The Town of Tykocin 

         The day we visited Tykocin, we immersed ourselves into the Shtetl lifestyle. The small huts and shacks looked like they were right out of the movie, “Fiddler on the Roof”. Tykocin, “the town of little people”, came to existence in 1522, when 10 families were granted with the Charter of Rights. This led to the development of a K’hila, and eventually, an economic hub. By the mid-1700’s, about 2,700 Jews lived and thrived in Tykocin. 

        There was a market in the  center of town, with the main economy focusing around the sale of vodka/wine, fish, metals, wool, and clothing. We visited the Beit Kinessit, which at the time was being renovated, and held a minor prayer service inside, (until the Orthodox got upset and we left). We finished our service outside the busses, and learned the fate of the Jews in Tykocin. On August 25th, 1941-when World War II was in full effect, sadly, the Nazis came to round up all the Jews in town. The sadistic Nazis forcefully made the Jews sing, “Hatikva”, before boarding the majority of people into busses driving to the Tykocin Forrest. The rest of the Jews were demanded to run behind the busses. In the forrest, the Jews of Tykocin were lined up, and shot into 3 different mass graves. The people who could not keep up with the busses, were shot and killed as well.  

In order to honor those who lost their lives in Tykocin, we boarded the busses silently, and drove to the forrest. The forrest was scattered with trees higher than the eye can see. There was a faint feeling of death and dismay in the noise of the whistling wind, and the feeling of the cold air hitting my face. 

 

         As a class, we were read stories of individuals who spent there last seconds of life, in the cruel hands of the Nazis, in the forrest. Then, all together, we visited the mass graves. I was unable to fully imagine what the scene could have looked like, with children crying and mothers and fathers in despair. I closed may eyes and prayed for nothing like this to ever happen to any human being ever again. We closed off the trip, with a ceremony in which we were each given a name of an individual from Tykocin, in order to continue their legacy and not let them die in vain. In my opinion, the Tykocin forrest was one the hardest-if not hardest, parts of the trip to Poland.

I leave you now with 2 questions: 

What did you like/dislike about Tykocin?

How did it make you feel?

Shabbat in Poland- Twiggy

On friday evening, we went to the JCC in Krakow where we learned about a year long Jewish gap program called JDC. They gave us a lovely shabbat dinner and taught us about the reform Jewish life, and the Jewish life in general that remains in Poland. We then went back to the hotel for a shabbat service. The next morning, we had another service at the hotel, and had a relaxing day followed by the wisdom of a woman whose family had been awarded Righteous Among The Nations. All in all, it was a very restful shabbat amidst a crazy week, that gave thought to the future of all of the students.

Would you be interested in doing another program like Heller High where you would get to travel abroad while involved with Judaism?

Warsaw - Eli Sporn

Warsaw, Poland. The second largest Jewish community next to New York by the 1930s.
In Warsaw, there are various remnants of Jewish life. We visited monuments to many
members of the Warsaw ghetto as well as a cemetery to Jewish citizens of Warsaw.

The Warsaw cemetery was built in 1806 by the Jewish population of Warsaw. This cemetery
housed many important Jewish figures from Poland. This includes Abraham Sui Pelmater,
a rabbi who formed kosher kitchens in the Polish army for Jewish soldiers, Bareli Sonenberg,
a man with great wealth and charity, Adam Czerniakow, the head of the Judenrat during
the time of the Warsaw Ghetto, Lazaro Ludoviko Zamenhof, the creator of the universal
language of Esperanto, Isaac Leib Peretz, arguably the greatest influencer of
Yiddish culture in novels and in life itself, the Bund leaders, who aided in the Warsaw
uprising and other revolutionary efforts, and many other influential Jews.
This cemetery also included the graves of one hundred thousand Jews who
died in the Warsaw Ghetto, piled into a mass grave with taliet stones surrounding it.
The graves also had inscriptions showing a core value or ethical path that the person
followed, including charity, religious devotion, and wisdom.

Next, we visited main parts of the ghetto itself, which also brought various memorials to other

influential Jews in the ghetto. These influential Jews, amongst others, include Janusz Korczak, a man who helped aid orphans in the ghetto, Yitzhak Itzenbagen, who ended Kiddush Hashem and employed Kiddush Hachaim, Fruma Plonitska and other women smugglers, who aided many Jews in Warsaw and throughout Poland with the spread of information and goods. There was also a large memorial to the many people who passed away after being deported from the Warsaw Ghetto elsewhere and to the many revolutionaries who aided in the Warsaw uprising.

