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Emor

The Blasphemer

The Torah relates the incident involving the son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian man who blasphemed the name of God and was sentenced to death. The Sages explain that his harsh treatment by other Israelites due to his ancestry caused him to blaspheme.

As when this man came to establish his tent in the camp of Dan, his mother’s tribe, [the people of the tribe of Dan] rejected him, saying to him: You are the son of an Egyptian, and it is written: “Each at his banner, with the insignias of their patrilineal houses” (Numbers 2:2) – and not of their matrilineal houses. Immediately, he began to blaspheme the name of God and to curse Him. (Tanĥuma, Emor)