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BEGIN WITH A GRIN

There was once a blind man, a deaf man, and a lame man in a wheelchair. They were visited by a spirit that promised each one a single wish that would come true if they really focused their mind on it.

The blind man wished first, and soon yelled: I CAN SEE, I CAN SEE!

The deaf man wished next, and soon yelled: I CAN HEAR, I CAN HEAR!

Then the lame man thought of his wish, and soon he yelled: I HAVE NEW TIRES, I HAVE NEW TIRES!

UNSEEING EYES

This week, Parshas Emor discusses all types of physical defects that disqualify a person (or more precisely, a kohen) from working and serving in the Mikdash. After the general introduction that “Any man… who has a blemish shall not approach to offer the bread of his G-d” (Emor 16:17), the Torah lists a long series of defects, many of which are difficult for the average person to understand (who has a “tavlul in his eye,” and what exactly is “garav or yalefes”?!).

Interestingly, the first defects mentioned by the Torah are quite clear and understandable to everyone. “For no man who has a blemish shall draw near, a blind man, or a lame man, etc.” (ibid., 18). Why did the Torah see fit to begin the list of various strange defects with these? What is so terrible about “a blind man or a lame man”?!

In order to answer this question, we must first restore some respect to “the blind and the lame.” We find something remarkable in the words of the Navi Yirmiyahu, also related to “the blind and the lame.” Yirmiyahu describes the return to Tziyon in the Geula with the following verse: “Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the ends of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman and she who is in labor together; a great assembly shall return here” (Yirmiyahu 31:7).

It is clear to everyone that in the coming Geula, all those with various defects will be redeemed, those with “garav and yalefes” as well as those who are “charum” and “sarua,” those missing a hand and those with an extra finger, and yet, the only people with defects explicitly mentioned by the prophet Yirmiyahu as an integral part of the Geula are… “the blind and the lame”! What does the Torah have with these two defects? Why are they always mentioned first? Both for good and for bad? What is the inner meaning of “the blind and the lame,” and what can and should we learn from this (even if we are, thank G-d, not afflicted with these defects)?!

In a deep Chassidic maamar, the Rebbe explains the depth of these matters. The blind and the lame actually include within them all types of defects, from the greatest to the smallest, from the highest to the lowest. They are the most polar defects, and therefore they include all other types of secondary defects. The Rebbe teaches an important rule in ‘determining defects,’ a rule that can teach us many moral lessons for life!

Blindness is the most severe defect, and therefore it is listed everywhere as the first defect. This defect may not be so noticeable to the eye, this defect may not take up too much physical space. The defect itself, the physical deficiency in the eye, can be minimal, it can be a negligible microscopic flaw, but since this flaw affects the upper part of the person, it affects the head of the person, it can be so important and severe. In contrast, the lame person has a defect that is obvious to the eye, the person is missing the use of a whole leg, this is a huge physical and material defect, and it takes up an important part of the person’s body. Nevertheless, since this defect only affects the leg, the lower part of the person, it is therefore less important and less severe, it is considered a marginal defect, a low defect, because its impact on the person’s ability is negligible.

Moreover, blindness is not only a defect in the upper part of the person, in the head, it is also a defect in the person’s highest faculty, the power of sight. The power of sight is one of the most important faculties, and therefore a defect in it, even the slightest, is considered a severe defect. In contrast, lameness symbolizes a defect in the lowest faculty in a person, the power of walking, and therefore even a severe injury to this faculty is not considered so severe in the eyes of the Torah.

Because what is important in determining the severity of a defect is the question – what does it affect? And where does it affect? The physical size of the defect doesn’t matter that much; the central thing is at what level, at what degree, which faculty the defect affects.

‘EYES THAT SEE’

The Rebbe brings an example and an important moral lesson from human life. The words of our Sages are well known, and are cited frequently in sifrei Mussar and Chassidus, that “thoughts of sin are worse than sin.” Why? Why is someone who thinks about sins worse than someone who commits those exact same sins? Where is the logic?

The logic that guides us in determining the severity of a sin depends on what it harms, and where it harms. One who has sinned in deed has damaged the faculty of action in the person, whereas one who has sinned in thought has damaged the faculty of thought in the person. Everyone understands that thought is a much higher spiritual faculty than the faculty of action, and therefore the defect in thought is more severe than the defect in action. The spiritual damage to the faculty of thought of the divine soul of the person is more destructive and more dangerous than the damage to the physical action which is considered spiritually inferior.

Another example of this can be brought from the words of the Gemara that a Torah scholar who is found with a stain on his garment deserves death, while an ignoramus can walk in the street with stains of all colors from all foods, and he is not even deserving of lashes! Why? Where is the justice and fairness? The Torah scholar we doom to death while the ignoramus is given free reign?!

Rather, a Torah scholar who is supposed to represent the Torah and the Creator, for him every stain is damaging, every drop of dirt is destructive, but for an ignoramus even clothes full of stains don’t bother anyone, because he is an ignoramus, he is inherently inferior.

From here we should learn a moral lesson in the service of G-d in bringing the Geula. In exile, many of us are blind and many of us are lame. The blindness of exile symbolizes the lack of seeing G-dliness; we lack in “Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these.” We are shown miracles and wonders, we are shown  revelations of G-dliness at every step and every moment, and we are blind! We do not sense or feel the divine revelation, we sometimes even ignore the messages we receive from G-d, we (by our choice or not…) close our eyes and pretend (or we do not pretend…) that we are blind!

Exile also brings with it another defect, lameness. The physically lame person cannot walk on his feet, and the spiritually lame person cannot “walk” spiritually, he does not progress, he does not ascend in his spiritual work, he remains “stuck in his place.” The soul descended to the world in order to be a “goer,” in order to achieve lofty spiritual achievements, while he, the spiritually lame, remains standing in his place, to such an extent that the entire purpose of the soul’s descent into the body may go to waste.

Yirmiyahu promises us that when the Geula comes, all those with defects will be redeemed, from the smallest to the greatest, from the blind to the lame, from the “stuck” to the one who ignores. But, in order to bring about the fulfillment of this destiny, we must do something, we must reveal the inner essence of every Jew.

With this, the Rebbe explains a well-known dispute in the Talmud, a dispute between the School of Shammai and the School of Hillel, in Gemara Kesubos (17a), which is being studied this year in Chabad yeshivas. “How does one dance before the bride? Beis Shammai says: The bride as she is. And Beis Hillel says: A beautiful and graceful bride. Beis Shammai said to Beis Hillel: What if she was lame or blind, etc.?”

Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel disagreed as to how to look at a Jew who is lame or blind, or in the language of the Torah: blind and lame. Beis Shammai holds that as you see him externally, “This is what there is!” “The bride as she is.” Beis Hillel disagrees and says that every Jew, even blind and lame, even lame or blind, even if he closes his eyes and ignores the signs from above, even if he does not (yet) fulfill the ultimate purpose of his soul’s descent into the world, to be a ‘goer,’ is still a “beautiful and graceful bride,” he has all the virtues and all the perfection, one just needs to reveal them and bring them into actuality!

TO CONCLUDE WITH A STORY

We will end with a story about a single mother, living in Yerushalayim, who has been connected for many years to one of the local Chabad Houses, who merited a rare miracle that restored the eyesight of her only son.

From her first marriage, she gave birth, to her sorrow, to a son who was blind in both eyes. The doctors gave no chance to restore his sight… In her words:

In 1977, I was a teacher in the seventh grade at the Yealim School in Beer Sheva, and in my class a Chabad shliach taught my students a Bar Mitzva course. The students really loved the course, only I sat in the class sad and lifeless… The Chabadnik noticed my constant sadness, and inquired with the principal why I looked so downcast.

The principal told him that I have a baby that is blind in both eyes and that’s what was weighing on me. When the Chabadnik heard this, he gently approached me and suggested that I turn to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Tzaddik of the generation, to write to him about my trouble and ask for a blessing and salvation. At first I tried to dismiss him, saying that the doctors say the condition is irreversible and what could the Rebbe do here?… But the Chabad shliach insisted, saying, “What do you have to lose? Write, ask, and you will see wonders!”

I sat down and wrote to the Rebbe and asked for a yeshua for my baby son Omri. After that, I anxiously awaited the Rebbe’s response… But several weeks passed, and each week the Chabadnik would come and ask what’s new? And I would answer him, absolutely nothing…

One week, the shliach comes to my class and sees that the homeroom teacher is not in the class. When he inquired, they told him that she is at Hadassah Hospital with baby Omri for surgery with a great professor. That professor performed a corneal transplant surgery on one of Omri’s eyes, because for the other eye, he claimed, there was no chance at all…

I returned to my home with one of Omri’s eyes bandaged until the result of the surgery would be known, and while I was feeding Omri, he suddenly reaches out his hand and grabs the spoon… I put a toy on the table for him and behold, he extends his hand to grab it, and all this with the eye that was not operated on!… I started shouting: “Omri can see!” I called the professor and he calmed me down, saying that I was surely deluding myself, until the next day when I was with him and he couldn’t believe what he saw in Omri’s eye…

A week later I met the Chabadnik and seeing his questioning face, I said to him: “Still no response has arrived from the Rebbe… but Omri has begun to see with his other eye, the one with no chance of recovery…” The shliach chastised me: “Is that not an answer?!…”

Good Shabbos!

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