Disabilities

Book review: “Esau’s Blessing: How the Bible Embraces those with Special Needs” by Ora Horn Prouser, Ben Yehuda Press, 2011 Teaneck, New Jersey. Reviewed by Howard Blas.

All rabbis and educators have incorporated the story of Moses and his speech difficulties (aral sfatayim) into divrei torah and lessons about overcoming obstacles, achieving greatness (despite being imperfect in some way), and being created b’tzelem Elokim, in the Image of God. With God’s backing, Aaron’s support, and with Moses own ability to compensate for his weaknesses, Moses became a great leader of the Jewish People. But as Ora Horn Prouser points out in Esau’s Blessing: How the Bible Embraces Those with Special Needs, there are other biblical models besides Moses (who we only meet in chapter 6) and his speech impairment. Prouser discusses biblical characters with ADHD, mental retardation, giftedness, gender issues, conduct disorder, physical disabilities, and depression.

Prouser begins both the preface and chapter one with a most unlikely biblical figure, Esau, noting, “I have always felt great compassion for Esau.” Prouser acknowledges that traditional interpretation paints Jacob as the “wonderful son and Esau as the black sheep.” How did Prouser discover her interest in Esau? A lecturer in a Genesis class described Esau as impulsive, which fit right in to literature Prouser was reading at the time on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). She leaned over to a friend and whispered and chuckled that perhaps Esau had ADHD. “Seen in this light, Esau no longer appeared an evil man with misplaced priorities, but rather…as someone with learning issues who had never received the gift of being understood.” This November 17th, when you are sitting in synagogue listening to the reading of Parshat Toldot, you will never see Esau, Jacob or their parents in the same light as before; you will bring new found understanding and compassion to the text and to its characters.

Prouser has spent her life studying and teaching bible. She holds a PhD in bible from the Jewish Theological Seminary of American, is the executive vice president and academic dean at the Academy for Jewish Religion in New York, and she happens to be both the wife and daughter of rabbis. Prouser points out that biblical interpreters and midrashim have developed a critical picture of Esau and view him “as a man with nefarious motives and an evil character.” Prouser views him ‘through the lens of special education,’ and sees a different Esau-a hunter with both intense concentration and easy distractibility (“qualities of good hunters and also symptoms of ADHD”), impulsive decision making without thought to long term consequences (he was hungry and wanted stew), inability to understand proper and appropriate social behavior (he didn’t understand the problem of marrying two Hittite women), and a person in need of special accommodations. Prouser, deals with Esau’s father, Isaac in her next chapter, shockingly titled “Isaac and Mental Retardation.” She notes that Isaac, perhaps intuitively, “seems to understand Esau’s deficiencies and makes an attempt to accommodate his son’s special needs.” For example, Isaac takes Esau’s learning and behavioral style into account by giving him explicit, detailed directions for his hunt. Prouser feels the Esau story is here “to sensitize us” and serves as “a cautionary tale about the improper approach” (to ADHD).

Prouser sensitively views other biblical characters through the similar, compassionate lens of those with special needs and challenges. Calling Isaac “mentally retarded” is a fresh, somewhat radical view. I have heard Isaac referred to as a “transitional figure;” I have never heard him called “retarded,” a term which has generally fallen out of disuse in favor of such preferred terms as “intellectually disability” and “cognitive impairment.” Some advocates of people with disabilities find the term “retarded” to be so offensive that they monitor what they consider the unacceptable use of the “R word” on Facebook and other places on the internet.

Prouser builds a case for Isaac’s mental retardation: “he is born to older parents, who are close relatives, a genetic heritage than can result in birth defects.” His mother, Sarah, picks up early on Isaac’s limitations and uses her “ferocious maternal attempts to shield Isaac from pain and trouble,” (namely Hagar and Ishmael). Further, Isaac was docile (during the akedah), passive (when it came to marriage and the only patriarch requiring the help of others), and he exhibited “poor social acuity and communication skills,” especially in his dealing with the Philistines. This may also account for how he was so easily tricked by Jacob over the blessing. Despite Isaac’s limitations, which God and Rebecca, his wife accept, he succeeds in agriculture, and he continues the patriarchal line an important reminder that people with special needs often have extraordinary strengths.

