Emor: 5784 - In the context of the command that a kohen with a blemish cannot serve in the Beis Hamikdash, a beautiful story about the Rabbi of Jerusalem, Rabbi Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld, when the groom suddenly stopped limping…

00:03 One of the mitzvos in the weekly parsha, Parshas Emor, is: “Speak to Aharon, saying: Any man of your descendants throughout their generations who has a blemish shall not appro—shall not approach to offer the bread of his G-d.” A kohen with a physical blemish could not perform the service in the Beis Hamikdash. The reason, simply put, is that someone who offers the sacrifices must be whole in body as well. So if he has a blemish, he cannot perform the service in the Beis Hamikdash. In this connection, there is a very interesting story about the rabbi of Jerusalem, Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld. There was a family in Jerusalem whose daughter became engaged. After some time, they learned that the young man she was engaged to walked with a limp, something they had not noticed before. That was out of the question. He had a physical defect they had not known about, and under those circumstances, of course, the match could not go ahead. The father came to the rabbi of Jerusalem, told him the story, and asked what to do. The rabbi realized there was something strange here. He had seen the young man and knew the family, but had never noticed him limping or having any problem. So he told the parents, “I’ll look into it, and we’ll see what happens.” What did he do? He understood that the young man did not normally limp; he had seen him more than once and had never noticed a limp. So he went to a shoemaker. In those days, people didn’t buy ready-made shoes; they went to a shoemaker who fitted shoes for them. The rabbi asked the shoemaker to make new shoes for the young man and tell him that the family had provided them as part of the dowry. And that is what he did.

02:47 He made the shoes and gave them to the young man, saying they were a gift from the family, part of the dowry. And lo and behold, the young man stopped limping. The rabbi understood that the problem was simply that his shoes had been torn, making it look as though he limped. It was the shoes. Once he changed into the new ones, he suddenly stopped limping. The rabbi called the bride’s parents and told them, “I’ve been watching him. He doesn’t limp at all; everything is fine. Go and check for yourselves.” They did, and lo and behold, they saw that the young man did not limp. Everything was perfectly fine. Of course, the marriage went ahead, and, baruch Hashem, they built a family. What we learn from this is that sometimes a rabbi needs to be not only learned, but also wise enough to see what lies behind a story. That is what is called the fifth section of the Shulchan Aruch, and that was the wisdom of the rabbi of Jerusalem.