Special prayers of special children

“When prayers are said without kavana, without meaning, they do not rise up to heaven. This place is full of prayers that could never ascend on high.”

By REUVEN HAMMER
REUVEN and SHULAMIT down syndrome 311 (photo credit: FRIMET ROTH)
REUVEN and SHULAMIT down syndrome 311
(photo credit: FRIMET ROTH)
There is a hassidic story about a rebbe who walked into a synagogue and proclaimed, “This synagogue is full of prayers!” The congregants thought this was a wonderful compliment until he explained, “When prayers are said without kavana, without meaning, they do not rise up to heaven.
This place is full of prayers that could never ascend on high.”
We have all attended such synagogues and participated in such services, but recently, I attended a service where I am absolutely certain that the prayers were uttered with such fervor that they reached heaven immediately, with none remaining below. It was a service at which bar/bat mitzva ceremonies were being held for a group of children with special needs. This celebration was under the auspices of the program for children with special needs sponsored by the Masorti Movement.
There are some 25 such programs throughout the country, which are situated in special education schools for children with many different needs. This includes the deaf and hard of hearing; the visually impaired; the physically impaired; and those with emotional problems, intellectual deficits or severe learning problems, all of whom are taught according to their special needs and their specific abilities.
This particular program was for children who attend a special education school in Jerusalem, and was held in Moreshet Avraham Synagogue in East Talpiot, sponsored by that congregation’s Rahel and Haim Alexander Fund.
The ceremony was the culmination of a year of classes held in that school. Specially trained teachers were sent to the school by the Masorti Movement, where they taught about Jewish traditions, holidays and observances, according to the children’s specific needs and abilities, also training them to participate in the ceremony, at which they would be called up to the Torah.
All of the celebrants were in wheelchairs. One came up to the Torah in her chair and chanted the blessings beautifully. Another managed to walk up using crutches. A third came up in a wheelchair and utilized a special machine for the recitation, since he could not speak. He pressed the correct buttons and the machine voiced the right blessings. It would be difficult to describe the joy on their faces and the mixture of laughter and tears of their parents – and indeed of all who took part in the event.
The prayers themselves took on new meaning and poignancy when recited by these boys and girls. What does it mean when a child who can hardly stand blesses God who “raises up those who are bowed down”? For me, perhaps the most meaningful moment was when one of the children in a wheelchair, with limbs that were not straight, blessed God “who created me in His image.”
It is an illuminating, inspiring and uplifting moment when we are brought to see the image of God in such a child. Yes, this child and all of these children are created in the image of God, and carry within them the spark of the Divine. It is through this program that they learn to see themselves in this way, and that the rest of us are taught to view them as such.
This program, presented to the population of Israel as a gift from the Masorti Movement, began many years ago as an answer to the problem raised when many special-needs children were not being accepted into synagogues to celebrate their bar/bat mitzvas due to the mistaken notion that such children were not entitled to do so. After investigating this matter, the movement’s Committee on Jewish Law did not agree with that assessment, and adopted a teshuva (responsum) proving otherwise.
As a result, this program was initiated and hundreds of children with special needs have had the edifying experience of celebrating their entry into a full Jewish life – something which neither they nor any who have witnessed it will ever forget.
The writer, former president of the International Rabbinical Assembly, is a two-time winner of the National Book Award. His latest book is The Torah Revolution (Jewish Lights).