Emor: Equal under the Law

The parsha begins with emor and ends with vayidaber.  It begins with the purifying restrictions on the priests and ends with the stoning of a half Egyptian man.  It is a parsha of contrasts asking for definition.  

The final section of the parsha tells the story of  the blasphemer.  The protagonist of the story is described as a "ben", a son which leads me to imagine that he was young.  He is the son of Shlomith (the daughter of Dibri [from the root: dbr]of the tribe of Dan[judgement]).  This is his Israelite mother.  His Egyptian father is not named, but his heritage is clear. 

In the midst of an argument, this (young) man pierces ( וַ֠יִּקֹּב ) the (sacred) Name.  A citizen's arrest is made, the man is brought before Moshe.  Moshe  asks Gd what to do. He is told one who blasphemes should be put to death.  A set of  Hamurabi-like laws follows, culminating in  מִשְׁפַּ֤ט אֶחָד֙ יִהְיֶ֣ה לָכֶ֔ם כַּגֵּ֥ר כָּאֶזְרָ֖ח יִהְיֶ֑ה, You shall have one standard for stranger and citizen alike: for I the LORD am your God.  The law is the same for all. The blasphemer is then stoned;  the Children of Israel have done as the Lrd commanded Moses. 

Is there  מִשְׁפַּ֤ט אֶחָד֙, a single justice? Should such a severe punishment have been imposed upon a confused young man? How did this man relate to the Gd that had imposed ten plagues upon his father's people, culminating in Epidemic of the Eldest (aka plague of the firstborn)?  He had witnessed the degradation of gods before, was the current Gd of his mother different? 

The parsha had begun with laws that apply only to the priests, some only to the High Priest. The parsha began by telling us that there is a separate law for those who serve in the Temple rite.  Now there is a claim of democracy, one law for all? 

Equal application of a set of rules does not constitute equal justice. People come to  their offences from different backgrounds.  The same act can be a crime, a kindness, an act of desperation, and heroic... sometimes all at the same time.  But certain violations cannot be allowed to continue. People cannot be allowed to kill each other.  They cannot destroy another's property without compensation.  The rules for handing these felonies and misdemeanors must be uniform and applied without favoritism.  Apparently the same goes for the blasphemer, the budding revolutionary. 

At the creation, Gd used the emor to code the creation. I have seen that :Rabbi Elijah of Vilna (Aderet Eliyahu) suggests that DABER is used for commandments that are spelled out in the written Torah whereas AMAR is used for those commandments found in the oral Torah. Emor is open ended. ( It also contains the phoneme  אֱמֹ֥, mother. The idea that more will be generated) .  Look at the word daber: דַבֵּ֥ר  , it begins with a door (deleth)  followed by the bracket letter Beith, the letter that signifies an enclosure, a limit that cannot be breached, followed by the raish, the head, the interpretation that is common to both words.  We need to understand the uniformity of justice in both ways: the open interpretation that examines the circumstances of the act... and the closed absolute that that allows for community survival. 

Perhaps the blasphemer's mother had invoked the judgemental tradition of her tribe (Dan) and spoken to her son through Dibur, rather than as a mother with Emor.