The Blasphemer Could Have Reached Moshe’s Level

The Daily Chizuk from our teacher, the Gaon and Tzaddik Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a – "Why did the blasphemer curse?"

Wednesday, 21 Cheshvan 5785 – "The blasphemer could have reached the level of Moses," these are his holy words:

What is the story with the blasphemer? Why did the blasphemer suddenly start to curse? After all, the Midrash Rabbah says that Shelomit’s husband was Dathan!

Shelomit had a nice, sweet husband, a holy of holies - his only problem was that he disagreed with the tzaddik.

Dathan was a good, devoted husband; he washed dishes, cleaned the floors, and cooked all the meals. She would rest and say Psalms, and he would do everything for her. He only did one thing wrong - he disagreed with the tzaddik!

Dathan was the husband of Shelomit, and of course, this child was not his (but rather the Egyptian’s) - and suddenly everyone was swallowed by the earth; suddenly everyone was swallowed by the earth: Dathan, Abiram, Korach, the children, the grandchildren, the great-grandchildren. Even the great-grandchildren were swallowed by the earth with the women and the infants.

One person was not swallowed by the earth; that was the blasphemer. The blasphemer was not swallowed by the earth!

Everyone asked him, "Why were you not swallowed by the earth? Why? The earth did not swallow you, why?"

(He answered:) "What am I? I am a holy of holies! I am a tzaddik!"

(They said to him:) "No, no, there is another reason here! Let us go to Moses and ask him."

They went to Moses, and he told the whole truth (that he was the son of the Egyptian and not of Dathan, and therefore did not belong to the tribe of Reuben) - immediately he began to curse.

In truth, he thought he was the son of Dathan; he thought he belonged to the tribe of Reuben. He did not know the story at all.

Suddenly the story was revealed - immediately he cursed Moses, cursed the tzaddik, and was rejected by the tzaddik.

This was the moment he needed to perform teshuvah (repentance); this was the moment he could have been so holy, as great as Moses - if he had held on, he would have ascended to the level of Moses.

If he had accepted the humiliation with love, he would have ascended to the level of Moses; he could have been Moses.

Therefore it is written "Vayikov" (Leviticus 24:11); it does not say he cursed (Vayikallel), "Vayikallel" is later. "Vayikov" means he made a hole between the World of Yetzirah and Asiyah - he drew down lights from the World of Atzilut; he was that great.

Because the simplest woman was like Ezekiel the son of Buzi. The Rambam brings in the Eight Chapters, chapter four at the end, that the simplest woman, even an Egyptian maidservant, saw things greater than Ezekiel the son of Buzi.

So the smallest person could have shown the Chariot, just as Ezekiel showed the entire Chariot - the whole matter of the blasphemer was that he wanted to show them the Chariot in truth.