{"id":45714,"date":"2018-12-15T19:33:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-15T17:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=45714"},"modified":"2022-07-08T16:57:12","modified_gmt":"2022-07-08T13:57:12","slug":"whole-in-our-imperfections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/whole-in-our-imperfections\/","title":{"rendered":"Whole In Our Imperfections"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[480,770,631],"acf":{"old_id":"45714","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33992,"related_cahpter":"111","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The required wholeness is not perfection, but rather serving God with all our being, with the entirety of who we are","content":"

\u201cNo one of your offspring throughout the ages who has a defect \u2013 a <\/span>mum<\/span><\/i> \u2013 shall be qualified to offer food to God; no one who has a <\/span>mum<\/span><\/i> \u2013 a defect \u2013 shall be qualified.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, I have been schooled in the historical method, and my first defense against troubling verses in the Torah is to quarantine them securely behind a historical context, so I begin my contemplation using that approach. The Kohen in the Temple is to be a symbol of perfection, and therefore because the ritual is physical, his perfection must also be physical. And that perfection is understood by the biblical mind as <\/span>shleimut<\/span><\/i>\u2014as wholeness. Therefore, the Kohen can’t be missing any part, because he has to symbolize that wholeness in the presence of God. Indeed, as the Torah goes on to state, \u201cOne who has a defect shall not enter behind the curtain, nor come near the altar.”<\/span><\/p>\n

We are God’s children, blemishes, defects, imperfections, and all, and we cannot afford to allow our shortcomings to prevent us from offering bold leadership, from taking the responsibility that is ours to do what good we can, to glorify Torah as we might. So I’d like to offer a different percolation of that initial verse in Parashat Emor. Consider the fact that the one thing a person cannot ever truly have is a defect. A defect is a lack of something. How can you possibly possess that which you lack? What you have when you have a <\/span>mum<\/span><\/i> is not a lack–you have the perception of lacking something. A <\/span>mum<\/span><\/i> is only possible if you construe yourself as somehow deficient.<\/span><\/p>\n

A <\/span>mum<\/span><\/i>, then, is that lack which makes you feel incomplete. It is the part of some imaginary whole that cannot exist but in your mind. I would like to propose that wholeness does not mean some imagined physical perfection. Indeed, <\/span>shleimut<\/span><\/i> is not perfection of any kind. <\/span>Shleimut<\/span><\/i> means serving God with all our being, with the entirety of who we are, leaving no part of ourselves outside of the divine service–“<\/span>bechol levav’cha, uvechol nafshecha, uvechol meod’cha<\/span><\/i>,” \u201cwith all our heart, soul, and strength.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

God doesn’t demand of us that we apportion ourselves into little pieces, some parts of which are kosher, some parts of which are acceptable, some parts of which may be public, and the rest must be hidden away. <\/span><\/p>\n

It is that hiding which is the <\/span>mum<\/span><\/i>, and a person with such a <\/span>mum<\/span><\/i> cannot serve the Holy One and cannot stand before an imperfect community pretending to be perfect.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":101664,"id":101664,"title":"-6201044ff2166--6201044ff2167gen2-crack imperfect.jpg","filename":"6201044ff2166-6201044ff2167gen2-crack-imperfect.jpg.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/07\/6201044ff2166-6201044ff2167gen2-crack-imperfect.jpg.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-mercy-of-a-no-good-world\/6201044ff2166-6201044ff2167gen2-crack-imperfect-jpg\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"6201044ff2166-6201044ff2167gen2-crack-imperfect-jpg","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":34028,"date":"2022-02-07 11:36:47","modified":"2022-08-17 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