Handicap Parking At The Bais Hamikdash- The Parshah On Fire - Emor

This Torah class is brought to you by tora anytime.com. The Jewish religion prides itself in being exceptionally caring for the underprivileged and weak groups within its society. The Tyra tells us time and time again to be kind to the widow and to the orphan and to the blind. The Tyra instructs us to visit the sick and give stuck to the poor. The Tyra speaks speaks at length about treating a ge with love and respect. The Tyra is the single most loving and compassionate and considerate religious book ever written. So it seems a little odd that when it comes to the avoid within the BA mikdash, the Tyra takes an unusual and sort of elitist stance. The Tyra strongly forbids people who have physical defects to play any role in the BA mikdash. Anyone lame or blind was not allowed to serve in the basikdash. Anyone unusually tall or unusually short was also banned from serving in the basin. There's people with broken legs, people with broken arms, hunchbacks, dwarfs, all nixed. Now, 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 people with its increased social services and designated parking spots and priority airplane boarding and all the other ways it ensures that handicapped people are all welcomed into part of the society. Doesn't that make the terrorist stance seem so outdated and insensitive? Why is it that when it comes to filling positions in the B mikdash, the Tyra seems to deviate from its regular loving and accepting mode of operation? Why is that? What happened to love the oppressed and care for the downtrodden? Why does the why does the bda seem to have like a different set of rules? So the mitzvah in 275 offers the following very powerful and enlightening explanation. He says that the success of the b mikdash in particular and sort of 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 sort of mere religious folklore, the future of Judaism becomes at stake. The single most destructive force in the Jewish world over the last thousand years hasn't been any war or pagrums or terrorism. It wasn't the Holocaust or suicide bombings. It was something far quieter but far more devastating. It was secularism, not secularism as a neutral idea, but as a movement that taught generations of Jews to scoff and snicker and sneer at Tyra values, to mock tradition, to see authentic Judaism as outdated and irrelevant and embarrassing. This mindset didn't just lead to the assimilation of tens of millions of Jews. It paved the way for hundreds of millions of Jews over the years to walk away from Judaism forever. Not because of anti-semitism, not because of external threats, but because Judaism was rebranded in their minds as boring and backward and burdensome. And these people tried at first to live in an awkward in between Jewish by label but not by meaning, culturally affiliated but spiritually detached kind of life. But you can only live that contradiction for so long. And eventually they or their children or their grandchildren left it all behind. Why? Because somewhere along the way they came to believe that Tyra holds you back instead of lifting you up. That it limits life instead of giving it meaning. And that lie, the lie that Judaism is something you tolerate rather than celebrate has caused more spiritual destruction than any outside enemy ever could. And therefore knowing all this, the Tory implemented safeguards, ensuring that we view the B mikdash in Judaism with the honor and the prestige that it deserves. Not because Hashem needs the power and prestige, but because we need to be impressed by its image. Without being impressed, we would sadly fail to appreciate its unparalleled beauty and we would become ins snared by the mirage of this world. One of those safeguards was being particular in who serves as representatives in the Bamed. The Tyra wants every child to walk into the BA Mikdash for the first time and be left in complete awe. It wants every child to dream of being there, of aspiring to make the Bameikash the dominant force in his life. Having a welcoming committee comprising of Kahhanim in pristine health in the height of their strength accomplishes that 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 besamed was a place where someone 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 want to really make it in life, you would work elsewhere. Of course, this could not be further from the truth, and Judaism loves and includes everyone, no matter what they look like. But the psychological makeup of humans is that h humans perception creates his reality. And the tyra requires the basd 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 pursuits and materialism and secularism. It required men only in pristine health and the prime of their strength. the 6 foot2 35 year old men the people who would have made it in any other business or profession the people who command dignity and respect by selecting such people were giving off the message that this is the most meaningful thing in the world we didn't serve in the b mikdash because we can't do anything else or because we couldn't have made it in any other profession no we serve in the b mikdash as our first choice because this is what gives our life meaning we aren't committed Jews