B’tzelem Elohim, in God’s Image: Disability Torah Study
This text study was created by Rachel Bell and Arin Edelstein for Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance, and Inclusion Month.
Source 1: Bavli Eruvin 54b
Rabbi Preida had a student to whom he would have to repeat each lesson four hundred times before he understood it. One day [Rabbi Preida] was required to leave and attend to a certain matter involving a mitzvah. Before leaving, he taught [the student] as usual four hundred times, but he still did not grasp the concept. Rabbi Preida asked him, “Why is today different?” [The student] answered him, “From the very moment they told my master that there is a mitzvah matter that he must attend to, my attention was diverted, because every moment I thought: now the master will get up and leave, now the master will get up and leave.” Rabbi Preida said to him, “Pay attention, and I will teach you.” He taught him another four hundred times.
Questions for Reflection:
What is the importance of the source in a disability context?
What does the story communicate to us about the importance of accommodating different learning styles? What does it mean to us that the Rabbi puts on hold a matter of high importance “a mitzvah matter” in order to help his student?
How can we honor the importance of accommodating differences that is shown in this text and in our Jewish practice today?
Source 2: Leviticus 19:14 & Commentary by Rabbi Lauren Tuchman
לֹא־תְקַלֵּ֣ל חֵרֵ֔שׁ וְלִפְנֵ֣י עִוֵּ֔ר לֹ֥א תִתֵּ֖ן מִכְשֹׁ֑ל וְיָרֵ֥אתָ מֵּאֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ אֲנִ֥י יְהוָֽה׃
You shall not insult the deaf, or place a stumbling block before the blind. You shall fear your G-d: I am G-d.
Rabbi Lauren Tuchman on Leviticus 19:14:
Stumbling blocks exist in numerous forms — structural, societal, attitudinal and economic — which make it exceedingly difficult for people with disabilities to be fully integrated into the larger community. I wish to argue that one of the most substantial of these is society’s subconscious view of disability, which is embedded into our language and the way in which we view the world around us…
It is my personal belief that the way to change attitudes is to get to know people for who they are and allow them to speak about and for themselves.
Questions for Reflection:
In this source, fear of G-d is the given motivation for not oppressing the deaf and blind. Should fear be your motivator?
What are examples of stumbling blocks that you have seen or experienced in your life?
Source 3: Dual Blessings, translation by Matan Koch
We are told of a Rabbi whose love of humanity was so great that upon each new encounter, the rabbi would ask: “tell me your story.” The Rabbi would listen, and perhaps offer a few words of prayer. In the fullness of time, the Rabbi had a child who followed the Rabbi along, listening to the stories and the words of prayer. One day the Rabbi came upon a bling person and said the famous words “tell me your story”. The blind person reacted and said, “woe be unto me Rabbi, for I have but recently lost my sight and I struggle to navigate the world.” The rabbi said to the person, “Blessed is the true judge,” acknowledging the struggle and loss. And the child observed. Not a week later, the Rabbi came upon another blind person, and said, “tell me your story”. The person said, my life overflows with riches, I was born blind, but my world was full of music and love and kindness and I have learned to read the books that I want to read, and I have friends, and I navigate to where I want to go and get the things that I need”. The Rabbi said, “Blessed is the one who created such varied creatures.” The child paused, puzzled, and said, “I do not understand. When we first encountered a blind person, you reacted as though to a tragedy, and now you reacted as though it were part of the beauty of the divine plan.” The Rabbi explained that our tradition teaches us that things such as blindness are just one more thing within the beauty of G-d’s creation to appreciate. The first individual, however, had acquired and was struggling with being blind. It is the loss and the struggle, and not the blindness to which I was reacting as though a tragedy.
Questions for Reflection:
What is your takeaway from this story?
Why is it important to view people in the ways that they view themselves?
How can we use language in a way that honors people?
Source 4: How 30 Blocks Became 30 Years — NYT Modern Love Column
“I had learned to live with my disability just as the world was learning to live with people with disabilities as a political force, a civil-rights movement. That no doubt helped my cause, which was simply to live a full and normal life….
Rewinding the mental movie of our lives together, I see us on our first date a few weeks after that kiss, talking during a long evening stroll. We struggled to keep pace with each other as we moved by different means.”
Questions for Reflection:
Why is this perspective important?
What can we learn from stories of joy, that we cannot learn from stories of struggle?
