial inclination would be to put him in
jail, throw away the key, and let him rot
there! Let him worry all he wants! We
are not exactly dealing here with a
Tzadik!
We see that despite all this, he is still a
Jew and even such a Jew must be treated

with sensitivity. We do not yet know his
fate. The Almighty will tell us in another
day or so. In the meantime, we need to
show him compassion and not callously
compound his anguish by causing him
to contemplate a fate that might be
worse than that which the Almighty will
inform us he actually deserves.
If the Torah is so concerned about the
feelings of a Megadef, how much more
so is it that we need to be sensitive to the
feelings and concerns of a regular Jew
who is not accused of such a serious
crime?