Dear Friends,
I remember a day some 25 years ago when I spent most summers at a Reform Movement camp, serving on camp faculty as a camp rabbi. Among the 20 or so staff in the unit to which I was assigned, was a young camp counselor who maneuvered about in an electric wheelchair. He was an excellent counselor – bright, witty, sensitive with the campers – only, he couldn’t play volleyball, go canoeing, or lift the Torah. And, every morning and evening our unit of 125 campers and staff had Tefilah – weekday services – led by rabbis in the morning, and campers in the evening. One day, I just awakened to the reality that this staffer could not stand for the Shema, or the Amidah, Aleynu or Kaddish, and whenever we asked the unit to rise, he sat. So, the next day I decided that the entire unit would do each of the services while sitting for all of the prayers. I checked with the counselor, the other rabbis and the Unit head, and all were OK with it; that’s what camp is for - to be an experimental laboratory of Jewish life. And, that day, we explored the experience of disability and ability, by living someone else’s experience, even if only partly. I believe we learned much that day.
I never forgot that day. And, this week’s Torah portion raises the issue, again.
“You stand this day, all of you, before the Eternal your God…” (Deuteronomy 29:9)
Sometimes, a common word or phrase is so common that we fail to hear or recognize the implications – sometimes healthy and sometimes unhealthy – tucked within it. Such is the phrase that opens this week’s Torah portion, “You stand this day, all of you.”
Except, not all of us. Some of us do not.
Now, of course, we realize that “standing before God” could easily be metaphorical. It means being ready and present before God. Yet, it uses the clear term, in Hebrew and English, of standing. It means a physical readiness as well as a spiritual and moral presence before the Holy One.
And, today’s sensibilities and sensitivities demand that we be aware of our words, and aware of one another. “Ability” and “disability” warrant reconsideration.
So does standing before God. Or, sitting before God.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
I remember a day some 25 years ago when I spent most summers at a Reform Movement camp, serving on camp faculty as a camp rabbi. Among the 20 or so staff in the unit to which I was assigned, was a young camp counselor who maneuvered about in an electric wheelchair. He was an excellent counselor – bright, witty, sensitive with the campers – only, he couldn’t play volleyball, go canoeing, or lift the Torah. And, every morning and evening our unit of 125 campers and staff had Tefilah – weekday services – led by rabbis in the morning, and campers in the evening. One day, I just awakened to the reality that this staffer could not stand for the Shema, or the Amidah, Aleynu or Kaddish, and whenever we asked the unit to rise, he sat. So, the next day I decided that the entire unit would do each of the services while sitting for all of the prayers. I checked with the counselor, the other rabbis and the Unit head, and all were OK with it; that’s what camp is for - to be an experimental laboratory of Jewish life. And, that day, we explored the experience of disability and ability, by living someone else’s experience, even if only partly. I believe we learned much that day.
I never forgot that day. And, this week’s Torah portion raises the issue, again.
“You stand this day, all of you, before the Eternal your God…” (Deuteronomy 29:9)
Sometimes, a common word or phrase is so common that we fail to hear or recognize the implications – sometimes healthy and sometimes unhealthy – tucked within it. Such is the phrase that opens this week’s Torah portion, “You stand this day, all of you.”
Except, not all of us. Some of us do not.
Now, of course, we realize that “standing before God” could easily be metaphorical. It means being ready and present before God. Yet, it uses the clear term, in Hebrew and English, of standing. It means a physical readiness as well as a spiritual and moral presence before the Holy One.
And, today’s sensibilities and sensitivities demand that we be aware of our words, and aware of one another. “Ability” and “disability” warrant reconsideration.
So does standing before God. Or, sitting before God.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
