A Summary of My Remarks on Shabbat March 2
Not only did we bid farewell to February but we also said goodbye to another Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month (JDAIM). This month provides the opportunity for the Jewish community to reflect upon its success in including and welcoming everyone and to evaluate what steps need to be taken in order to ensure that the community is as welcoming and inclusive as it should be.
Our Torah portion this morning provides us with a hint as to how we should go about ensuring that we have the right attitude toward community. How do we define community? Who is "in" and who is "out"? Should there be restrictions or entrance requirements? How do we break down barriers?
We are told that Bezalel was chosen - along with Oholiab - to be the chief artisans of the mishkan, the portable desert sanctuary. Why? Because God had given them "chochmah, tevunah and da'at" - wisdom, understanding and knowledge. Why three words to describe what seems to be the same attribute? Aren't wisdom, understanding and knowledge just three different way to describe the very same thing? Rashi, the great rabbinic commentator who lived 1,000 years ago says that they are three distinct characteristics. Wisdom is the knowledge gained from learning from others. As an apprentice cobbler or blacksmith watches and learns from his/her master so too wisdom is acquired by watching and learning from others. Understanding is that knowledge acquired from within meaning from books. When we study study texts or attend classes we gain this kind of understanding. And knowledge Rashi says is acquired by Divine inspiration. That intangible, indescribable drive or talent could be this God given attribute toward achieving knowledge.
All three together highlight how we should approach the world around us and more specifically how we interact with the community. The traditional approach was an "us vs. them" model. Male rabbis for example sat in the academy centuries ago and determined the role of women in Jewish society. Men determined how women should be treated and what women could do.
However, as we learn from Rashi, we need instead to look at the chochmah or wisdom aspect of this. When trying to define our community and strengthen it we need to learn from others. When we build sanctuaries and buildings we need to include people with disabilities to ensure that the physical layout is as inclusive and accessible as possible. We can't just think we know what we are doing, we have to ask and include others.
As we bid farewell to JDAIM let's us commit ourselves to this process of inclusion. In everything we do we need to ensure that we are being as inclusive as possible. Let us strive to attain wisdom, understanding and knowledge so that we too can be Divinely inspired.
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