There were many examples of people who made a large impact on their society
through small acts of kindness and helping others. Throughout these people,
many different themes and ideas appear that they follow. Whose actions, ideas, or
beliefs do you relate to the most and why?

Lublin- Jordan Spiegel

On March 21st, we traveled to the city of Lublin. We began at the Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin, which was built by incredible rabbi and great thinker Meir Shapiro. In the 1800’s Lublin was 70% Jewish, and even as the city’s population greatly expanded the Jews still remained 1/3 of the population. At the time of Shapiro’s birth in 1887, Lublin had a rich Jewish culture. Shapiro became a rabbi by the young age of 16, and published his first book at the age of 23, titled “Words of Wisdom.”  In 1922 he was elected as a Jewish representative of the Polish Parliament, and much of Jewish society followed him as their leader. Shapiro came up with the idea of a Yeshiva that was not only for study, but also served as a place for its students to live and practice Judaism around the clock. In his Yeshiva they could use his new method of studying Talmud, the Daf Yomi, which was a seven and a half year cycle where a page of Talmudic text was studied each day. Shapiro began to travel around the world, fundraising and collecting unique Jewish texts for the Yeshiva he hoped to open. His dream became a reality in 1930 and flourished with the best and brightest students for a few years. However, Shapiro died in 1933 and the Yeshiva ran into financial difficulties until September 1939, when it was shut down and turned into Nazi headquarters. 25,000 Jewish texts were publicly burned, and years of thousands of Jewish authors was obliterated. Although Shapiro’s dream was dead, it is important to remember the dedication of Shapiro, and all the other scholars who devoted their lives to studying Judaism.

We then traveled to the Old City of Lublin where we entered the Jewish gate and visited a Jewish museum. The museum is run by Poles who are trying to preserve the once rich culture that existed in Lublin before the Shoah. They have stories, documents, and pictures of peoples life, as well as a model of what Lublin’s Jewish area used to look like.

The museum also put on a performance of Yiddish theatre, which wasn’t quite what I expected. The play, was really a reading of Jewish poems set to music. The poems, however, were in Polish rather than Yiddish. The Yiddish aspect was simply the fact that the poems were all about Jewish life in Lublin before the Shoah, which could perhaps be described as Yiddish culture. Either way, the poems were beautiful and the haunting music took the subject matter to a new level of meaningful. After the play, the performer answered some questions about why they continued to keep up the museum, even as non-Jews. His answer was that it was important to preserve Jewish life because of the atrocities that happened. Some felt that those working at the museum were doing it out of guilt, and others felt that they were simply doing what they felt was right. After we exited the museum, we got to explore the Old Town, which was absolutely gorgeous, although almost barren of any signs that Jewish life once thrived there. 

 My question is: Would you rather live a regular shtetl life in Lublin or rigorously study at Shapiro’s Yeshiva?

Krakow Shul Hopping; Leah

Krakow: Shul Hopping

To start off our day in what was once the Jewish Quarter of Krakow, we sat and sang a nigun. A nigun is a repetitive tune or melody with no words. Next, we headed to our first synagogue; The Beit Knesset Rama. The Beit Knesset Rama is still an active synagogue today. Rama is one of the most famous Ashkenazis of all time and he wrote the Mapah. Next to the synagogue is a graveyard where many important people in our history were buried, including Rama. There is a Midrash that says when the Nazis invaded and destroyed the synagogue and graveyard, the graves could not be broken. The next synagogue we visited was Isaac's synagogue. It was built in 1638 by a very wealthy family. The same family that built it also gave a loan King Kashmir who invited Jews into the community. The synagogue has high acoustics and had arches, baroque style. It was a crowned jewel of the Jewish community. Chabad went around and identified all the prayers written on the walls of the shul.   Reb Jekel taught us, you don't have to go far and wide to find your riches.