While readers may disagree with Isaac’s diagnosis of mental retardation (or even with Esau’s diagnosis of ADHD), Prouser makes a tremendous contribution to the field of biblical commentary. Perhaps Prouser’s greatest insight is in viewing the bible through the lens of special needs. It is unlikely that most readers have considered the possibility that Jonah, Hannah, and Naomi all battled depression. And readers will now be forced to consider the Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son and Saul’s grandson, as a person with a physical disability (he lost both legs). Prouser notes David’s simultaneous pact to show kindness to Mephibosheth and his clear “distaste for the disabled.”

Other chapters address issues of gender (Miriam), conduct disorder (Samson) and an often forgotten special need, giftedness. Joseph exhibits two qualities of giftedness–an ability to generate original ideas and solutions to problems (dream interpretation) and a gap between his intellectual and emotional maturity; for that reason, he came off as showing superiority with his brothers.

Prouser’s unique book is the only one I know which is noted as Bible/Special Education on the back cover, meaning that it is equally “at home” in both the bible and special education sections of libraries and bookstores. And Esau’s Blessing deserves this designation; Prouser draws from classical commentators, such modern day bible scholars as Nahum Sarna and Everett Fox, modern psychological literature, and from her own experience; in her conclusion, Prouser discloses her own personal connection to disabilities. Esau’s Blessing will forever change the way we read familiar bible stories.
Esau’s Blessing is available at Amazon.com

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Original article

When I started teaching Max, it was unclear if he’d even set foot in the synagogue on his bar mitzvah day. As his parents explain in this beautiful, moving video, Max loves “Blues Clues” and is motivated by French fries. Aliyah l’torah and d’var torah were not likely to be part of Max’s bar mitzvah–we did not know at first what a Max bar mitzvah might look like. Max is a young man with autism and limited expressive language.

After several sessions working with Max in his home—singing songs, clapping, reading stories and putting “Blues Clues” on such objects as challah, candle sticks and a kipah, we began taking Max to his synagogue, Town and Village Synagogue in Manhattan, to meet with Cantor Shayna Postman. The synagogue had never celebrated the bar mitzvah of a boy with autism, but they were open to working with Max and his family.

Shayna knew of Max’s love of music and began playing guitar for and with Max. Max enjoyed looking at Shayna’s mouth as she sang—and he had a special pick for strumming on her guitar. Together, they sang the Shema. And played drums for Halelu. Little by little, it seemed Max just might celebrate his bar mitzvah in the shul.

On the Sunday of Chol Ha Moed Sukkot, Max entered the synagogue—with his IPad and headphone. He didn’t agree to wear a tie or jacket, but he did wear nice khaki pants, a white shirt and a kipah. The cantor welcomed the guests, and his parents told Max it was time to put away the Ipad. His family presented Max with a tallis, which he wore proudly. He carried a small torah, shook a lulav and etrog (for his Sunday of Sukkot bar mitzvah), and stood at the torah offering one word answers to the cantor’s question about things he loved (“mommy, daddy, music, French fries, baby sitter Stacy…”). 

While Max did not say the Torah blessings, read from the Torah or deliver a d’var torah, Max truly became bar mitzvah that day. The cantor’s love for Max was obvious to the fifty guests in attendance. She bothered to get to know Max and appreciated Max’s abilities while also understanding his limitations. 

Cantor Postman delivered a beautiful mi sheberach prayer for Max. My hope and prayer is that more rabbis and cantors will continue to create caring communities where the Max’s of this world will have a Jewish home.

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Original Article Published On The Jerusalem Post

NEW YORK – Israeli tennis players competed in male and female singles and doubles events in this years recently completed US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York.

Peer, Sela, Ram and Erlich, and their juniors counterparts Patiuk, Ram-Harel and Botzer proudly represented Israel; only Ram-Harel advanced past the second round.

A lesser known Israeli tennis player, Noam Gershony – also Israel’s highest ranked player – participated in the 2011 US Open Wheelchair Competition, in both wheelchair quad singles and doubles.

