Turn Your Weakness Into Your Greatness - Parshat Emor - Rabbi Avi Wiesenfeld

[Music] he was only 10 years old and he had gone through a devastating car accident he lost his left arm the boy started to become depressed his parents didn't know what to do so they sent him to the local Japanese martial art course of Judo hoping that it would boost his self-confidence and he took to it amazingly well he loved it every day he went there with such enthusiasm he had an amazing instructor and his instructor taught him just one move day after day for months eventually he comes in and he tells his instructor I think I'm ready for the next move and the instruction said no this is the only move that you'll ever need and he worked at it month after month until eventually the tournament came and in instructor told him I think you're ready really you sure he said yes you are ready to compete and he made it through from the quarterfinals to the semi-finals and he was there at the final he had made it to the end his opponent was a heavyweight he was petrified the match began he did his magic he practiced the one move that he knew and he won the game you can't imagine the smile the sense of fulfillment and success that he had he was on the way home with his instructor and he said my dear instructor I want to thank you so much but could you explain to me how is it that I won a game I made it to the finals but I only knew one move and the instructor said I want to tell you why because number one you worked really hard you persevered number two the only self-defense for the move that you knew is to grab your left arm and you don't have one there was no way that he was going to win and this boy found out that what he thought was the greatest weakness was ultimately the greatest success Rashi in this week's parisher tells us about a m a blemish that if someone has a blemish they're not able to serve in the Mish or in the B mikdash but if it's a mum OA if it's a blemish that passes then he's koser he's okay and he can serve maybe it's a message for ourselves how many of us think we have blemishes we're not able to serve quote unquote in the world what can we do but if we make our mum we make our blemish our weaknesses into something that's a mum we let go of it we move past it we look elsewhere then it becomes a m it's m then we're kosher to serve in the world and sometimes what we feel to be our great greatest weakness can ultimately be our greatest success have a wonderful shabas to Listen to More by Rabbi Abby weisenfeld visit [Music]