Then we hopped over to the synagogue I felt the most connection to; The Kupa synagogue for the poor. The shul was built for the poor people of Krakow. It took 50 years to raise enough money to open the synagogue, but it was just as decorative as the others that we visited. On the wall was a painting of twelve loaves of bread to represent the twelve tribes and giving to the poor. We visited The Temple next. Members of the Reform Judaism named the synagogue The Temple and this caused controversy because the orthodox believed the only temple can only be in Jerusalem. It was built between the years 1860-1862 and was constructed to look like a church to attract more people. When members of the Hassidic community would pass by they would spit on it because they didn't except it. The Temple is decorated with an abundance of gold and red and special services can still be held there, but it is no longer active. Lastly, we went to the Alt Shul. The synagogue was built in 1407 and every time a new Rabbi would join the community, the would parade them up and down the streets of Krakow. The Alt Shul is fairly large and consisted of a synagogue and a tower for prisoners. The Shamash of the Menorah was a person. This person also had the role of spreading the news throughout the town. If he knocked twice it meant danger and if he knocked three times it meant safety. All five synagogues were very decorative and had similar decorations.

Later in the afternoon, we followed in the Jewish people of Krakow's steps. We walked over the love bridge in silence and continued until we arrived into the ghetto. In the ghetto, we learned about the pharmacy on the corner where Jews were delivered messages and medicine to help them survive. Then we sat in the memorial of all the chairs and went around answering impossible questions. There was not one question that any of us will ever be able to truly answer because we did not live through the horrors they did. We then went to Schindler's Factory where Dsol talked about the Righteous Among The Nations. Then the Shabbat festivities began. We went to dinner at the Jewish community center. There we learned the importance of having a JCC in Poland. Our night ended after services.

The synagogue I enjoyed the most was the Kupa Shul because of the reasons for created it our the most meaningful to me. What temple did you enjoy visiting the most and why?

Auschwitz-Birkenau - Hannah Cohen

Poland Day 7:

On Sunday, March 25 we were transported into a vessel of death. One point one million Jews died during the four and a half years of Auschwitz's existence. Auschwitz is a satellite term represeneting all of the surrounding concentration camps. If hell exists than it lays beneath the grounds of Birkenau.

The iconic traintarcks 

Red Wagon of torture 

We began the day at Auschwitz Two, also known as Birkenau, where people were sentenced to die. Chance of survival was almost immposible. The silent blue sky murdered the souls of millions. Jews from all over arrived at Birkenau by train. As I touched the traintracks where my people traveled, I thought of their pain. I felt like a shattered piece of glass. We than saw the famous red wagon which has become a symbol of torture. The more we walked around Birkenau the more it looked like a park. The campsite did not deserve beauty for it was a place of evil. We saw what looked like a pool of ice, but beneath lay the ashes of the dead. We later went into a building called Canada, it was where the Jews were stripped of their belongs and identities. The sad fate of almost all of these Jews was the gas chamber. As a group we entered Birkenau and as a group we left. We walked out so easily, something the one point one million Jews were unable to do.

Pool of Ashes 

The entrance to Auschwitz One

The second half of the day was spent at Auschwitz One. Auschwitz One was where the Jews not sentenced to immediate death were sent and impriosned. Many of these Jews also died due to starvation, suffication, and gas chamber. Unlike Birkenau, Auschwitz One was not kept original, but rather turned into a museum. Imagine being on a college campus where death was a daily occurence, well thats Auschwitz One. Here we saw a book which held the names of all the indentified Jews who lost their lives. Another exhibit that was very meaniful was the box of women hair. In the box lays origial hair cut straight off a womens head. The very last thing we saw was the crematorium, where the dead bodies were burned. The Nazi's has no respect for Jews in life and in their after life.

Auschwitz has become the symbol of the Holocuast because of the vast amount of deaths.  Being there left me with an unplesant feeling marked with evil and fear.

Having hope of life was like finding a pool of water in the desert........
Do you think you would have had the hope to continue living if you were the lone member of your family still alive?

Oral Law - David

"You shall not steal; you shall not deal deceitfully or falsely with one another". I chose this
commandment from Leviticus 19 because I like how straightforward the first part of it was.
Saying do not steal is as simple as it gets and it offers little to no room for interpretation.
The second part about the way we deal with one another is a little more up for interpretation
but still lays out a strong guideline for how us Jews handle our business.

If you think about why Jewish people have had this reputation for being god at business and
making money, a lot of it comes from the fact that we have a law that says to be honest when
dealing with others. Both of these commandments are so important for the modern day Jew
because in a world where anti-Semitism is on the rise we all have to act as though we are
representing the Jewish community.

I chose this photo because I think the handshake is a great representation of good
interactions, especially during business deals. In my opinion when the tanach says,
you shall not deal deceitfully or falsely with one another, it is referring to how we engage
with one another and the best way to apply that to the modern day is through business practices.

