T orah P ortion
The Spirituality of the Mundane
BY RABBI YISROEL ROSENFELD
Parshat Mishpatim
THIS WEEK’S TORAH
portion picks up immedi-
ately following the giving of
the Torah at Mount Sinai.

The Jewish people had just
experienced the loftiest G-dly
revelation in the history of
mankind. One can imagine
the state of mind and spiritual
connection that was felt at that
time. Adding to this, the Jewish
people were already having
a spiritual experience while
traveling in the desert. Bread
fell from the sky in the form
of manna. The clouds of glory
protected them from all sides.

It would be fair to say the
spiritual temperature of the
Disability Continued from Page 4
inclusive grandparenting.

The dialogue will focus on
ways in which grandparents can
manage the expectations of their
grandchildren with disabilities
and adapt to support their needs.

Like Kaplan-Mayer,
Friedman believes COVID has
already made families think
differently about access.

“In a world where everything
went to FaceTime and Zoom
and Facebook Portal ... suddenly
[grandparents] have embraced
those tools in different ways,”
Friedman said. “It actually has
been beneficial to grandpar-
enting relationships.”
In a time when COVID has
complicated so many lives, for
some of those caring for disabled
kids, the pandemic has made life
easier in some ways.

Parents with immunocom-
promised children who had put
in a great deal of planning to
take their children safely outside
are now in good company,
Friedman argued.

24 JANUARY 27, 2022
CAN DL E L IGHTIN G
Jan. 28
Feb. 4
4:57 p.m.

5:06 p.m.

Jewish people, entering into
Parshat Mishpatim, was at an
unprecedented high.

Yet, the parsha begins by
presenting the most practical
and seemingly mundane laws
to be found in the Torah. In it
we learn the laws of servants
and maidservants; the laws of
working animals in the field;
the laws governing one man
assaulting another; and the laws
of capital punishment.

No t w i t h s t a n d i n g
the endless wisdom contained
in this portion of the laws, it
seems rather striking that G-d
chooses to introduce us to
civil and practical laws imme-
diately following, and in the
midst of, the most spiritual and
divine experiences.

Why would He not first
begin with the loftier laws?
Would it not make more sense
to first address us regarding
the laws more directly and
obviously pertaining to spir-
ituality instead of leaping
into the mundane?
The end of this parsha picks
up the narrative from where
we left off: describing the lofty
assent of Moshe up the moun-
tain to receive the tablets. This
would seem the most appro-
priate continuation of last
week’s narrative. Why then do
we pause for the laws of dispute,
damages and a slew of other
civil matters that appear to be
uniquely mundane?
Perhaps we can understand
this by taking a closer look
at the realities of Jewish life
today. The fact of the matter is
most of our time and our life
is spent involved in worldly
and seemingly unspiritual
matters. Most of us are not
able to focus on prayer and
Torah study for the majority
of the day. Temple sacrifices
and priestly services are not
applicable to our times when
we do not have a Holy Temple
built in Jerusalem.

Thus one may wonder if
service to G-d is relevant today?
Are the laws and teachings in the
Torah as important to us as they
were in a more spiritual time —
perhaps as when the Jews were
in the desert and were basking
in G-d’s glory, a time when they
had the Mishkan (Tabernacle)
and performed daily services
with sacrifices to G-d?
For these reasons, G-d sends
a very important message. The
first laws that He chooses to
teach us are specifically not the
laws pertaining to spirituality,
but rather the basic fundamen-
tals of daily life, like damage
disputes and the proper ways
to treat domestic workers, for
example. The Torah is telling
us that our service to G-d and
observance of His laws is equally
important to Him no matter the
apparent “spiritual content” the
mitzvot may seem to have.

So when you are performing
your daily work, or when you are
interacting with others, know
that your observance of G-d’s
Torah is just as important to
Him as the service of the priests
in the Temple. For this reason,
He set those laws out first. l
“Suddenly, the whole world
is speaking about those things,”
Friedman said. “In some ways,
it leveled the playing field for
people.” The greater awareness of
accessibility and need for
access tools has taken place in
synagogues and Hebrew school
classes, too.

“Our synagogues or educa-
tional leaders have become much
more aware that teachers need
professional development and
training to know how to support
kids,” Kaplan-Mayer said.

In 2021, Jewish Learning
Venture piloted a yearlong
training program for six
jkidaccess guides to get a
“deep dive into understanding
disability inclusion and family
engagement.” Guides learned how to create
quiet spaces or prepare alter-
native activities for children
with fine motor or sensory
disabilities. Jewish Learning Venture
received a 2022 Covenant
Foundation Signature grant
for $100,000 over two years to
not only expand the jkidaccess
guides training but to financially
support synagogues in partner-
ship with Jewish Learning
Venture interested in creating
unique initiatives to support
accessibility, such as creating
Jewish holiday kits for families.

Grants such as the one from
the Covenant Foundation allow
for disability inclusion work
to be done year-round and
become a more foundational
part of Jewish community
infrastructure, Kaplan-Mayer
argued. “There’s a shift in the greater
consciousness as we think about
diversity, equity and inclusion
in the big picture — realizing,
maybe in the Jewish commu-
nity, we haven’t thought so much
about disability issues,” Kaplan-
Mayer said. “I love that hopefully
folks are thinking about things
in a different way.”
A complete listing of
JDAIM events from Jewish
Learning Venture can be found
at jewishlearningventure.org/
calendar. l
ADL his neighborhood. He brought
it home and showed it to his
mom. She saw that it was called
PennySaver and then had to
explain antisemitism to him.

Goretsky suddenly under-
stood why the kids ran off
laughing after handing him the
magazine. The same kind of incident
happens when kids today are
playing video games or on
social media. He said it’s their
job to do what young Goretsky
did and tell an adult; then, it’s
the adult’s job to play the role
of Goretsky’s mom.

Through No Place for
Hate and other educational
programs, ADL Philadelphia
can play the role of adult for
the entire region.

“If we’re doing our job
well, we will see an increase
in reports because people
will know to report to us,”
Goretsky said. “I’m more
concerned about incidents of
hate, bias and extremism that
no one reports.” l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
JEWISH EXPONENT
Continued from Page 7
Rabbi Yisroel Rosenfeld is the rabbi
at the Lubavitch Center and the
executive director of Chabad of
Western Pennsylvania.

with CBS News on Jan. 17, Beth
Israel Rabbi Charlie Cytron-
Walker said courses with the
FBI, ADL and Colleyville
Police Department taught
synagogue leaders what to do
in that situation.

“What we learned from the
hostage situation in Texas was
how important it was that these
relationships were already
strong so that we didn’t have
to start building them only in
a time of crisis,” Goretsky said.

But Goretsky also under-
stands that hate is now
multidimensional. Since
young people spend much of
their time online, that’s where
they often see expressions of
antisemitism. The way to combat that,
according to Goretsky, is the
same way you would combat it
in physical reality: Teach young
people to know the signs.

When the director was 7-
or 8-years-old, he was given jsaffren@jewishexponent.com;
a magazine by some kids in 215-832-0740
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM