The Need to be Needed
Imagine that one of the missions of our religious school is ‘to teach all students how they can have a unique and significant role in Tikkun Olam and their community.'
Both my wife, Denise, and I have significant Cerebral Palsy, a disability that causes us to have slurred speech, use powered wheelchairs to get around, and necessitates that we do activities of daily living in creative ways. The time I felt the most accepted was when our son, David, was a baby. Since Denise took care of him all day while I worked, I had night duty. When David woke up hungry at 2am, he didn’t ask if I was able to get up and warm a bottle for him. He didn’t ask if I was too tired. He didn’t ask how I was going to do it. He made no assumptions as to what I could or could not do. He cried and demanded his bottle. I was thrilled. I was needed!
I greatly appreciate and applaud the Jewish community's commitment to finding different ways for children with disabilities to learn in the same Jewish Education program as their peers. But Jewish Education is more than reading Hebrew and studying Torah; we, in the Jewish community, have a great opportunity beyond traditional academics. Can we teach all students how their uniqueness is needed by our Temple communities? Can we direct more energy and creativity to develop new and meaningful activities and jobs that can be performed by people who have different kinds of skills? Aren’t mitzvot such as providing companionship for elders, watching young children, and preparing for Onegs as important as reading Torah?
By teaching our ‘special-needs’ children how they can perform Tikkun Olam in their unique way, we will also be teaching them, as well as our community, that they are, indeed, just as ‘special’ as all children.
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