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Parshat Emor
2005
Looking Beyond Beauty
Every year when I read Emor I notice one passage that states, "Any man of your offspring [referring to a priest - the cohen] throughout their generations in whom there will be a blemish shall not come near to offer the food of his God." (Vayikra 21:10) This passage doesn't sit well with me. I struggle to understand how we can be created in the image of God and still not attractive enough to God to say thank you to him. Is God superficial? And if God is not superficial, why would God require that the priest is without blemish?
Don't we learn from the beginning of the Torah that we are b'tzelem Elohim, created in God's image? We were created in God's likeness, we have the breath of God in us, and yet because a person has a blemish, bushy eyebrows or one arm longer than the other, that person cannot make a sacrifice to God! If a person has poor eyesight or an oddly shaped nose, they cannot fulfill their duty as a cohen and make a sacrifice to God? What part of being in the image of God is this person missing? He or she is a human being created in the image of God. That's what I have been taught since I was in diapers, and now I read that we are only in the image of God when it's convenient for God!
Yet, perhaps God understood that humans respond to physical traits faster than they respond to emotional. We can see this throughout our society today. You can walk down the street and see a billboard featuring Gisele or other models. People Weekly recently released its "50 Most Beautiful People" issue, which focuses on physical beauty. You can watch TV and see physical beauty being promoted everywhere. Every day each of us takes a glance in the mirror before we head off to work. Even for some of us who don't care about our physical appearance, we have to care because society demands that of us.
We are taught from our childhood that physical beauty is good and that blemishes are bad. We can view this through the Wicked Witch of the West and Dorothy, through Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. We can see this through Snow White and the queen who poisons her. Our childhood is filled with these images, so how can you blame us for being so superficial?
It is a shame that we judge people based on our first physical impressions of them and unfortunately, we ourselves are sometimes guilty of that. I know I am. Maimonides understood that it was human nature to avoid those with physical blemishes. He was disturbed by this passage that forbade cohenim with blemishes from offering sacrifices and addressed this in the "Guide to the Perplexed" (Section 3 Chapter 45), where he states that "because only someone who is whole with regard to his limbs and who is handsome will be accepted by the masses." It was his fear that people would equate blemishes of the cohen to blemishes in the Temple or God. It was his belief that people might avoid coming to the Temple to make sacrifices if they were scared by a cohen who was not physically perfect.
A story is told in the Talmud of an incident between Rabbi Kahana and Rabbi Yohanan ben Ha-Nappah that further shows that even our great sages could judge based on physical appearance. Rabbi Yohanan, an old man with bushy eyebrows and poor eyesight, was giving a lecture to his class. Rabbi Kahana kept pointing out problems with Rabbi Yohanan's arguments so much that Rabbi Yohanan started to doubt himself and his knowledge. He looked up at Rabbi Kanana, who had a cleft lip, and thought that Rabbi Kahana was laughing at him. Rabbi Yohanan was greatly humiliated and embarrassed, and Rabbi Kahana died because he felt he had insulted Rabbi Yohanan so much. Later Rabbi Yohanan was told that Rabbi Kahana was not laughing at him, but that the appearance of him laughing was his natural appearance. When Rabbi Yohanan had realized that he judged and made an assumption based on Rabbi Kahana's physical appearance, he pleaded that Rabbi Kahana be brought back so that he might be able to apologize to him.
It is this Torah portion and the story of Rabbi Kahana and Rabbi Yohanan that always remind me that it is so easy to judge people on their outer beauty or blemishes instead of really taking the time to get to know them and really see who they are. Parshat Emor really teaches me to be a Hillel professional and tells me that I need to treat everyone equally. It teaches me that everyone is made in the image of God and deserves to be treated with the utmost respect, whoever they are.
Perhaps God's demanding the priest be without blemish is designed to force us to raise this objection and demand that we treat everyone as an equal and with the dignity and respect they deserve. I am glad that I am offended when I read this passage because it reminds me that I must treat everyone equally. Those with physical blemishes, or those that are physically perfect, we are all equal and we deserve to be treated as equal. When people are able to realize this they will see that we are all truly created in God's image, that we are b'tzelem Elohim.
This d'var Torah is dedicated to my friend Jesse Billauer, who despite his physical blemish of being a quadriplegic, has found a way to surf as well as run his own non-profit organization called Life Rolls On.
Prepared by Seth Rosenzweig, program director, Hillel of San Diego at San Diego State University
Learn More
Additional commentaries and text studies on Emor at MyJewishLearning.com.
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