"To be a teacher in the right sense is to be a learner.  I am not a teacher, only a fellow student."  (Soren Kierkegaard)

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A FEW PRE-SHABBAT WORDS FROM RABBI AARON

In parashat Emor we read about the special demands put upon the kohanim. So many details about their lives set them apart from their fellow Israelites. Perhaps the most extreme passage regards the perfection of their bodies:

The Lord spoke further to Moses: Speak to Aaron and say: No man of your offspring throughout the ages who has a defect shall be qualified to offer the food of his God.  No one at all who has a defect shall be qualified: no man who is blind, or lame, or has a limb too short or too long; no man who has a broken leg or a broken arm; or who is a hunchback, or a dwarf, or who has a growth in his eye, or who has a boil-scar, or scurvy, or crushed testes. No man among the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a defect shall be qualified to offer the Lord's offering by fire; having a defect, he shall not be qualified to offer the food of his God. He may eat of the food of his God, of the most holy as well as of the holy; but he shall not enter behind the curtain or come near the altar, for he has a defect. He shall not profane these places sacred to Me, for I the Lord have sanctified them.

If you check out the attachments below, you'll find an exploration of a powerful image: the wounded healer. In addition to this archetype being a powerful psychological concept, the character shows up in film as well as in literature. A healing, redemptive person is also marked/flawed in some way. Moses stutters, Jacob limps, Isaac is blind. Or consider the one-armed rifleman or the whiskey priest. 

Beyond the intriguing turmoil and inner tension, there's a deeper truth. All of us are broken, all of us sin. Our prayers - especially on the High Holy Days - acknowledge this truth without hesitation. The perfect specimen carries a huge burden. The high priest, the fighter pilot, the astronaut,  - there's a mythic God-like dimension, a layer of potentially intoxicating power that goes along with this myth of physical perfection. People don't really hold up all that well beneath such a heavy - an unreasonably heavy load. While the wounded healer is de-mystified - he or she is really one of us - we can trust them and lean into their vulnerability. They may be gifted, but they struggle. They are like us. they are real. As for the perfect vessel - how willing are we to truly buy into that facade of invulnerability? As for our willingness to really bond with a "perfect" person, I doubt that we can really connect. Such a person, such a sub-group will be forever walled off emotionally from the rest of the community.

Rabbi Aaron

Click any of the images below to view the complete pdf file (some pdf files are more than one page)