Dear Friends;

I hope that you’ll enjoy the following Parsha summary followed by a Dvar Torah;

” Parsha in a Nutshell “

This week’s Parsha begins with the special laws dedicated to the Kohanim, the Kohen Gadol (“High Priest”), and the Temple service. A Kohen may not become ritually impure through contact with a dead body, unless it’s a close relative. A Kohen may not marry a divorcee, nor a harlot; and a Kohen Gadol can only marry a virgin. A Kohen with a physical deformity cannot serve in the Holy Temple, nor can a deformed animal be brought as an offering.

A newborn calf, lamb, or kid must be left with its mother for seven days before being eligible for an offering; one may not slaughter an animal and its offspring on the same day.

The Torah then discusses the festivals throughout the year: (Pesach, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and Shemini Atzeret); followed by two constant mitzvot maintained in the Mishkan: the lighting of the menorah every day and the displaying of the “show-bread” every week.

The parsha concludes with the horrible incident of a man who cursed G-d’s name (blasphemy) and was subsequently punished with the death penalty at Hashem’s command.

” Dvar Torah”

Once again a good portion of this week’s Parsha is dedicated to the Kohanim. I always wondered why does the Torah dedicate so much of its “air-time” and scripture to the Kohanim? After all, the Torah isn’t such a long book, and it covers the entire story from the Creation all the way to Jews entering the land of Israel, a timespan of a few thousand years. But nearly half of the Torah is dedicated to the Kohanim and the services they do in the Temple, services that are not even relevant to our lives today. Why? It didn’t take me too long to figure out the answer. Hashem, as well as anyone else, loves to talk and brag about his favorite child who is  the most loyal and obedient out of them all! They are the ones who make him proud and he adores them the most! And anyone who is dear to Hashem, should be dear to us too. That’s why its very important to have respect and admiration for our beloved Kohanim!

But after all the love and the affection that exists between Hashem and the Kohanim, we suddenly come across a very strange commandment given in this week’s Parsha. The Torah says: …..a Kohen, who is blemished, blind, lame, having a nose with no bridge, having one limb longer than the other, with a broken leg or arm, with abnormally long eyebrows, with a blemished eye, a dry skin eruption, moist skin eruption, or crushed testicles, “shall not come near to offer a sacrifice to G-d.” Basically, the Torah is telling us that a Kohen who is disabled or exhibits an array of unpleasing features is disqualified from performing his duties in the Temple!

A very disturbing commandment if you may ask me! We consider ourselves a spiritual people,  a people who are commanded to have compassion towards others, a people who look out for the unfortunate among us, a people who are obliged to judge each other by their character—not by their wealth, intellectual knowledge or their physical appearance! Still, when it comes to the kohen serving in the Temple, the Torah clearly looks down and disqualifies the unfortunate!!

So, here we have G-d Himself telling us that those unfortunate individuals among us, as mentioned above, who have done nothing wrong to cause their abnormalities, are disqualified from serving in the Temple. After learning about this commandment, how does He then expect us to treat the disabled, handicapped or the deformed better than He is willing to? After all, aren’t we suppose to imitate G-d? We believe that no one is more fair and just than the Almighty himself. But we see that the United States of America shows more compassion towards the disabled than the Torah. There are many laws in this country which protect the rights of the disabled and the handicapped. So why does Hashem has to discriminate against the unfortunate? What does He have against the people who unfortunately have disabilities?

Rabbi Berel Wein gives the following interesting explanation: A Kohen working in the Temple is both a representative of people and also an agent of G-d. The Kohanim act as the priests or the “ambassadors” for the Jewish people. The Jewish people are supposed to be inspired and awed by the service in the Temple. It would be distracting and detracting for a physically disabled Kohen to perform the service, as holy as he may be. You see, us human beings expect our representatives and Ambassadors to be in excellent physical form and well dressed, someone who is energetic with magnetic charm and charisma! The average height of the United States male Senator is over six feet tall! All of them are well dressed, well spoken and are among the high class society. Because people are influenced by physical stature of their representatives.

The same logic is used for the disabled Kohen. G-d forbid, Hashem does not discriminate against people with disabilities. A person with a disability is as important and as dear to Hashem as any other person. Hashem does not have a problem with a disabled Kohen, but he thinks that we might have! He’s worried that we won’t be able to take it! The problem is not Hashem! We are the problem!! If we don’t have a Kohen with an excellent physique representing us in the Temple, we might lose interest in coming to the Temple and serving Hashem. The Kohen is suppose to be our connection to G-d, which has to be pleasant, charming and appealing! To us human beings, unfortunately, looks does matter, and Hashem knows that. It’s not Hashem who discriminates the disabled Kohen, but rather, it’s our inability to accept an agent of Hashem to be anything less than perfect!!

Yes my friends, Judaism is against any kind of discrimination against the disabled whatsoever. We are obligated to help and respect the disabled as much as we can! Every jewish soul is holy and accounted for. Every disabled person can do all of the mitzvot in the Torah if he is able to. Every disabled man may be counted for a minyan (10 people), should be Bar-Mitzvad at the age of 13 and can get married, if he is able to. The Chachamim go as far as to say that the neshama (soul) of a disabled person, whether mentally or physically, is more pure and holy than an average person; and getting a beracha from these kind of people can sometimes be more effective than getting a beracha from a “perfect” Kohen!!

So my friends, the next time you see a disabled person, don’t try to distance yourself from him, but on the contrary, try to come close and ask him for a blessing. You’ll never know, you might get a blessing of a lifetime!

Shabbat Shalom & Regards;

Martin