When Israel received the Torah from God, all the other nations envied
them and said: "Why were these choosen by God out of all the nations?"
But God stopped their mouths, replying: "Bring Me your family records,
and My children shall bring their family records." The nations could
not prove the purity of their families, but Israel stood without a
blemish, every man among them ready to prove his pure descent, so that
the nations burst into praise at Israel's family purity, which was
rewarded by God with the Torah for this its excellence. [448]
How truly chastity and purity reigned among Israel was shown by the
division of the people into groups and tribes. Among all these
thousands was found only a single man who was not of pure descent, and
who therefore at the pitching of the standards could attach himself to
none of the groups. This man was the son of Shelomith, a Danite woman,
and the Egyptian, [449] whom Moses, when a youth of eighteen, had slain
for having offered violence to Shelomith, the incident that had
necessitated Moses' flight from Egypt. It had happened as follows: When
Moses came to Goshen to visit his parents, he witnessed how an Egyptian
struck an Israelite, and the latter, knowing that Moses was in high
favor at Pharaoh's court, sought his assistance, appealing to him with
these words: "O, my lord, this Egyptian by night forced his way into my
house, bound me with chains, and in my presence offered violence to my
wife. Now he wants to kill me besides." Indignant at this infamous
action of the Egyptian, Moses slew him, so that the tormented Israelite
might go home. The latter, on reaching his house, informed his wife
that he intended getting a divorce from her, as it was not proper for a
member of the house of Jacob to live together with a woman that had
been defiled. When the wife told her brothers of her husband's
intentions, they wanted to kill their brother-in-law, who eluded them
only by timely flight. [450]
The Egyptian's violence was not without issue, for Shelomith gave birth
to a son whom she reared as a Jew, even though his father had been and
Egyptian. When the division of the people according to the four
standard took place, this son of Shelomith appeared among the Danites
into whose division he meant to be admitted, pointing out to them that
his mother was a woman of the tribe of Dan. The Danites, however,
rejected him, saying: "The commandment of God says, 'each man by his
own standard, with the ensign of his father's house.' Paternal, not
maternal descent decides a man's admission to a tribe." As this man was
not content with this answer, his case was brought to Moses' court, who
also passed judgement against him. This so embittered him the he
blasphemed the Ineffable Name which he had heard on Mount Sinai, and
cursed Moses. He at the same time ridiculed the recently announced law
concerning the shewbread that was to be set on the table in the
sanctuary every Sabbath, saying: "It behooves a king to eat fresh bread
daily, and no stale bread." [451]
At the same time as the crime blasphemy was committed by the son of
Shelomith, Zelophehad committed another capital crime. On a Sabbath day
he tore trees out of the ground although he had been warned by
witnesses not to break the Sabbath. The overseers whom Moses had
appointed to enforce the observance of the Sabbath rest seized him and
brought him to the school, where Moses, Aaron, and other leaders of the
people studied the Torah.
In both these cases Moses was uncertain how to pass judgement, for,
although he knew that capital punishment must follow the breaking of
the Sabbath, still the manner of capital punishment in this case had
not yet been revealed to him. Zelophehad was in the meantime kept in
prison until Moses should learn the details of the case, for the laws
says that a man accused of a capital charge may not be given liberty of
person. The sentence that Moses received from God was to execute
Zelophehad in the presence of all the community by stoning him. This
was accordingly done, and after the execution his corps was for a short
time suspended from the gallows. [452]
The sin of the Sabbath-breaker was the occasion that gave rise to God's
commandment of Zizit to Israel. For He said to Moses, "dost thou know
how it came to pass that this man broke the Sabbath?" Moses: "I do not
know." God: "On week days he wore phylacteries on his head and
phylacteries on his arm to remind him of his duties, but on the Sabbath
day, on which no phylacteries may be worn, he had nothing to call his
duties to his mind, and he broke the Sabbath. God now, Moses, and find
for Israel a commandment the observance of which is not limited to week
days only, but which will influence them on Sabbath days and on holy
days as well." Moses selected the commandment of Zizit, the sight of
which will recall to the Israelites all the other commandments of God.
[453]
Whereas in the case of the Sabbath breaker Moses had been certain that
the sin was punishable by death, and had been certain that the sin was
punishable by death, and had been in doubt only concerning the manner
of execution, in the case of the blasphemer matters were different.
Here Moses was in doubt concerning the nature of the crime, for he was
not even sure if it was at all a capital offence. Hence he did not have
these two men imprisoned together, because one of them was clearly a
criminal, whereas the status of the other was undetermined. But God
instructed Moses that the blasphemer was also to be stoned to death,
and that this was to be the punishment for blasphemers in the future.
[454]
There were two other cases beside these two in Moses' career on which
he could not pass judgement without appealing to God. These were the
claims of Zelophehad's daughters to the inheritance of their father,
and the case of the unclean that might not participate in the offering
of the paschal lamb. Moses hastened in his appeal to God concerning the
two last mentioned cases, but took his time with the two former, for on
these depended human lives. In this Moses set the precedent to the
judges among Israel to dispatch civil cases with all celerity, but to
proceed slowly in criminal cases. In all these cases, however, he
openly confessed that he did not at the time know the proper decision,
thereby teaching the judges of Israel to consider it no disgrace, when
necessary, to consult others in cases when they were not sure of true
judgement. [455]