In Parshas Tetzaveh, we learned about lighting the Menorah with Shemen Zayis Zach, the first oil to come out of the olives. In today’s Chumash, we learn this AGAIN. Rashi tells us that in Parshas Tetzaveh, we were learning WHY we need a Menorah in the Mishkan, and only here, in Parshas Emor, is Hashem telling us to DO the mitzvah of lighting the Menorah!

Hashem also tells us to bake the Lechem HaPanim and put it on the Shulchan. Rashi says that these challos were very thin. That’s why there were racks on the Shulchan, to hold them up so they won’t break. But the bottom challah had to go right on top of the Shulchan, to do what the Torah says, to put the challos on top of the Shulchan.

Next to each pile of challos, the kohen would put a bowl of a spice called levonah, as a present for Hashem. The challos weren’t burned on the Mizbeiach, the kohanim got to eat them. The spices were burned instead, when they took the challah off on Shabbos.

Now the Torah tells us about a person in the midbar who was punished for something he did:

A man, the son of Shlomis bas Divri, tried to stay in the wrong part of where the Yidden had their tents. The Yidden stayed in the part of their father’s shevet, but because this man’s father was a Mitzri, he couldn’t stay in the regular parts with the shevatim. He tried anyway, to stay with his mother’s shevet, Dan. Someone from Dan brought him to Moshe’s Beis Din, and Moshe said he couldn’t camp there.

Rashi tells us why the Torah tells us his mother’s name: Her name hints to us that she would say hello to everyone (“Shlomis” is like “Shalom!”), even to men, and liked to talk a lot to everyone (“bas Divri” like “medaberes”, talking). Because she wasn’t careful who she talked to, a Mitzri forced her to marry him, and she had a son — this one, who later cursed Hashem.

This man got angry at Moshe. He started to make fun of things Hashem said. He said, “Shouldn’t a king eat fresh bread? The bread on the Shulchan is only baked once a week! So Hashem gets cold stale bread?” (Of course, the Lechem Hapanim stayed fresh and warm all week!) He started to curse in Hashem’s name.

The Yidden arrested him and asked Moshe what to do. Moshe asked Hashem, and Hashem told Moshe about the punishments for this kind of aveira. If someone curses in Hashem’s name, using Hashem’s four-letter name (Sheim Havaya), he is punished by Beis Din with sekilah, stoning.

Hashem also told Moshe about how someone is punished for hurting a person or an animal. These halachos are for ALL Yidden, including Geirim.

Moshe taught these mitzvos to all of the Yidden, and they punished the son of Shlomis bas Divri like Hashem told them to.