May 2, 2009 | 8 Iyar 5769 

A story from the Talmud…

Rabbi Eliezer, son of Shimon, came from the tower of Gador from the house of his teacher.
He was riding on a donkey and traveling on the bank of the river. He was very happy, and very taken with himself because he learned much Torah.

An exceedingly ugly man chanced upon him. The man said to Rabbi Eliezer, “Peace unto you my teacher.” He did not respond for a moment. Then he said, “Are all of the people in your city as ugly as you?” (Talmud, Ta’anit 20)

I didn’t make up that story – I swear to God. Check the tractate Ta’anit, and you will find it there. Rabbi Eliezer’s incredibly thoughtless remarks were exceeded only by his boorishness. Can you believe he actually said, “Are all of the people in your city as ugly as you?!” None of us would ever have such a thought and if we actually did so, we would certainly be astute and sensitive enough not to utter hurtful words like the ones Rabbi Eliezer offered.

And yet, there is the recent, now widely publicized, story of Susan Boyle, the “dowdy Scottish spinster… a frumpy unemployed church volunteer who lives alone with her cat and claims she has never been kissed.” For those of you who have been on Mars and haven’t noticed this story splashed all over the media, Ms. Boyle recently appeared on “Britain’s Got Talent” show, a British version of “American Idol.”

No, no one uttered words like the ones Rabbi Eliezer spoke to the man he met when they first saw Susan. But it was apparently visually clear that the judges and audience were not immediately taken with her. In the conversation Ms. Boyle had with the judges before she sang, one appeared to be uncomfortable. Her body movements were awkward. This was a woman whom the judges and audience immediately sized up… and it was clear that Susan didn’t measure up. They must have been thinking something like, “I hope it’s not as painful to listen to her as it is to look at her.”

Well, the rest, as they say, is history – Susan Boyle’s voice was positively angelic. She wowed the judges and the audience. More accurately, she stunned them. The sheer beauty of her voice surprised the judges and audience. But to hear such a gorgeous voice emanating from such an unattractive vessel… that is what stunned them! Shame on those judges for their premature and inappropriate judgments! Shame on those members of the audience who did similarly… and shame on us… for if any of us had been present in that TV show’s venue at the time, our reactions and our associations when we first laid eyes on Susan Boyle would have been no different from those people who were actually there.

Am I right?!

Why is that?  Why do we often attribute negative qualities to people who we perceive to be physically unattractive? Why do we tend to think of them as socially awkward and lacking in confidence before we even interact with them? Conversely, why, when we see attractive individuals, do we tend to think of those people in more positive terms? – Socially comfortable, confident…? The answer, of course, is that we stereotype people.

According to Professor David Amodio of New York University, stereotypes have a purpose. They help us to make sense of information. Historically, people who live with significant physical challenges or limitations have been called “handicapped” and later “disabled.” Now we encourage people to use a term like “differently-abled” to describe such individuals.
                                                                                                                                                 Why has our nomenclature developed in this manner? Because language tends to foster stereotypes.  Stereotypes serve, by definition, to categorize people, and words like “handicap” and even “disabled” limit them. We often think of such individuals as less qualified, less able, less competent than we who are not “handicapped” or “disabled.”  Therein lays the beauty and the potential significance of Susan Boyle’s TV show performance in April. The fact that Susan sharply veered from stereotype should force all of us to examine and confront our stereotypes and to realize their utter irrelevance. Our quick human judgments, the foundations of our stereotypes, are sheer folly. Our tradition downplays human judgment. It simply prescribes behavior and then sanctions wrongful acts. But it does much more… it urges us to strive.

That becomes clear in the Torah portion we read earlier this morning. The beginning of our second parasha, Kedoshim, provides the most uplifting and challenging words the Torah has to offer us. “Kedoshim t’hyu ki kdosh ani Adonai Eloheichem” (Lev. 19:2). “You shall be holy for I, the Lord your God, am Holy.” This is not an ethereal, elitist statement about mystical union with the Holy One. It is a practical, this-worldly statement that is realized by acting every day in accordance with the behaviors the Torah prescribes immediately thereafter. In part, those verses address daily relationships between people. Holiness, acting like we imagine God acts, lay, in large measure, in how we interact with people. “Lo tikalel cherish” – “You shall not insult the deaf or place a stumbling block before the blind” (Lev. 19:14).

I can insult a deaf person, and he may never hear it. I can place a stumbling block before a blind individual and if he trips he will never know I am responsible. Still – don’t do it! Not only because it is wrong! And not only because you demean that individual, but because (as you may have noticed in our chumash commentary) you also demean yourself in that moment. To take advance of people, to laugh at them is to diminish your unique human gifts. Kedoshim t’hyu! Strive to sanctify ordinary every day relationships because that is one way in which you give expression to your divine nature and to the God reflected in the faces of other people.

Kedoshim T’hyu – Lives led in accordance with this commitment are lives that challenge the stereotypes that serve to limit our vision. Kedoshim t’hyu – In reality, living a holy life does demand that we abide by one stereotype and act on the basis of it… namely that all human beings are created in the image of God. Living a holy life demands that we constantly strive to interact with people on that basis.

In the end, the recent story of Susan Boyle and the way she successfully shattered a stereotypic image concerning physical attractiveness only reinforces a lesson that the Torah has shared with us for several thousand years. Even Rabbi Eliezer remembered what he should have known all along. As soon as he said to the unattractive man, “Are all the people in your city as ugly as you?” the man responded, “I don’t know, but why don’t you go and tell the Craftsman who made me how ugly His handiwork is!”

In other words, in a brilliant response, the man said, in effect, “Like you, God created me, and I am endowed with every bit as much of the divine spirit as you.” Rabbi Eliezer was chastened. He got off of his donkey, bowed before the individual in an act of contrition and said, “I have offended you.  Please forgive me.”

Friends – every day we can find echoes, faint shadows perhaps, of ourselves in Rabbi Eliezer and in the judges and audience who initially snickered at Susan Boyle. “Kedoshim t’hyu” – Do your best to rid yourselves of those negative stereotypes. Strive for holiness – sanctify your relationships and even the associations you attach to the real people you see on your television screens. Strive to see the image of God in all of their faces. And as you interact with them or think of them in that manner, may the image of the Holy One become even stronger.

Amen.