Shema Kolainu, "Shema, Yisra'el", and Us People With Disabilities (Originally On LinkedIn)

Note: I will not be surprised if LinkedIn deletes this post, though. Nonetheless, I could not sit there and just be silent. 

'Im kol kavod l'Doqtor Weinstein (with all respect to Dr. Weinstein), this pretty much goes to my point. People blame people with disabilities for bad attitudes (I have experienced this from even my own family.) and act like we're at fault when we don't get hired by (excuse my language) ablelisits (which is, as I found out, what we call those who hate us because of our disabilities).

Besides, given that Dr. Weinstein founded Hear Our Voices - Shema Kolainu, he should know how Adonai tested our hearts in the desert to see how able people would treat people, let alone kohanim, with disabilities (I, by the way, am mainly a Patrilineal Jew who, although I do have some Jewish heritage on my mother's side, knows that I am descended from Ashkenazi Levites and kohanim; and this, hopefully richly, colors my commentary on YouTube, etc..):

And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: 17 Speak unto Aaron, saying: Whosoever he be of thy seed throughout their generations that hath a blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God. 18 For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath any thing maimed, or anything too long, 19 or a man that is broken-footed, or broken-handed, 20 or crook-backed, or a dwarf, or that hath his eye overspread, or is scabbed, or scurvy, or hath his stones crushed; 21 no man of the seed of Aaron the priest, that hath a blemish, shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire; he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God. 22 He may eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy, and of the holy. 23 Only he shall not go in unto the veil, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not My holy places; for I am the LORD who sanctify them. 24 So Moses spoke unto Aaron, and to his sons, and unto all the children of Israel. {P}

The attitude that the able people among us came out with was not only unmerciful; it was also abysmally discriminatory. This kind of attitude, even in modern Western (read: Judeo-Christian) countries still prevails figuratively in many aspects, including in the workforce:

"8 And when ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it no evil! And when ye offer the lame and sick, is it no evil! Present it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee? or will he accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts."

In fact, three examples of this attitude are demonstrated in two ABC News "What Would You Do?" episodes. One portrays how a woman who is "slow of speech" (as Moses described himself in Torah) is persecuted by ablelists. Two other examples (which I was seeking when I found the first) show how deaf people are slyly rejected by human-resource managers and how parking spaces are regularly taken by ablelists (and even my now-estranged father called out a woman who took an accessible parking space when he and I were at, as I initially recalled, a Blockbuster one time; and I recall that to this day. Needless to say, he was not thrilled when she was parking in the space just to return a video, as I remember. She didn't take it from me. Still, she disadvantaged my compatriots with disabilities. By the way, that was a long time ago.). 

Sadly, this attitude has not changed from Biblical Times to allegedly-Judeo-Christian Times. This is despite how Adonai "desire[s] mercy, and not sacrifice" and even with laws such as the American With Disabilities Act—and so much for "one nation under G-d, indivisible with liberty and justice for all."