Rabbi's Messages

on Thursday, 25 April 2013.

A SERMON FOR KEDOSHIM 5773

The Torah says that when the Israelites entered the dessert, one of the first things that Moses did was count them. The English name of the book of Bamidbar is “Numbers,” so called because it begins with the census of the people.

Moses counted the people for two reasons. First, of course, he needed a sense of their military strength as they headed off into the desert. But is also an important spiritual reason: Tradition tells us that when the results were in, Moses found that the number of people who had left Egypt was 603,550, exactly the same as the number of letters in a Torah scroll. And the Rabbis teach from this that just as a Torah scroll is not complete if even one letter is missing, so is our community not complete if even one of its members is not fully able to be part of it.

This Shabbat in Toronto is known as Shabbat Itanu. Itanu is Hebrew for “with us,” and Shabbat Itanu is a day in which most of the congregations in the GTA have dedicated themselves to greater inclusion of those who have special needs. On this Shabbat, nearly every rabbi in the city is speaking about the importance of lowering the barriers to Jewish participation for those who live with physical, mental, and emotional challenges.

The Torah portion for this week is an appropriate one. Kedoshim means “holiness.” And parashat Kedoshim teaches us about the ways that we go about creating a holy community. A lot of the portion is all about how we should treat each other:

Verse 3: Honour your mother and your father.
Verse 9: Leave the corners of your field unharvested for the poor.
Verse 14: You shall not insult the deaf or place a stumbling block before the blind.
Verse 18: Love your neighbor as yourself.

And while those verses speak to us as individuals, the parashah as a whole speaks to us as a community. The Hebrew words Kedoshim tih’yu are plural. They actually mean: Y’all shall be holy. “All of you together,” we might read, “or else you have not truly achieved holiness.”

That means, of course, that in order to make our community a holy one, we must ensure that everyone is able to participate.

This is a matter that is close to my heart personally because, as many of you know, I have a son with special needs. Living daily with a child who struggles with Autism is among the most frustrating and the most rewarding parts of my life. And if there is anything I have learned – from my son, from his teachers, from fellow parents, from the people we’ve met on this journey – if there’s anything I’ve learned, it is that everyone has their challenge. Far from being a small minority, the “special needs community” is really all of us. Is there even one of us – in this room, in this congregation – who doesn’t know or love or live with someone or who isn’t themselves someone that lives with physical challenges or handicaps, with mental illness, depression, the challenges that come along with Autism and Aspergers and the learning disabilities that are being diagnosed in our children.

The “special needs community” is really “the community.”

Today, we are more and more willing to talk about, to share our challenges with one another. And that should hopefully bring with it a greater willingness to lower the barriers.

There are a number of things that we as a congregation already do to make ourselves as inclusive as possible. Things you might not even think about. Our building is largely accessible. Having movable chairs in our sanctuary makes it so that we can accomodate anyone. We sometimes offer sign language interpreting during services. We are very proud that this year, our Religious School became the smallest school in the GTA to hire a special needs coordinator, who works directly with families and children who have learning disabilities, Autism, ADHD and other challenges to ensure that they can be successful in our school.

Members of Kol Ami have made a commitment that our community, our congregation, our Religious School will be a place where everyone can feel welcome and at home.

But, of course, we haven’t yet done all that we can do. We don’t yet have large print prayerbooks for those who have trouble seeing. We haven’t yet hung a mezuzah at a height where someone in a wheelchair can kiss it. We don’t yet have earpieces for the hard of hearing. And while we can’t beat ourselves up for not having done everything, we must continue to grow in our inclusiveness and our welcome of God’s people.

The Torah teaches: 

 לֹֽא־תְקַלֵּל חֵרֵשׁ וְלִפְנֵי עִוֵּר לֹא תִתֵּן מִכְשֹׁל וְיָרֵאתָ מֵּֽאֱלֹהֶיךָ אֲנִי יְהוָֹֽה:

You shall not curse the deaf nor place a stumbling block before the blind, teaches the Torah. You shall love each person for who they are.

And it adds: וְיָרֵאתָ מֵּֽאֱלֹהֶיךָ אֲנִי יְהוָֹֽה: -And in so doing, you shall be in awe of God, for I am Adonai.

To be in awe of God is to treat God’s people with respect. To be welcoming of human beings is to be welcoming of God’s presence. To build an inclusive community is to build a holy community.

On this Shabbat and every Shabbat, may we appreciate the unique contribution that each person brings to the world.

And may we strive to build a word that is more welcoming, more accepting, more holy for us all.   Amen.