Gershony, is the third ranked quads singles player in the world and 9th ranked doubles player.

Signs outside the courts informed spectators that “wheelchair tennis began in California in 1976. Since then, it has grown to be played on six of the seven continents (all but Antarctica) and currently there are more than 170 tournaments on the wheelchair professional tour.”

The US Open Wheelchair Division was established in 2005 as one of the premiere wheelchair tennis events in the world.

There are two divisions – wheelchair division and quads division.

Athletes in this first division have disabilities only in their lower extremities.

Quad athletes have disabilities in both lower and upper extremities; they are classified based on disability, rather than by gender.

Quads tennis is therefore one of the only sports where both men and women compete against each other equally.

US Open wheelchair matches are identical to other US Open events –they are played on regulation courts, there is a chair umpire, line judges and ball children.

The only difference from other tennis events is that balls are allowed to bounce up to two times before being returned.

This years US Open Quads featured four top male players, who faced each other over three days in a roundrobin tournament.

On Thursday, Peter Norfolk of Great Britain, ranked No. 1 in the world and nicknamed “The Quadfather,” defeated Nick Taylor of the US, 6-2, 7-5.

Taylor is the defending US Open quad doubles champion and one of the top American wheelchair tennis players in the world.

Gershony, the 24 year old player from Kfar Saba, served as an Apache helicopter pilot in the Israeli Army. Ironically, Gershony reports, he had taken his first tennis lessons (five in total) prior to the crash of his Apache helicopter in 2006 during the Second Lebanon War; the crash left him paralyzed.

Coach Nimrod Bichler, accompanied Gershony to the US Open and has worked with wheelchair tennis players at Beit Halochem in Tel Aviv for the past fifteen years.

In Thursday’s match, Gershony defeated David Wagner of the US, 6-3, 6-1.Wagner is the world’s No. 2 singles player and No. 1 doubles player; his career singles record is 448-72; his doubles record is 299-49.

In a post-match interview, the good natured Gershony reports, “It is always easy being the underdog – there is no expectations and less pressure.”

Gershony attended the 2010 US Open as a spectator.

He spent much of 2011 competing.

He has captured four singles titles, and he has climbed to No. 3 in the world in singles.

“My main goal is to get the points needed to reach the 2012 Paralympics in London, England.”

In Friday’s second-round matches, Wagner defeated Taylor 6-0, 6-2 while Norfolk defeated Gershony, his doubles partner, 7-5, 6-2.

“As usual, he kicked my [butt],” reported the smiling Gershony.

“If I win tomorrow, I get to play him again in two days.”

Saturday’s quads doubles championship was a Wagner/ Taylor walkover victory over Norfolk and Gershony, due to a Norfolk injury.


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This month, members of Camp Ramah in New England’s Tikvah Program returned to their home communities in New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Florida and California. Unlike their neurotypical peers who have year-round opportunities to participate in Jewish life, learning and socialization, our campers with such special needs as autism, cognitive impairments and cerebral palsy will sadly return to isolation and a lack of meaningful Jewish connection. And they will long for their return to camp in 10 months. How can the campers and their beloved counselors stay connected year-round? “Shabbos Is Calling!”

“Shabbos Is Calling” is a Ruderman Family Foundation-funded weekly video conference program for members of the Tikvah community. Each Thursday night, campers and staff members log on and the faces and names of their friends appear, Brady-Bunch style, across the screen. Staff members prepare stories about the weekly Torah portion and upcoming holidays, lead songs and facilitate 30 minutes of weekly “schmoozing” where the campers share their week – birthdays, school plays and sports meets – and what they’re looking forward to that Shabbos.

As Roberta, Sam’s mother, reports, Sam’s camp friends are his only Jewish friends, so “Shabbos is Calling” is the only Jewish activity he does with friends during the year. Sam looks forward to his weekly computer chat with camp friends all year. Or as Betty, mother of Ilyse, writes: It makes summer camp life and not just camp.

“Shabbos Is Calling,” underway in four Ramah camps so far, is a wonderful tool for keeping children and adults with and without special needs connected and engaged year-round.

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