Access
I happen to be exceptionally lucky.
I have had essentially 23 years of excellent Jewish education from Gan Rina Nursery School through the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies.
I grew up in a home in which my curiosity was not only allowed to but encouraged to flourish and grow.
I was exposed to all kinds of music, from Uncle Moishy to Meat Loaf.
We have a library’s worth of books including literature, literary criticism, history, Chumashim, mefarshim, and general Judaic knowledge.
I was allowed to choose any musical instrument I wanted to learn to play.
I chose the drums.
My shul, my home away from home was always a place and is still a place, where I feel like my full, authentic self.
I have access.
You see, the building itself is accessible.
The reason that this is important to me is because I myself am in a motorized wheelchair.
Why mention this now?
Because after all of the excitement of matan Torah with its literal kolot u’vrakim (voices and lightning), at the end of the parsha, we have a couple of rules about altars.
In the maftir, the last few pesukim in the parsha, HaShem tells bnei Yisrael through Moshe that “they saw that He spoke with them from the sky. Not to make gods out of silver and gold to accompany HaShem, to make an altar out of earth on which to bring sacrifices, and if bnei Yisrael I had to make an altar out of stone, it should not be hewn stone.
Finally, the final pasuk (verse) of this exceptionally important list of mitzvot and ordinances is this: “lo ta’aleh ba’ma’alot al mizbichi asher lo tigaleh ervatcha alav” show my steps to My altar that you should not reveal your nakedness upon it (Exodus 20:22)
The commentators explain the word “ma’alot”.
Rashi explains that when one builds an ascent up to the altar, it should not have steps, rather, it should be even and sloping.
Rashbam explains within the same line of thinking of his grandfather, but it should be an [upward] incline.
Ibn Ezra surmises that Ben Zuta said that the word ma’alot, steps, comes from the same root as the word ma’al which means to “trespass”, therefore, the text should be translated not to go up to HaShem’s mizbeach, altar in a manner of trespassing, me’ilah.
I happened to have learned masechet Me’ilah last year for a siyum mishnayot in my shul, and the funny thing about me’ilah is that it is essentially embezzlement.
Fraud.
Taking something away from somebody that he or she deserved.
That seems to line up nicely with what Shadal says regarding our pasuk.
He says, that it seems to him that this prohibition of steps up to the altar was to prevent bnei Yisrael from making images in the stairs of the altar, or that HaShem does not wish to reveal His reason, and so gives an alternative reasoning for our not showing our nakedness.
Oddly enough, this answer sits better with me.
Because Shadal is saying the hard truth out loud: that we don’t know the reason.
We can try and explain it away, but the answer is never going to sit well, or resonate with anyone necessarily.
That’s how I feel about my disability.
There obviously is some reason for it, and doctors, geneticists, rabbis, and psychologists can try and explain it to me and the way that will sit well with me… But it cannot.
All I am required to do is move forward.
I don’t know what the plan is.
He has it all mapped out… But to me and my family, the daily living is as overwhelming to plan for as having shofarot and lightning.
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If you want to help us with combating our problem, you can. https://thechesedfund.com/hopeinaction/herzfeld-family-fund