Recently I received a d’var Torah about perfection from my friend, Rabbi Jennifer Singer in Sarasota, FL.  

I’ll summarize. There are no perfect people. None. And we have no further than to look to our own matriarchs and patriarchs were not perfect. The stories in the book of Genesis make that clear. If they made mistakes, and boy did they ever, then we can too. 

In our parsha today, we are told that the animals that the priests sacrificed had to be without blemish. It is hard to find an animal without blemish. That is one reason given for why the Holy Temple cannot be rebuilt. There are no perfect, without blemish red heifers. Despite every year or so someone or some organization thinking they have found one. Watch the Israeli series Digs. It is sort of like an Indian Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark meets evangelical Christianity and Orthodox Judaism. It is set on three continents and is heart-racing and a good chance to practice modern Hebrew although it does have subtitles. 

But in our parsha today, the Torah teaches that not only the animals had to be perfect but the priests also had to be without blemish. They had to be physically perfect. The Torah says: “No one at all who has a defect shall be qualified [to perform the Temple service].”   

Here’s what Rabbi Singer taught me: “The list of physical defects is seemingly exhaustive. But, as I always taught my children, what someone doesn’t tell you can be even more revealing than what they do say. And there is a glaring omission when it comes to the Torah’s list of forbidden imperfections. It neglects to say anything about character.” 

And yet we plumb the depths of Torah to find meaning, to find its moral compass and find the modern implications for us today. Physical limitations we are not so concerned about today. The ADA has worked hard to have buildings accessible, and to not discriminate against those with physical limitations. JUF and Synagogue movements have had committees and initiatives for inclusion. Rabbi Singer said, “The exclusion of those who are disabled or disfigured has troubled us for millennia. From the rabbis of the Talmud to religious leaders of today, we have understood those prohibitions to be a function of a particular time and place, and no longer relevant. We have chosen character over physical characteristics.” We at CKI have attended trainings offered by JUF, received inclusion grants and the idea is even part our vision plank of Embracing Diversity.  

But no character tests for priests? No code of ethics? I have one attached to my contract. Many places of employment do. No list of attributes that parallel the 13 attributes of the Divine? Aren’t we supposed to try to be like G-d? Isn’t that what ultimately distinguishes us humans, as Jews, as leaders?  

Let me tell you a little secret, in case this isn’t clear. Priests were human. They were not perfect. Rabbis, although not priests are human too. There are no perfect rabbis like there are no perfect humans. Although there are many people who see rabbis as messengers of the Divine. Sometimes we talk about rabbis as symbolic exemplars, as stand-ins for G-d or for parents. 

I am not perfect either. Although through the process of mussar, the study of characterological traits, and with great friends, a supportive husband who yes, sometimes I yell at, and with a wonderful therapist I work on my character flaws. Moses heard that G-d was endlessly patient and slow to anger. I am not. Proverbs tells us that an eishet chayil, a woman of valor opens her mouth with wisdom and the law of kindness is on her tongue. I don’t always get there. And for those I am profoundly, deeply sorry. I’m working on it. You might say I am a work in progress.  

Rabbi Harold Kushner, now of blessed memory and most famous for his book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People wrote another book, How Good Do We Have to Be? Almost every year I reread it. It is part of my own mussar discipline. He has a chapter entitled, “I thought I had to be perfect.” Which was certainly true for me growing up. He does a good job of defining the difference between guilt and shame and there is lots discussed about professional athletes, who also are not perfect, who make mistakes. He cites Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen in her book Kitchen Table Wisdom describing Carl Rogers when he was leading a therapy session. “There is something I do before I start a session. I let myself know that I am enough. Not perfect. Perfect wouldn’t be enough. But that I am human and that is enough. There is nothing that this man can say or do or feel that I can’t feel in myself. I can be with him. I am enough.” (page 7) 

He argues that people come to services, especially the high holy days, not to be told all the things they have done wrong. They already know that. They know they are not perfect. They come to be assured that their misdeeds did not separate them from G-d, and G-d’s love. The message of perfection may have come from our parents, he argues, or our teachers, our religious leaders or I would add, right from this portion, which seems to demand perfection. 

 To be clear, we are all created b’tzelem elohim, in the image of G-d, whether we have  physical limitations or what other might consider character flaws. Some people might call these mental health issues. And it is clear in this country we need more mental health services. The challenge then is treat everyone with compassion, with chesed, lovingkindness, with kedusha, holiness. Our portion today talks a lot about holiness. Just count the number of times the root shows up in our reading this morning.  

Kuf dalet shin is a three root word that means something akin to holiness or sacredness. It is something that is set apart for special purpose. My friend and colleague Rabbi Linda Shriner Cahn had this to say: 

This week’s Torah portion, has a great deal in it. “One of the major strands of the Torah portion is putting forth the practices of the three pilgrimage festivals, Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot, along with Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It is a declaration of sacred time closely aligned with an agricultural calendar.” (That’s why we in this congregation plant Omer every year!)  “It is a reminder that for us, sacred time is more important than sacred space, as exemplified by the Mishkan, a portable Holy space. Sacred time can be both fixed and movable.” 

I will continue that Shabbat, which the portion also talks about today is a palace in time. It is both sacred time and place, according to Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. 

Rabbi Shriner-Cahn continues, “Along with these communal moments of time-bound observance, we are reminded with great clarity of our own responsibility in creating a world that has holiness within. The description of the holidays is interrupted by the following injunction to take care of the poor: “And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I Adonai, am your God” (Leviticus 23:22).” 

That’s why we at Congregation Kneseth Israel plant the corners of our field for Elgin Cooperative Ministries and why we work with Food for Greater Elgin. Figuring out how to solve hunger and homelessness goes all the way back to before Isaiah whose haunting words we read every Yom Kippur. So the struggle to deal with the hungry, the homeless, the sojourner, sometimes called the migrants is not new. Not at all. We have yet to figure out how to do it perfectly. Perhaps we never will. Pirke Avot teaches, “Ours is not to finish the task, neither are we free to ignore it.” We are never going to do it perfectly, but it does negate the obligation to mitigate these serious societal issues.  

Maimonides’ commentary on this section has the capacity to resonate with us: 

“When a person eats and drinks in celebration of a festival, he is obligated to feed converts, orphans, widows, and others who are destitute and poor. In contrast, a person who locks the gates of his courtyard and eats and drinks with his children and his wife, without feeding the poor and the embittered, is not indulging in rejoicing associated with a mitzvah, but rather the rejoicing of his gut …This rejoicing is a disgrace.” 

Harsh? Perhaps. Yet it has much to teach us of holiness, even today. As Rabbi Shriner-Cahn would say, “simply engaging in ritual is not enough. The true meaning of holiness can be found when we go beyond ourselves and care for those around us.” 

We don’t have to be perfect. We have to strive to be holy.  

That’s as Rabbi Singer would say, “holiness shines from within.”   

In Kushner’s words, “we will become more comfortable with ourselves as imperfect human beings only when we have learned to understand what the story is all about. If we are to realize the fullness of our humanity, if we are to see our mistakes and even our imperfect successes in an overall context, we can do no better than to begin…with the Bible.” Then our holiness will shine forth.  Let our holiness shine forth, then, Amen.