I've been trying to figure out the motivation for excluding these various categories of people. The Torah command for the re'iya sacrifice is from Exodus 23:15, 17 and Deut 16:16. Both of which describe the ikar of the sacrifice as seeing (hence re'iya). Even though the context is of God seeing, as it where, the people who come with the sacrifice, let's stretch the text to say that re'iya is a two way street, that is to fulfill the mitzva of re'iya the people must "see" God as well. If that were the case, then it would be logical to exclude the blind person from the re'iya, since they couldn't fulfill the ikar of the mitzva. However the Mishna does not only exclude blind people, but other people based on other physical disabilities, gender, class, and so on. What is going on here?
From the discussion on this amud, it seems that rabbis have an objective view of what it means to do the mitzva of re'iya. Whereas today we tend to see religious experience through a post-modern lens -- where each person is encouraged to cultivate their own relationship with God, here we have the opposite take. The re'iya is supposed to give pilgrims a specific experience with God. And, the rabbi's believe, that that experience is not attainable by those with the limitations listed.
Do we still have objective religious experiences today? Expectations of what people ought to get out of doing mitzvot? Or do we trust people to be strengthened by their own subjective experiences? Is that a good thing?
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
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We mainly talk about meaning: was this meaningful for you? Did you find meaning in this? But that's never the question the rabbis seem to care about; they worry about obligation and fufillment. I know this is an argument Jewish philosphers always have (Hartman vs Y. Leibowitz for just one example) but it seems to me exceedingly clear in discussion like this that the rabbis (at least, these rabbis) don't care that much about meaning. Can you make to the Temple? Can you perform the sacrifice? Do you have to? These are their questions. I am not sure we have access to such an objective set of criteria for ritual today. The notion of obligation is basically lost, and imagine telling someone they could not have an aliyah because they are blind. It's a tough thing, partly because the notion of objectively "good" or "bad" rituals has been lost, and partly because we don't put as much stock in inherited traits anymore.
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