One of my favourite mantras when a Torah parasha is challenging is:
"the Torah is the first word, not the last word."
This week's parasha, with its apparent exclusion of anyone with a disability or physical defect from the Priesthood, is a good example of where our very earliest rabbinic writing - the Mishna - grapples with these verses too.
And sometimes the counter voices come from the Torah itself, because the hero of the Torah and our ultimate leader, Moshe Rabbeinu, had a "moom," a defect of his own - his speech impediment.
Judaism is a multi-voice conversation (OK sometimes a multi-voice argument) and that's one reason why I love it.
Highly recommend the podcast from @pardesinstitute: Emor 5784: The Perfection Paradox, where you can listen to a fascinating conversation on this subject between Rabbi Haim Shalom and my teacher Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield.
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