“No one who has a defect shall come near; no man who is blind, or lame, or has a limb too short or too long.” (Leviticus 21:18)
Second Reading: Standing Defective and Being Healed
Something extremely precious to the Lubavitcher Rebbe were the verses recited before the Hakafot on Simchat Torah. In addition to the verses appearing in the liturgy, the Rebbe added the verse U’fartzta and after the start of the immigration of Russian Jewry to the Land of Israel, the Rebbe added the verse, “Behold, I will bring them from the northland, gather them from the ends of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor together; a vast throng shall return here.”
The beginning and end of this verse is more or less understood, but in the middle, we find a perplexing phrase, one that is studied by the sages, “among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor together” (בָּ ם עִ וֵּר וּפִ סֵּ חַ הָ רָ ה לֶדֶ ת וְי יַחְ דָּ ו). The sage, Reish Lakish, interprets the words “among them the blind and the lame” as referring to the resurrection of the dead, explaining that the resurrected will “stand [come back to life] with their defect and will then be immediately healed.” At the initial moment of resurrection, a person will arise with their affliction—be it blindness or lameness, etc.—and will be healed immediately. This "immediately healed" reminds us of Maimonides' words after a thousand years that "the end of Israel is to repent at the end of their exile and immediately they are redeemed." The sign of redemption is that a person stands with their affliction and is immediately healed.
We can abstract this idea and say that it not only pertains to the Resurrection of the Dead, since the straightforward interpretation of the verse speaks of redemption and not just Resurrection. This means there is a concept of national revival—similar to Ezekiel's vision, which is both a resurrection of the dead and a revival of the people—and in each instance, there is this aspect of “they stand with their defect and are immediately healed.” In other words, there is a positive aspect where the beginning of revival is not about denying the defect, whether psychological or emotional. However, while the person stands with their defect and the entire people stands with its defects, they are immediately healed.
Why is this necessary? Because it strongly emphasizes that it is the hand of God. These are not human actions, they are Divine. My defects are certainly caused by my issues, affairs, and sins. And it is God that heals them.
We often discuss how a defect (מו ּ ם) is considered a holy name in Kabbalah—the last name derived from the three consecutive verses in parashat Beshalach that have 72 letters each—indicating that the defect itself holds a form of sanctity. It takes complete self-abnegation to stand with one’s defect and await a miracle from Heaven that will heal it instantaneously. Such a miracle reveals God’s essence; it is an action solely of “the Healer of all flesh, who does wondrous deeds.” It is a wonder of wonders.
This interpretation is characteristic of a ba’al teshuvah mentality, exactly the viewpoint held by Reish Lakish. He often speaks from the perspective of a ba’al teshuvah, a relatively “lights of chaos” perspective. “They stand with their defect and are immediately healed” applies both to the redemption of all of Israel and to the redemption of each individual—one must stand with their defect and be healed instantly, through wondrous miracles.
(excerpted from Ma’ayan Ganim, Vayikra, Emor)