Kochav HaYarden and Tzfat Tiyul- Jordan Spiegel

On March 14th, our class traveled to Kochav HaYarden and then to the mystic city of Tzfat. When we first arrived at Kochav HaYarden we were greeted with an incredible view of the Jordan Valley, an area where 500,000 birds migrate through to Africa each year (cool fact David!)

We then jumped back in history to the year 638, when Islam took control of Israel. Different empires of Islam, also called caliphates, ruled various territories in Israel. Back in Europe, Christianity was spreading rapidly. Pope Urban II and many other Christians felt that it was their duty to spread the teachings of Jesus Christ to the rest of the world. This was one of the popular reasons given for starting the Crusades. Pope Urban II additionally spread mass propaganda about the Muslims, claiming they are evil, subhuman, animals who needed to be “dealt with.” In truth, the reason behind the Crusades was most likely the fact that the Europe was overpopulated, sick, starving, and dying. The Crusades were an amazing opportunity for the peasants that had nothing to lose; they had food to eat, an income, and a guaranteed spot in heaven for doing Gods work. The first Crusade began in 1096, and in 1099 the Crusaders arrived in Jerusalem to retake the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and overthrow the Muslim rule. The Belvoir Fortress that we visited was built in 1168 by the Crusaders, although a Muslim by the name of Salahadin retook it 18 years later. This was quite a great feat considering the extensive defenses of the fort, like secret entrances/exits, high walls, and its hilltop location.

Anti-Semitic feelings spread rapidly once the Christians siezed the various territories of Israel from the Muslims. Jews were accused of blood libel, drinking the blood of Christian children, poisoning the wells, witchcraft, and desecration of the host.

 We then traveled to Tzfat, where we began by visiting the Rabbi Yosef Karo Synagogue, which has a 500 year old Torah and a Ganiza full of ancient books. Many Safardic Jews settled in Tzfat after the Spanish Inquisition, and the Yosef Karo Synogogue is a beautiful Safardic style building.

Yosef Karo was born in 1488 in Spain and was one of the Jews who moved to Safed, where he wrote the Shulchan Aruch or “set table.” This book was a comprehensive guide to following Halacha, which Karo believed would bring the Messiah if the rules were followed exactly. His book set the interpretations and rules of the Talmud in place, from now on interpreting the Talmud in a different way would be much more difficult.

Next came Rabbi Shimen Bar Yochai, one of the authors of the Zohar. He had the some of first ideas about Jewish mysticism- a slightly magical and transcendent side of Judaism that goes beyond the physical world. The reason Tzfat is the last of the four holy cities of Israel is because of mysticism. He also believed that the hardships that Jews went through were simply “growing pains of the Messiah” or things that the Jews had to struggle through in order to bring the Messianic era. Another Rabbi credited with the first ideas of mysticism is Rabbi Moshe Codovera, who invented the Ten Spheres of Sefirot. These spheres each had mystic ideas, which Codovera believed could lead to a true understanding and connection with God. Lastly we talked about Rabbi Yitzhak Luria, who took combined the ideas of Halacha and Mysticism in order to “pull down the Messiah.”


Mysticism or Kabbalah bring an other worldly  aspect into Judaism, and by my understanding focuses less on religion and more on spirituality. My question is: where do your religious beliefs meet your spiritual ones? Are they intertwined, the same, or separate? Does spirituality have a place in Judaism, or is it so personal that it can’t be mixed with religion? If you don’t feel comfortable answering this question, alternatively: Can things that are considered spiritual such as meditation and yoga be a part of Judaism?

Israel Museum Tiyul and Judaism in the Middle Ages

On Monday, our class went to the Israel Museum to learn about the life of the Jews during The Middle Ages and how they differed, depending on Sefarad or Ashkenaz location and who was in power. The Sefarad is the Hebrew word for Spain and is the location in which most of Sephardi Jewish traditions were born. The Ashkenaz was actually not Eastern Europe, even though many eastern European Jews are Ashkenazi, but it was originally located in Franco-Germany in the Rhineland.