because we can't make it anywhere else. We are committed Jews because we deeply believe that this is the most valuable commitment. I once bumped into Risha, I'm sorry, Ra Mur Rosenbomb, the author of the Safar, and he asked me the following question. He said, "Ever wonder why the Tyra mentions the whole story with Yakov lifting the large rock off the well? Like what was the point of the story? That Yakov was strong? Why do I care? What lesson was the Tyra trying to convey?" So the answer he said is that Yakov was about to meet his future wife and he wanted to make something very clear to her. He doesn't sit in his tent all day as this isham yim because he wouldn't have been able to make it on Wall Street. He doesn't sit over gar all day because he couldn't have made it in real estate. He sits in his tent and learns God's wisdom because it's the right thing to do. Yakov was saying that he was just as strong and capable as any other man. The reason he chose a life of spirituality was because it's simply a better, more fulfilling life. We don't follow in the ways of Hashem because we can't make it in the big world. We follow the ways of Hashem because it leads us to the happiest lives on earth. The beginning of the para discusses the khanim's prohibition of coming into contact with a dead body. Omar's alf says that this pa with its triple usage of the word Omar is alluding to the need for parents to teach their children about mitzvah from a very early age and Ryakinberg the late Rashiva of Narius in Baltimore he asks why specifically here of all places does the Tyra choose to teach us about why pick a mitzvah that is applicable to only kahhanim less than one 12th of the Jewish people when trying to teach an idea that applies to all of Cla. So he explains that the Tyra specifically chose the mitzvah of the Khanim's prohibition of contact with dead bodies because it serves as a model to all other mitzvah. The Tyra is telling us that the same way a is to tell his child that the reason he can't run after his ball that rolled into a cemetery is because he's too holy and too pure, so should be the method of teaching all the other mitzvah of the Tyra. When we present the mitzvah to our children, we tell them what an unbelievable opportunity it is to keep them. When we tell our children that we can't transgress alay say a negative commandment, we tell them we are too holy to do it. We tell them that we get to visit the sick, that we're too pure to eat non-cosher, that we are remarkably privileged to keep shabas. We give over the impression that keeping the Tyra is a privilege, not a burden, and those that follow it lead wholesome, happy lives. Here's a story that highlights this point. An American man who ran an organization trying to help teenagers who went off to Dar was once walking in Israel and he noticed Misha Shapiro, one of the great leading Tyra figures in Israel. and he noticed him on the other side of the street and he was getting into a car and he raced over to Raisha and right before he closed the door and he asked him he said there are hundreds of kids who are going against the religion their parents raised them with in America why is this happening why are they going off the soa turned to him and asked do their parents dance around the shab's table do their parents' faces shine when they recite when they bench do their parents Parents sing in the suka late into the night? Do their parents beam with pride as they walk into scholar rashana? Do their parents lovingly and enthusiastically learn with their children the sweet tyra? Do their parents jump up and dance when they say kil savvana? Do their parents radiate purity and holiness each and every Friday night? Do their parents put their emotional energy and focus into do their parents make a party at every one of their child's spiritual milestones, even the small ones? Misha looked at this man and said there is a concept in Jewish law called which means in Jewish court the burden of evidence is placed on the person attempting to extract something from the other person. These children he said look out into the American secular 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. It is therefore incumbent on the parents to give the children evidence that what the parents are offering is better. Otherwise, why would those kids 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 Shapiro closed the door and drove off. The Tyra way of life is the ultimate way of life. Hashem does not need our service to him. He wants nothing more than to give us good. Them is the method in attaining Hashem's definition of good. The ultimate definition. It sometimes takes a few years for that concept to be realized, but it's up to us to ensure that our children see the Tyra way it is meant to be seen. The road map to the greatest existence on the face of the earth. Listen to this story. When most people think of the discovery of gold in North America, their minds jump straight to the year 1849, the California Gold Rush, where thousands of people picked up and ran to California with pickax pickaxes and gold pans and dreams of striking it rich. But in truth, the first major discovery of gold on this continent didn't happen in California. It happened 50 years earlier in 197 in 1999 in the