[Avodah] Handicapped Accessibility in Jerusalem

[Micha Berger]

Moving this from Areivim.

On Wed, Oct 03, 2018 at 4:28pm -0700, Rabbi Meir Rabi wrote on Areivim:
: The Beis Hamikdash wasn't inclusive. More than that, (according to some
: opinions) there were professions which weren't obligated to do Aliyah
: LeRegel because they smelled bad and couldn't be Oleh Regel with everyone.

The beraisa (Chullin 4a) says that dog fertilizer gatherers, tanners and
copper smiths are "peturin min hare'iyah". The Rambam tells them get
get cleaned up and go (Hil' Chagiga 2:2), the Mechaber (Kesef Mishnah
ad loc) explaining that we hold like the Rabanan, not that beraisa. But
even if we held like that beraisa that's whether they have a petur for
not coming, not an issur to come.

In fact, inclusivity might be the whole reason /why/ the Rabanan don't
hold like the beraisa.

But lo ra'isi eino ra'ayah, so to speak, so naniach someone else does
take a harder line, what would that mean?

Kehunah is not inclusive of all baalei mum. But attending...

The BHMQ is inclusive on the basis of things not dependent on the
person's own decisions. No one, not even a nakhri child of an eishes ish,
is excluded by virtue of who he is. (In the nakhri's case, up to the
soreg, but still, that's true of all nakhriim.)

You're talking about someone excluded because of what they chose to do.
(Again, given said "some opinions".) Admittedly, too many people lack
options. But someone who really wants to be oleh regel who is still
forced by circumstance to an unpleasant job would choose a different one.
Or beg, if they value aliyah laregel more than the protection from sin
offered by "yafeh salmud Torah im derekh eretz".

My point is, it's a choice, and not the same kind of exclusion.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             The cost of a thing is the amount of what I call
micha at aishdas.org        life which is required to be exchanged for it,
http://www.aishdas.org   immediately or in the long run.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                   - Henry David Thoreau