First, we started off learning about Jewish life cycle events throughout the Middle Ages. A majority of the artifacts on display came from the Ashkenaz in Germany. Pictured above is a bench used for circumcision. One seat is for the person holding the baby boy, generally the god father, and the other is for the Prophet Elijah. This bench was one of many other life cycle artifacts. Most of them were Ashkenaz and had a distinct style based on the location or region from which the artifact came. There were also German wimpels, Torah wraps that were the swaddling cloth of the child who was becoming a Bar Mitzvah and nowadays Bat Mitzvahs also. It shows how this is still relevant today through my family. We are Ashkenazi Jews and my Grandma and I made the wimpel used to wrap the Torah during my Bat Mitzvah. There were also Jewish burial shrouds and Chuppah stones, both from Germany, and both artifacts have evolved into traditions we still practice today.

Next, our class went to the hall of Illuminated Manuscripts where we looked at many different Haggadot from Sefarad and Ashkenaz. They each illustrated the story of Pesach, but each had its own individual style, illustrations, and symbolism used to further differentiate the cultures these texts came from. There were other old writings contained in the hall that continued to show a glance at Jewish works and writings from the Middle Ages and the regions they came from. 

Then, we went "Shul Hopping" to different preserved and recreated synagogues from the Middle Ages from all around the world. We went in the restored version of the Kadavumbagam Synagogue that came all the way from India. This synagogue was created during The Middle Ages and survived all this time. It has cultural influences from all around the Jewish world. Similarly, we saw synagogues from Italy, Germany, and Suriname in South America, each reflecting a different culture that was contained Jewish cultural influence and influence based around that of the surrounding areas. 

Then, we looked at many more artifacts from Sefarad and Ashkenaz Jews from The Middle Ages. We saw images and videos of Israeli Jews getting out of their cars on the highway at the sound of the sirens commemorating HaShoah and their mourning. We also saw many Hanukkiyot from all over Afro-Eurasia, ranging from Morocco and Algeria, to France and Italy, to Moravia and Bohemia, and even all the way to India and Russia. Again the different cultural influences were seen in the Hanukkiyot, depending on where they were created. 

We also saw Wedding attire and headdresses for Jews from many parts of Central and Eastern Asia, the oriental Mizrahi Jews. They wore extravagant jewelry and beautiful clothes for both men and women, during their special festivals and events.

Overall, I wish to leave you with these questions:

1) How do you see either Sephardic or Ashkenazic culture from the Middle Ages still in practice today?

2) Which cultures do you think have the strongest influences, specifically in our Western Reform Judaism? 

Oral Law - Caleb

"Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor.." (Leviticus 19-15) I chose this mitzvah because i believe that one of the greatest things about america is its legal system. While I know  it is not perfect on of its better qualities is its emphasis on a jury of your peers. Or in other words, a jury of your neighbors. This mitzvah is all about being honorable in court and helps to build a fence around the ninth commandant, "you shall not give false testimony against your neighbor", by saying you should not give special treatment to those who are already powerful. This is important in modern life and for Jews today because being a fair jury member and not letting previous biases affect your decisions is vital to be a good community member.

I chose this because it is a picture of scales and gavel which are iconic symbols of the judicial system in America. As I said before serving on a jury is a key part of american society and is what the mitzvah deals with. If a person thinks he or she can get away with a crime because they are rich, an issue we see prevalent today, then they are far more likely to commit it. But by working hard to not let that happen we can start to improve society as a whole.

Oral Law - Disha

Oral Law- Disha

The mitzvot I chose from Leviticus was “ When a stranger resides with you in your
land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as
one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself for you were strangers in the
land of Egypt : I the Lord am your God.”

This Mitzvah really spoke to me because I agree that you shouldn’t do onto
others what you don’t want them to do onto you. I believe that you should
not judge others especially if you don’t even know them. This Mitzvah is
just like what is in the commandments which is treat everyone with love
and kindness and respect. When it said we were strangers in the land of Egypt,
it meant we were once outsiders in a foreign land and we wouldn’t want other
people to feel the same way as we did. Everyone should treat people the way
they would want to be treated not treat people the way they wouldn’t want to
be. I am very friendly with people and it is a habit for me to greet everyone
with a smile even if I don’t know them because it makes the other person’s
day better and it’s nice to get positivity instead of negativity. Doing bad
things to someone else especially strangers, will not make it easier for you to
make friends because they will just find you mean. If you are nice however,
then nothing bad can come out of it. I will continue to spread happiness and
treat others in a respectful and kind way because I know not only will it benefit
me but it will also help the other person feel better.

