“Speak to Aharon, saying, ‘Any man from among your children in all future generations who has a blemish should not come close to offer the bread of his Hashem.’ ” (Vayikra 21:17)
What a strange thing! Why should someone with a blemish not be allowed to serve Hashem in the Beis Hamikdash? What kind of a lesson is the Torah teaching us by seemingly disqualifying those who are physically disabled or blemished? (Rabbi Zvi Zimmerman)
I glanced at the three seminary girls sitting on my couch. Back in my seminary-teaching days, I’d hosted girls all the time, but lots of water had gone under the bridge since. This Shabbos, with my older bochurim out of the house, I was back in the mode. But gosh, they sure make ’em younger these days. I was feeling like a dinosaur.
Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch says it’s clear from the clothing the Kohanim are required to wear while serving Hashem that the Kohein represents something great and must appear likewise. The Kohein himself cannot be in any way a contradiction to the character necessary to make the korban he is bringing worthy of being desirable.
There’s a great lesson to be learned from the fact that a blemished person cannot bring the korban. It might seem to us that someone who brings a korban must have something wrong with him. He sinned. He owes something to Hashem. This is actually an idolatrous outlook on life, where it seems that only the afflicted and those who have issues can raise themselves up through the avodah and the korbanos. This mistakenly suggests that only the weak and sick need Hashem, while everyone else can live a happy, harmonious life without Him.
“So what do you like best about Eretz Yisrael?” I asked them.
“The ice coffee!” one gushed.
“But seriously,” another gestured, “life is so different here. I’m totally in awe of how people sacrifice here. It seems like everyone here has it so tough, but they just, you know, keep on going!”
I glanced surreptitiously around my dining room. Did I look like I had it so tough? Had Yitzi been complaining again how hard it was to set the table every week?
