AVROHOM YAAKOV
At the end of the parsha, the Torah relates about the so-called ‘Mekalel’, the person who blasphemed and was subsequently executed.
“And the son of a Israelite 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 argued together in the camp, and the Israelite woman’s son blasphemed the name of the Lord, and cursed.” (24:10-11)
Rashi explains that the Mekalel attacked the command about the Show Bread, the Lechem HaPanim:
“Take the finest grade of wheat flour and bake it into 12 loaves. Each loaf will be made from two-tenths of an eifah (2.7 litres). Arrange these loaves in two stacks, six loaves to a stack, on the pure table, before G‑d. Put pure frankincense beside these stacks. This will be the memorial portion, a fire-offering to G‑d. Every Shabbos these loaves should be placed before G‑d—it is an eternal covenant that this must come from the children of Israel. The [bread] will be given to Aharon and his descendants to eat in a holy place, since it is a most holy fire-offering to G‑d. This is an eternal law.” (24:5-9)
The showbread was placed on the table in two stacks, each stack containing six loaves. Frankincense was placed on the table with the showbread. Fresh loaves of bread replaced the old loaves on the table every Shabbat, and the Kohanim would eat the loaves that were removed from the table.
The Mekalel mocked: ‘Every Sabbath he shall set it in order!? Surely it is the way of a king to eat fresh (warm) bread every day; is it perhaps his way to eat cold bread nine days old?!’
The question arises - why mention that he was an Egyptian man? How does this make his complaint about the Showbread worse?
(Many commentators note that this person’s behaviour was Egyptian – someone who had no respect for G-d. Others say that this was the son if the Egyptian who Moshe saw was beating the Jewish husband of Shlomis bas Divri and had raped Shlomis and the fight was between this bastard son of Shlomis and a half brother of Shlomis and her Jewish husband.)
We know that when Moshe and Aharon approached Pharoah to release the Jews, the Egyptian response was to deny Jews even the basic materials on a daily basis and punished them when they failed to meet daily quotas.
And yet here the son of the Egyptian is making fun when the bread is not fresh. How hypocritical.
The Torah abhors hypocrisy and unfortunately the world is replete with such duplicity.
“We can kill six civilians per one enemy combatant but the Jews are not allowed to harm one civilian in the process of eliminating a barbaric terrorist group,” is just one common hypocritical comment that is making the rounds.
Or the virtue signallers who are the ‘besserer menchen’ who love to impose rules on others while they are above such trivia.
Ultimately the Mekalel paid for his hypocrisy.