When I read this Mitzvot I thought of my first time going to Camp George. I
had never been to summer camp before so I was not used to being in a setting
like that and I did not know anyone else who was there. I was put into a cabin
with around 11 girls and I had never met them before. They were all strangers
to me. It was hard for me to go and immediately try to make friends with them
because a lot of them already knew each other. I did not like these two girls in
particular because they just gave out a bad vibe to me, and they seemed rude
and unfriendly. They gave me so many reasons to want to do wrong towards
them because they did not act friendly to other people, they were rude, they
were not clean but I still gave them a chance. Sometimes it’s hard to try and
act nice to someone you haven’t met especially if they didn’t make the
greatest impression on you, but it’s important to realize that what you do to
others will always have an affect on you later on. If I was mean to those girls,
then I guarantee they would’ve done something to me, but I was friendly and
acted the same way I did to other people to them, and I got through that session
of Camp just fine. Those two girls ended up becoming two of my closest friends
at Camp and now that I think about it, that would’ve never happened if I didn’t
introduce myself and try and make friends. Camp is the place where you will
meet strangers and you may like some of them or you may not, but this is a place
that brings you close to other people in so many ways and it’s important to always
remember to treat others the same way they treat you because that is the best way to
live a good life.

Oral Law - Jordan Rosenberg

The mitzvah that I feel mostly connects to my ideals in life is "When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them   for the poor and the stranger." The way I feel this connects to modern life, is with money. In today's society, the majority of the jobs are business type jobs with agricultural based jobs being a minority of the income of the general population. So, what the mitzvah means today, is that you should not pocket all of your money after receiving a paycheck. Rather, leave some aside for charity or in general to help any less fortunate than you. As a 17 year old kid, I do not have a paycheck yet, but,  every chance I can, I give change for the homeless or even go visit a soup kitchen to donate my time instead.

 I took this photo last year in New York City, when the weather was hitting 30 degrees and lower. I approached this young man, and asked him what he was doing. He told me how it was always his dream to travel around America with his last stop being New York City, but unfortunately he ran out of funds for a hotel. I gave him 20$ and wished him well along his journey. Even if that couldn't buy him a place to sleep, it at least took away some of his nerves from traveling.

Oral Law-Twiggy sobel

Commandment 11 of Leviticus 19 stood out the most to me, “‘do not steal, do not lie, do not deceive one another." The first two lines seem self-explanatory, but the last line left me a bit puzzled. Is deceit not the same as a lie? I came to the conclusion that lying is what you do to protect others, and deceit is what you do to protect yourself. Deceiving others means that you can't come to terms with something about yourself, and you feel like you need to protect your own self and well-being. With social media nowadays, deceit is almost always what's being shown. I've had my struggles with social media in the past, as I felt like I was deceiving people about how my life is. Social media only wants to see the happy moments of your life, if you post and you're sad or angry or scared, you seem desperate. Every Instagram profile is a balanced facade of contentness, every person scared to do anything but cover up their own insecurities. These are some photos that I posted during the hardest time of my life, they all show me smiling and being an active person, when in reality I was rarely smiling and often found it hard to even get out of bed:

There are many many more like these, on both my social media and the social media that I see around me. Is this deceit worse than lies? I don't know the answer, but I do understand now the inclusion of deceit in Leviticus 19, as it plays an important role in everyday life, in old times to new.

Oral Law- Max Young

The mitzvah I have chosen from Leviticus is the following:

Leviticus 19.14 - “You shall not insult the deaf, or place a stumbling block before the blind.

You shall fear your God: I am the Lord.”

I have chosen this mitzvah for many reasons, both personal and rooted in Judaism. I believe
that this helps to build a fence around the Torah because it furthers the main point of the Torah and
Judaism as a whole. Treat others the way that you wish to be treated. This helps to cover all of
the bases around that idea, accounting not just for those who are like you, but those who have
disabilities. This resonates with me personally because I am a firm believer in inclusion. Not
just when it comes to people who are deaf or blind, but people with all kinds of mental and physical
handicaps. I believe that merely because someone has a condition, it shouldn't excommunicate them
from a group or even an event. Beyond that, making fun of someone with a condition that they
have no control over is both wrong in the Torah, and in common sense. I strive to be able to treat
everyone equally, and give every person the same opportunities, no matter if they are blind, deaf, or
otherwise. The Jewish people and the world as a whole are and should be a Kehillah Kedosha.
People should be treated as such.