Parashat Emor: Embodied Leadership and Its Discontents
In Parashat Emor (Leviticus 21-24), read this past week in synagogues around the world, we are introduced to the relatives for whom Kohanim (priests) are permitted to mourn, as well as a list of various classes of priests who, owing to a mum (blemish), are barred from performing the sacrificial service in the Mishkan (Leviticus [...]
Towards Acceptance, Holiness and Removing Stumbling Blocks
This week, we are once again reading Parashat Kedoshim (Leviticus 19:1-20:27). Biblical scholars commonly refer to these two chapters of Leviticus as the holiness code due to the numerous interpersonal commandments (mitzvot) that are found within. These mitzvot form the foundation of Torah and are applicable to everyone. In addition to loving our neighbor as [...]
From Inclusion to Integration
This month, the Jewish community is marking Jewish Disability Awareness Month, as it has since February 2008. Throughout February, congregations and communal organizations of all stripes will be holding programs, special prayer services, text studies and the like, all with the overarching goal of raising awareness about issues and concerns that people with disabilities face [...]
Making Room for People With Disabilities
Here in Illinois, Governor Quinn has been pushing hard to close state institutions for people with developmental disabilities, along with some prisons and state mental hospitals. There are a handful of these complexes scattered around small towns all over the state. Like prisons, these institutions are a major source of jobs and revenue for otherwise [...]
Holiness and Removing the Stumbling Block — Parashat Kedoshim
Parashat Kedoshim (Leviticus 19:1-20:27) is read this week as part of the annual Torah reading cycle in the synagogue. As is the case most years, it is read in conjunction with the parsha or Torah portion which proceeds it—Parashat Acharei Mot (Leviticus 16-18) which is also read on Yom Kippur. Parashat Kedoshim is a parsha [...]
Jewish Disability Awareness Month
This February marks the fourth annual Jewish Disability Awareness Month, a time when special attention and emphasis is brought to the needs and experiences of people with disabilities in our communities. As someone who has a visual impairment, Jewish Disability Awareness Month holds personal significance for me and is very much welcome. At the same [...]
The Inclusion Imparative or, How I Came to Love Text
Inclusion of individuals with disabilities into the very fabric of our religious communities and congregations has been a passion of mine for many years. This stems in large part from the fact that I just happen to be someone who is blind, but it also stems from my deeply held belief that all of us, [...]
Disability, Christian Theology, and the Proper Place of “Limit-ness”
Deborah Creamer proposes a theology of disability based on the concept that all people are “limited.” When is this concept of “limit-ness” harmful to people with disabilities?
Learning from Harry Potter
Today Evanna Lynch told the world that J.K. Rowling helped her recover from anorexia. The Toronto Sun reports that she composed a letter to Rowling to thank her for the books, which gave her hope, and particularly to thank her for the character of Luna Lovegood, who inspired her. Rowling wrote back, encouraging the young [...]
Contributing Scholars
Phillipe CopelandPhillipe Copeland is a Baha'i, a doctoral candidate in social work, a dedicated blogger, a husband and a father.
Ted DedonSeminarian in the City of New York. I come from the land of the ice and snow (and 10,000 lakes). It's Nice.
Mani RaoMani Rao (b.1965 India) is the author of eight poetry books and a translation of the Bhagavad Gita published by Autumn Hill Books (2010) and Penguin India (2011). Her poems and essays are published in journals including Tinfish, Wasafiri, Meanjin, Washington Square, Fulcrum, West Coast Line, and Interim, and in anthologies including Zoland Poetry, W.W.Norton’s Language for a New Century, and the BloodAxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets. She was a Visiting Fellow at the Iowa International Writing Program in 2005 and 2009, and the 2006 University of Iowa International Programs writer-in-residence. Mani has an MFA in poetry, and is a phD student of Religious Studies at Duke University. Her website is www.manirao.com