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Words of Wisdom on Inclusion

Here is a collection of thoughts from various texts for use in preparing D’var Torahs, Sermons, and articles about disability issues. The Accessibility Committee encourages you to welcome congregants with disabilities by offering a “Disability Shabbat.”

When a person insults someone else it is his own defect that he is revealing. (Kedushim 70a)
Train a child according to his way; even when he is old, he will not depart from it. (Proverbs—Mishlei 22:6)
Anyone who deprives a student of being taught Torah is as if he robs him of his father’s legacy. (Sanhedrin 91b)
As it says, ‘Torah tziva lanu Moshe morasha kehillat Yaakov’—Moshe commanded us the Torah, an inheritance of the Congregation of Yaakov. (Devarim 33:4)
You shall not insult the deaf, or place a stumbling block before the blind. (Leviticus 19:14)

We do not wittingly place a stumbling block before a person with a disability, yet by ignoring their needs, we do inadvertently place a stumbling block before them.
And Moses said unto the Lord: “Oh Lord, I am not a man of words, neither in the past, nor since haste Thou Spoken unto Thy servant; for I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.’ (Exodus 4:10)
Ben Azzai taught: Do not disdain any person; Do not underrate the importance of anything—For there is no person who does not have his hour, and there is no thing without its place in the sun. (Pirkei Avot 4:3)
If there be among you a needy person, thou halt not harden thy heart, but thou shalt surely open thy hand. (Deut. 15:7)
On the Talmud Yerushalmi, Masechta Horayot, the following Gemara appears (Horayot 3:5): Rave Yochanan said: ‘During the entire forty days and nights that Moshe Rabbeinu spent on Har Sinai, he kept learning the Torah and forgetting it. Finally, it was given to him as a gift. Why did this happen? To provide an answer for the slow learners. The Penai Moshe explains: Why, the Gemara asks, was the Torah not given to Moshe as a gift at the outset? To provide an answer for the slow learners who forget whatever they learn. When they ask, “Why should we labor for no purpose?” the answer will be from Moshe himself, who learned and reviewed even though it was all forgotten, until finally it was given to him as a complete gift.
And let them make Me a Sanctuary, that I may dwell among them (Exodus 25:8)

This is an incredible statement of priority: the Sanctuary is not a place simply for God to dwell (the verse does not say, ‘that I may dwell in IT”) but to dwell among THEM, among the people. The implication is that God dwells where the people come together.
In so many ways we are trying to create the sense of community by inviting people to use the front door of the Congregation as a portal from the impersonal world of business to the personalized community of spirit. (Rabbi Rick Sherwin, Orlando, Florida)
In houses of worship, we may find the common faith that binds us together. In a time when declining attendance is already a concern, it is ironic that more is not being done to draw the nation’s largest minority—at 54 million people strong—into the Sanctuary. (Robert P. Bennett)
Religion is about faith and compassion. It is also about unity and the building of community. But it’s hard to build a community when many of those who wish to become members cannot gain access. (Robert P. Bennett)
Participation in the religion of one’s faith enriches lives. (Lorraine Thal, Program Assistant, National Organization on Disability’s Religion and Disability Program)
Give me a quiet heart, and help me to hear the thin voice of silence within me. It calls me to reflect the Divine image in which I am created. It teaches me to do my work faithfully, even when no one’s eye is upon me, so that I may come to the end of each day feeling that I used its gifts wisely and faced its trials bravely. It counsels me to judge others less harshly and to love them more freely. It persuades me to see the Divinity in everyone I meet, and to see that same Divinity within me. (Adaptation of a prayer by Rabbi Chaim Stern, by Rabbi Rick Sherwin)

Submit your “Sermon Bite” by completing our “Comments Or Questions” form.

Acknowledgements

Our appreciation to Linda Zimmerman, Special Needs Director for the Atlanta Jewish Educational Services, for preparing many of these “Sermon Bites” for March Jewish Disability Awareness Month. For more information, contact Linda at specneed@jesatlanta.org or visit www.jesatlanta.org.