- Jan 25, 2009
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Saw a powerful documentary recently on the issue of dwarves in Auschwitz - entitled Perspectives - Warwick Davis - The Seven Dwarfs of Auschwitz (2013)
Warwick Davis & the Seven Dwarves of Auschwitz Trailer - YouTube
For reference, one can go to the following:
It was fascinating learning of the history of dwarves in Auschwitz - paticularly those who were Jewish dwarves - and all that they went through.
As intensive as it was to deal with life as a dwarf (just as it is with many today - for you really don't see many synagogues or churches seeming to be full of them) - it really hit home with me on how difficult it may have been in Biblical times in light of what scripture notes:
In these verses God is telling Moses to tell Aaron that any one with a defect may not offer the food of his God. And I've heard of others thinking that he is basically saying anyone with a deformity is not worthy of being in God's presence right. Essentially, the passage seemed to restrict those in Aarons line from functioning as priests if they have any kind of defect physically. The reason that might have made sense to the Israelites was that like the sacrifices they offered that had to be perfect, so the priests who offered them had to be perfect in order to please God.
Of course, we know that God was also preparing His people to receive the real/ultimate sacrifice for our sins and high priest to offer the sacrifice Yeshua. And as one who often healed those with disabilities (Matthew 15:29-31 ) and even brought them into the temple to be healed when he cleansed it (Matthew 21:13 ), connecting others with the Lord that may not have felt able to be close to Him was a big deal. But it does seem perplexing as to why the Lord would not allow others to come into the temple who were born with deformities when others having all kinds of issues of sin would also have been deformed as well..
Had our father Adam not sinned before us, no one would have a blemish, a mutilated face, blind eyes, or an itching disease - and in many ways, those traits are physical markers that we are a sinful people who are not worthy of approaching Him. Of course it is true that those with handicaps or physical blemishes are not worthy of approaching God, but that's because none of us are - and one has to wonder: why did God allow priests without physical blemishes to approach Him if they were just as sinful?
It does seem that God had a high concern for the disabled - Moses declares in Deuteronomy 27:18, Cursed is the man who leads the blind astray on the road.
And yet while in Leviticus 19:14 we are commanded not to curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, two chapters later we read Leviticus 21: 16-21, which outlines physical requirements for the priests who will lead public worship. The priests who lift their hands in worship and participate in the sacrifices must be physically perfect. Apparently, Maimonides explains this rule by writing most people do not estimate a person by his true form, but by his limbs and his clothing, and the Temple should be held in the highest regard (Guide to the Perplexed, 3:45.) Essentially, people are ableist, and this requirement is in place because of our shortcomings, not because theres anything wrong with the person with a disability.
Working with people who have had disabilities (including a dear sister whose son passed away with one), the issue has been something I've wrestled with and I am processing on what to make of it fully.
For reference:
Representations of Disability in Leviticus 21:16-23 - Dissertations
Warwick Davis & the Seven Dwarves of Auschwitz Trailer - YouTube
For reference, one can go to the following:
It was fascinating learning of the history of dwarves in Auschwitz - paticularly those who were Jewish dwarves - and all that they went through.
As intensive as it was to deal with life as a dwarf (just as it is with many today - for you really don't see many synagogues or churches seeming to be full of them) - it really hit home with me on how difficult it may have been in Biblical times in light of what scripture notes:
In these verses God is telling Moses to tell Aaron that any one with a defect may not offer the food of his God. And I've heard of others thinking that he is basically saying anyone with a deformity is not worthy of being in God's presence right. Essentially, the passage seemed to restrict those in Aarons line from functioning as priests if they have any kind of defect physically. The reason that might have made sense to the Israelites was that like the sacrifices they offered that had to be perfect, so the priests who offered them had to be perfect in order to please God.
Of course, we know that God was also preparing His people to receive the real/ultimate sacrifice for our sins and high priest to offer the sacrifice Yeshua. And as one who often healed those with disabilities (Matthew 15:29-31 ) and even brought them into the temple to be healed when he cleansed it (Matthew 21:13 ), connecting others with the Lord that may not have felt able to be close to Him was a big deal. But it does seem perplexing as to why the Lord would not allow others to come into the temple who were born with deformities when others having all kinds of issues of sin would also have been deformed as well..
Had our father Adam not sinned before us, no one would have a blemish, a mutilated face, blind eyes, or an itching disease - and in many ways, those traits are physical markers that we are a sinful people who are not worthy of approaching Him. Of course it is true that those with handicaps or physical blemishes are not worthy of approaching God, but that's because none of us are - and one has to wonder: why did God allow priests without physical blemishes to approach Him if they were just as sinful?
It does seem that God had a high concern for the disabled - Moses declares in Deuteronomy 27:18, Cursed is the man who leads the blind astray on the road.
And yet while in Leviticus 19:14 we are commanded not to curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, two chapters later we read Leviticus 21: 16-21, which outlines physical requirements for the priests who will lead public worship. The priests who lift their hands in worship and participate in the sacrifices must be physically perfect. Apparently, Maimonides explains this rule by writing most people do not estimate a person by his true form, but by his limbs and his clothing, and the Temple should be held in the highest regard (Guide to the Perplexed, 3:45.) Essentially, people are ableist, and this requirement is in place because of our shortcomings, not because theres anything wrong with the person with a disability.
Working with people who have had disabilities (including a dear sister whose son passed away with one), the issue has been something I've wrestled with and I am processing on what to make of it fully.
For reference:
Representations of Disability in Leviticus 21:16-23 - Dissertations
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