Emor - Excuse Me Where is the Handicap Spot?

[Music] the Jewish religion Prides itself in being exceptionally caring for the underprivileged and weak groups within our society and the tah tells us time and time again to be kind to the Widow and the orphan and the blind the tah instructs us to visit the sick and to give charity to the poor the Tyra speaks at length about treating a convert with love and respect so it seems rather odd that when it comes to the service within the B mikdash the Tyra takes an unusually elitist stance the Tyra strongly forbids those who have physical defects to play any sort of role in the B mikdash anyone lame or blind was not allowed to serve in the B mikdash anyone unusually tall or unusually short was likewise banned from serving people with broken legs people with broken arms hunchbacks and dwarfs were all nixed the obvious question is why is this wouldn't Hashem want us to be kind and caring and go out of our way to hire such people the modern world's attitude towards handicapped individuals with its increased social services and designated parking spots and priority airplane boarding makes the tyus stance seems so outdated and insensitive why when it comes to filling positions in the basa mikash does the T seem to deviate from its regular loving and accepting mode of operation so the sa offers the following very powerful explanation he says the success of the b mikdash in particular and Judaism in general is predicated on the Jewish people's awe and respect and honor given to it the continuity of Judaism requires the Jewish people's dramatic interest in perpetuating it the very moment the Jewish people view Judaism as unimpressive and second rate as mere religious folklore the future of Judaism literally becomes at stake and therefore the tah implemented safeguards ensuring that we view the B mikdash and Judaism in general with the honor and Prestige it deserves not because Hashem needs the power and the prestige but because we need to be impressed by its image without it we would sadly fail to appreciate its marvelous Beauty and we would become in snared by the quote unquote beautiful Mirage of this world and one of those safeguards was being particular in who serves as the represent as the representatives in the B mikdash the T wants every child to walk into the B mikdash for the very first time and be left in complete awe it wants every child to dream of being there of aspiring to M to make the Bas mikdash a dominant force in his life having a welcoming committee comprising of khanim in pristine Health in the height of their strength accomplishes this the best the sad reality is that employing the elderly or those suffering from physical deformities would run the risk of giving off the image that the Bas mik was a place where one goes to work after they retire like a museum or a library or an art gallery in man's puny mind we might have thought that if you really want to make it in life you would work elsewhere you'd be in Wall Street you'd be downtown making millions and of course this couldn't be further than the truth Judaism loves and includes everyone no matter what they look like but the psychological makeup of humans is such that man's perception creates his reality and the Tyra required the Bas to work within those parameters in order to promote the truth that Judaism is the ultimate goal in life and its beauty and pleasure transcends Petty things such as World likee Pursuits it required men only in pristine health and in the prime of their strength the 6'2 35-year-old men the people who could have made it in any business or profession the people who command dignity and respect by selecting such people we are showing that this is the most meaningful thing in the world we don't serve on the Bas mlas because we can't do anything else we don't serve on the B mlas because we couldn't make it in the business world we serve the M mikash as our first choice because this is what gives our life meaning we aren't committed commed Jews because we can't make it anywhere else we are committed Jews because we deeply believe this is the most valuable commitment the beginning of the para discusses the Kim's prohibition of contact with a dead body and the gar in says that this p with its triple usage of the word Amar is alluding to the need for parents to teach their children about Mitzvah from a very early age and Rak Weinberg the late rashash of ner St and Baltimore asks why specifically here in the middle of the laws of khanim does the toyra choose to slip in and teach us about why pick a Mitzvah that is applicable to less than one 12th of the Jewish people when you're trying to teach an idea that applies to all of them so he explains that the T specifically chose the Mitzvah of the cen's prohibition of contact with dead bodies of Tuma to teach us the of for it serves as a model to all other mitv the is telling us that the same way a is to tell his child that the reason you can't run after that ball that rolled into a cemetery is not because of some ancient dinosaur book prehistorically written thousands of years ago and that book decided that Khan for some crazy reason can't go into cemeteries no no you want to know why you can't get that ball that rolled into a cemetery because you're and khanim are too pure and too holy to go into cemeteries so should be the method of teaching all the mitzah of the Tyra when we present the Mitzvah to our children we tell them what an unbelievable opportunity it is to keep them they're not Commandments they're opportunities when we tell our children that we can't transgress a negative commandment we tell them we are too holy to do that thing we don't say we have to visit the sick we tell them we get to visit the sick we say that we are too pure to eat nonan kosher we are remarkably privileged to keep shabis in American man who ran an organization trying to help teenagers who left the Orthodox fold was once walking in ER and he noticed Raa Shapiro who was at the time a leading Torah figure in AR and he noticed him on the other side of the street entering a car and he raced over to rmha right before he closed the door and he asked him he said rmha there are hundreds of kids who are going against the religion of their parents and the religion that their parents rais them with why is this happening so RHA turned to him and he asked do their parents dance around the shabas table do their parents' faces shine when they recite be do their parents sing in the Suka late into the night do their parents Beam with pride as they walk into sh rash do their parents lovingly enthusiastically learn with their children the sweet Tyra do their parents parents jump up and dance when they say kesana do their parents radiate Purity and Holiness each and every Friday night do their parents make a party at every one of their child's spiritual Milestones even the small ones there is a concept in Jewish law Contin of called the burden of evidence is placed upon the one attempting to extract something from the other these children look out into the American World and see nothing but pleasure in virtually every direction they turn parents by forcing a seemingly restrictive religion on them are in the eyes of the child attempting to take that life of pleasure away so it is incumbent on the parents to give the children evidence that what the parents are offering is better otherwise why would those children give up a life of pleasure for a life following a stale ancient irrelevant religion those kids don't see Judaism as the desirable option and quite honestly with the way their parents presented who can blame them and with that Raa Shapiro closed the door and drove off the toyra way of life is the ultimate life Hashem doesn't need our service to him he wants nothing more than to give us good the tah is the method in attaining hashem's definition of good the ultimate definition and it sometime takes years for that concept to be realized but it's up to us to ensure that our children see the Tyra the way it's meant to be seen the road map to the greatest existence on the face of the Earth [Music]