Wheelchair Users May Accept Aliyot just like Everybody Else
by Rabbi Michael Levy
In most synagogues and perhaps in some havurot, there is a bimah (raised area) near the front of the sanctuary. A worshipper called to the Torah ascends the steps from the floor of the synagogue up to the bimah.
The Torah itself occupies a position of respect and dignity atop the bimah.
What should wheelchair users do?—A Rabbinic Legal Ruling*
Rabbi Mordechai Willig has stated that a wheelchair user may accept an aliyah and remain on level ground below the bimah. From there, they are permitted to recite the blessings (one before and one after the Torah reading which is the actual aliyah).
A person who DOES NOT use a wheelchair would NOT be permitted to have an aliyah unless he ascended the bimah. What allows a wheelchair user to be “an exception to the general rule?”
The answer, based on a long tradition of legal precedent, is “when there is no other alternative.”
It is known in Hebrew as “bishat hadchaq”—literally, “the hour of extreme duress.”
It cannot be overstated that bishat hadchaq applies only to the circumstances described above. I personally am of the opinion that only rabbis well-versed in the concept should be the ones who decide when to apply it.
Does this mean that the bimah need not be accessible?
No! Yad Hachazakah and others in the disability community will continue to forcefully advocate for total accessibility in synagogues. That’s because that while a wheelchair user may recite the aliyah blessings below the bimah, it still FEELS like isolation.
To our friends who use wheelchairs: are you ready for your aliyah?
Anybody who’s never had an aliyah before has palpitations (or should I say pulpitations) when reciting those blessings. Practice at home.
On Simchat Torah, which is less than two months away, EVERYBODY receives an aliyah. Yours will be a very meaningful celebration.
A native of Bradley Beach, New Jersey, Rabbi Michael Levy attributes his achievements to G-d's beneficence and to his courageous parents. They supported him as he learned to travel independently, visited Israel, and became more Jewishly observant. For 65 years, JBI International supported him with braille and recorded Judaica material.
He received rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1981 and an MSW from Columbia University in 1982.
As a board member and now President of Yad Hachazakah, Rabbi Levy strives to make the Jewish experience and Jewish texts accessible to Jews with disabilities. In lectures at synagogues, camps, and educational institutions, he cites Nachshon, who according to tradition boldly took the plunge into the Red Sea even before it miraculously parted. Rabbi Levy elaborates, "We who have disabilities should be Nachshons--boldly taking the plunge into the Jewish experience, supported by laws and lore that mandate our integration.”
He applauds Jewish Disability Inclusion News’s ambition to give voice not just to those who work with the disabled, but also to people with disabilities themselves. “About us? Not without us” he is fond of reminding those eager to listen, and the media to whom the maxim may be out of their comfort zone.
For over 20 years, Rabbi Levy served as director of Travel Training at MTA New York CityTransit. Now retired, he is an active participant in Congregations Aish Kodesh and Young Israel in Woodmere, New York. Most of all, he relishes the company of his children, grandchildren, and large extended family.
*Rabbi Michael Levy shares these related sources:
https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%97%D7%91%D7%9C_%D7%A0%D7%97%D7%9C%D7%AA%D7%95_%D7%98_%D7%95