Mishpatim 5783 ~ February 17, 2023

One of the beautiful descriptions of God’s holy abode is found in parashat Mishpatim, one of our two readings for this Shabbat.  As Moses, Aaron, Nadav and Avihu and the seventy elders make their way up Mt. Sinai, the Torah shares: “and they saw the God of Israel: under His feet there was the likeness of a pavement of sapphire, like the very sky for purity.” (Exodus 24:10) The Hebrew words are livnat hasapir, which has been described by the commentary Ibn Ezra as the bricks of the sapphire. Imagine Moses and these people actually getting a glimpse of God’s abode, even for a brief moment. How awesome that experience must have been!

Last week, on Friday afternoon just prior to Shabbat, the experience of that likeness under one’s feet took on a most beautiful of imagery.  The New York Jewish Week reported:

“When disability activist Lily Brasch was asked if she would walk the runway as a model for New York Fashion Week, she didn’t know if she would be able to do it. 

That’s not because she has a rare form of muscular dystrophy which weakens muscles and limits her ability to walk. Rather, it was unfortunate timing. The show was set for Friday evening when the weekly Jewish holiday of Shabbat begins. 

But Brasch, who is Orthodox and goes by the stage name Lily B., quickly devised a workaround: She took her turn on the catwalk in Midtown at 5 p.m. and, instead of schlepping back uptown to her Morningside Heights apartment, quickly headed to a nearby hotel to welcome Shabbat with her sisters.”

And so, on Friday, Brasch became the first model with muscular dystrophy to walk the runway, unassisted, at New York Fashion Week, and the second person with the condition ever to appear. (The first was actress and model Jillian Mercado in 2020 who used a wheelchair.)”

“It felt really good — it felt freeing,” said Brasch, 22, who modeled a gold lehnga from the brand Randhawa which specializes in modern South Asian style. “I definitely never thought I would do something like this.”

“I prioritize representing disability, and pride, and just bringing joy to that community, but I also prioritize remaining truthful to my faith,” Brasch said. “It was great teamwork to get me on the stage and represent disability, and then come right off to go celebrate Shabbat.”

How beautiful and enriching it is to sense how one young woman, with such a disability, was able to achieve her true dream, to walk down the aisle as a fashion model. How special it was that she was able  to achieve that dream while maintaining her commitment to our Jewish tradition.

Thirty-six years ago, on February 26, 1987, President Ronald Reagan officially declared that the month of March would be recognized as our nation’s disability awareness month. Needless to say, that a young religious woman  with muscular dystrophy could express her Jewish faith, walking down the stonework path of sapphire down here in this world, most probably was heralded on the path of sapphire stonework in the heavenly abode. And our world got a glimpse of it on the world down below, in the form of Lily Brasch.

We might assume  our Torah reading, Mishpatim, or “the Laws” that we verbally handed down to Moses at Mt. Sinai, are quite exacting and restrictive. However, when we study them, we read how this week’s readings reminds us of our responsibility to be responsive to the needs of people from every different walk of life, ensuring their rights and goals, providing and protecting them. Lily Brasch stands tall in achieving as a model of what is best represented in our Torah reading for this Shabbat.

Our Torah reading for this Shabbat also reminds us of the importance of extending the sapphire path and providing “our shared commitment to religious freedom and reproductive rights.” On Friday evening, we will join together with congregations around America to observe with the National Council of Jewish Women, ADL and dozens of other organizations Repro Shabbat, with readings expressing a commitment to all women and their own individual choices.

Shabbat shalom,

Rabbi K