quiet hills of North Carolina. A 12-year-old boy named Conrad Reed was fishing in a creek one day on his family's farm when something unusual caught his eye. Nestled in the water was a strange sort of shiny black rock. It was heavy, around 17 pounds, and it was unlike anything he'd ever seen. So he brought it home and he showed it to his family and after a while they just started using it as a doors stopper and that's where it stayed for 3 years just sitting there propping open doors collecting dust until 1802 a traveling jeweler walked up to the Reed's house to showcase his wares and he immediately noticed the shiny rock being used as the doors stopper and he instantly realized what the Reeds had missed. This wasn't just a rock. This was a solid 17 pound nugget of gold, something that today would be worth close to $600,000. And so he knocks on the door and asks if he can buy their cool doors stopper. And they sell it to him for $3.50. Can you believe such a thing? Here's a family literally tripping over a doorstoppper that was in reality a solid brick of gold, and they had absolutely no idea the entire time. How often do we do the same? How often do we leave spiritual gold just sitting right in front of us unused, unappreciated, unrecognized? We have, we have tyra, we have shabas, we have, we have mitzvah that elevate and sanctify and transform the most ordinary moments of life into something eternal and magical. But because they're so familiar, because they're just there, we treat them like doors stops and old habits and background noise and furniture in the house of our lives. But in reality, they're treasures. They're gold. We sell them to theara for $3.50. How sad we might be the day we realize we were sitting on riches the whole time and never took the time in our busy lives to pick them up. Conrad Reed missed the gold under his feet. Let's not miss the spiritual gold under ours. Because the best way to tap into the beauty and magic of Tyra and mitzvah is to constantly remind ourselves that this is the greatest form of life on earth. And second place isn't even close. Here's another story. In the late 1700s, there was an island in the Atlantic Ocean near Bermuda that was inhabited by people that did a horrible thing to passing ships. Being that the island was right near a trade route, many ships would frequently pass by it. And there, the inhabitants on this island played a nasty trick. Anytime they would see a ship sailing in the distance, they would arrange a massive party on the beach with loud music and delicious looking food and women dressed inappropriately and there would be alcohol and they would attract the passing ships filled with tired and worn out sailors and the ship would stop off and they would check out what was going on on the island. And the moment the sailors would dock the boat, the island inhabitants would attack the sailors and kill them and take whatever was on the ship. And this was going on for years and everybody knew about it. The problem was that there was no going around the island because it was situated right in the middle of a trade route. So captains were sort of scratching their head trying to figure out a way to stop their crew from veering off course and stopping off at this island. And they would beg and they would plead with them and tell them that it's just a trap. But the sailors wouldn't listen. They were just too tired. They were too starved for some form of entertainment and fun. So some captains tried blindfolding the sailors whenever they would pass by this island. But trying to get a bunch of grown men to wear blindfolds for a half hour, it was impossible. So then some captains tried simply putting their crew into chains and handcuffs just for the half hour that the boat passed by this island. But again, it it didn't work. You can't just go up to your crew and randomly say, "I'm going to put you in handcuffs for a half hour." you'll just start a rebellion. So, finally, a captain came up with an idea that actually worked. He said, "Listen, they're all enticed by the party that's going on on that island. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to make a better party on my boat." And so, whenever his boat passed by that island, he went down to the main area of the ship where all the sailors were. And he whipped out a tablecloth and he spread it over some barrels and he whipped out some wine and he took out some beef jerky and he whipped out a guitar and he began singing and he began telling stories and began asking the sailors about their childhood and they would dance and they would sing and they would play games and they would laugh and eventually before you knew it they passed by the murderous island and they all got up and they went right back to work. can be a place filled with unparalleled opportunity to live magical spiritual lives, but it can also be a murderous death trap where the Yetahara is waiting to ens snare us with his latest version of fun and games. The way to combat the Yates Sahara's island is to tell ourselves and our kids that our party is better than his party and that we have the greatest form of life on earth and no one will ever ever convince us otherwise. You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by tora anytime.com.