For this week’s reflection, we hear from Rabbi Nathan Martin. Nathan is a former board member of PA IPL and currently serves as the Rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel of Media, PA. We are so grateful to Nathan for contributing his reflection.
How does your faith influence your perspective on the intersection of disability and the environment?
“Jewish tradition and texts are deeply connected to the lived environment of our people. We punctuate our year by celebrating rituals of harvest, planting, and connecting daily to the renewing power of the Divine who brings on rains in their proper time and makes the earth come alive again after a dormant winter. Our psalmist imagines the mountains and rivers singing out songs to their Creator in a continual chorus of praise.
I am grateful that I have the physical ability to walk outdoors which can be in itself a faith-deepening practice. (This month I am walking the perimeter of Philadelphia as part of my PA IPL “Hike and Bike” walk.) I not only have the opportunity to notice the intricacy of creation around me – even the beauty of the invasive weed by the trail’s edge – but I sometimes feel as if I am able to hear the echoes of the psalmist and the liturgy offering praises alongside me. I know that this is not the case for everyone.
While all our peope are invited to connect and celebrate the daily miracles of the natural world, and to connect to the seasonal cycles of Jewish time, there has been a way in which our Biblical tradition marginalized disabled people. For example, priests with physcial disabilties were prohibited from offering sacrifices at in the desert tabernacle. And while we can find examples in our literature of positive characterizations of disable people – the blind person with deep insight into the secrets of Torah, the “ugly” person who teaches a great sage about seeing the spark of the divine in all of us – it is important to remember that Jews with disabilities have historically suffered from abuse and exclusion.
Perhaps the hopeful piece though is that I identify with a stream of Judaism, Reconstructionism, that suggests that Judaism can continue to evovle to meet the present moment – a moment in where we want to continue to explore and create ways for all of us to have access to the renewing and restorative powers of the natural world, and where all are treated with dignity and respect.
In this week’s Torah portion that Jews will read together in synagogues around the world, we read the injunction to “not put a stumbling block before the blind (Lev. 19:14).” I couldn’t think of a more appropriate intention and guideline to draw from than this. In the process of living into this guideline and repairing the world, we need ask ourselves how to remove existing stumbling blocks so they won’t become obstacles in the future. Perhaps when we do that we can create a world that will be fit for all, including the Divine, to live in.”