Blessed are the Different

In olden days (not so very long ago) people who looked significantly different from others were placed in circuses where spectators could ogle and spit with no fear of any wrongdoing.  After all, the bearded lady and tiny prince were on display!  They were on stage, parading about as weird anomalies of nature.

            In yet older times, such individuals were thought to be possessed of demons.  Their parents must have committed some foul crime to give birth to such offspring!  Like the famed hunchback of Notre Dame there was no limit to the cruelties that could be leveled at them.  Human dignity extended only as far as the eye could see.

            Ancient Greeks would place deformed infants on the mountaintops to die of exposure.  The Greek civilization reasoned that they could be of little use to their family and society, if allowed to live.  The Nazis also adopted this notion of utility.  Their logic was that if members of society could not be productive, they would be leeches draining the nation of valuable resources.  Better they should be exterminated.  That is why the Nazis first gassed the mentally impaired- no use wasting energy on a population segment that could not create the nascent Reich.

Wendy Mogul, author of  Blessings of a Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children describes this scene:

                    When my family and I were studying at a Hebrew language institute in Israel one summer, we were housed at a hotel with a large group of what the Israelis called "special people" (mentally retarded and physically handicapped adults) enjoying their government-sponsored beach holiday. My children had never before seen people as peculiar looking and oddly behaved as these. One had a large knobby growth protruding from her ear, one had legs two inches in diameter, and there was Moti, a friendly young man of very limited intelligence. Moti spent much of his time vigorously greeting every passerby with a hearty "Good Morning!" and a nonstop handshake whatever the hour, day or night.

                     You see, most of the world would rather have sights like this far removed from their vision.  Yet, in Israel, the “special people” are a part of the fabric of everyday life.

A definition.  Normal, n. anyone like me.

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                     From the time we are young we are taught to make distinctions between us and them.  The boys have a contest against the girls.  The teachers vs. students.  The in-crowd vs the geeks.  Us vs. them.  Aryans vs Jews.  Backs vs whites.  Where distinctions become more limited we invent them.  Tutsis vs. Hutus.  Hindus vs Sikhs. 

                     Sometimes we resort to self-definition by what we are not.  That is, we develop an identity by pointing to others and saying “that’s not me.”  I suspect the people that visited the Man with the Elephant Ears went home feeling much better about themselves.  I also suspect that the Nazis felt empowered as they rid themselves of human detritus much in the same way that the Greeks blessed themselves when they produced healthy children.

                     Closest to the truth is that no one fits the mold of “normal.”  No one.  As we are all cast in a unique fashion – everyone is either normal or abnormal.  Take your pick.  “Why did God create all humanity through one human being?” asks the Talmud.  “So that no one can say that their lineage is superior.”  It then goes on to say that, “no two people are exactly alike even though we are all made from the same mold.  Therefore everyone must say The universe was created for my sake.”    Mishna Sanhedrin 4:5

                        There's a Jewish blessing that is said when you see exceptionally beautiful people or things: "Blessed are you, Lord our God, who has such beauty in His universe." And there is one to say when noticing strange-looking people or animals: "Blessed are you, Lord our God, who varies creation."

            Pay close attention: We do not recoil when we see a human being different from the “norm.”  We are not to “count our blessings” either.  Instead, our faith holds that we thank God for having created each person uniquely.  Unlike the Nazis and other societies we do not kill the disabled or gawk at them to appreciate our own bounty; they are to be valued as much as the abled.