Excerpts from Rabbi Charles Sherman’s D’var Torah,
Friday evening, July 13, 2001

I’ve just begun my 26th year of serving you. I still remember our first Holydays together. There was a sanctuary full of 800 or 850 people, most of whom I had not yet had the chance to get to know as individuals. All I could see was a large group. Over the years, however, we’ve participated together in countless simchas — Bar and Bat Mitzvah ceremonies, births, graduations, special birthdays, festivals, Holydays and Sabbaths. We have also been through hard times together — difficult pregnancies, developmental disabilities, behavioral problems, marital issues, separation, divorce, illness, job loss and death.

That first Rosh Hashanah I saw simply a sea of faces. Last New Year I saw hundreds of individuals standing together. What struck me was how many stories of suffering and courage, patience and sorrow, each face masked. I’m only a human being, aware of my limits and foibles; if I can become so aware of the deep well of personality, history, joy and suffering which each person brings into our sanctuary, imagine the symphony of feelings and experiences that serenade God. Perhaps what is most remarkable about God is that each person is able to relate to God in a slightly different way than her neighbor, in a manner that speaks most directly to his own needs aspirations and ability.

As I learned from the writings of Rabbi Bradley Artson, this week’s Torah portion expresses the same insight. Moses prepares to transfer leadership to a new generation. He is concerned for his people that their new leader should not seek to deny the individuality of each member of the community, that he should not seek to impose a bland homogeneity on all the people. Instead, Moses insists that the legitimate claims of the community must accommodate and celebrate individual expression and difference.

Addressing God, Moses uses the term Elohei ha-ruchot kol basar — Source of the breaths of all flesh. Notice that the word "ruchot" is plural — breaths — rather than ruach — breath. Why did Moses employ this awkward plural form?

The Rabbis of the Midrash understood that even though a crowd of people may look alike, that similarity is only superficial. Just as their faces are not like each other, so their temperaments are not like each other. God, therefore, manifests differently for the spirit of each individual being.

The Midrash understands Moses’ brief phrase to mean: Sovereign of the Universe, the mind of every individual is revealed and known to you. The minds of your children are not like each other. Now that I am taking leave of them, appoint over them, I pray, a leader who will bear with each of them as their temperament requires.

We Jews are instructed to imitate God’s attributes. What else can it mean to "walk in God’s ways"? Just as God responds differently to each individual person, based on that particular mixture of desire, need, perception and ability, so too should we. No two people are alike; even if they dress similarly, work in similar fields and enjoy a similar life-style and income, those similarities mask the profound depths of human individuality. All people are unique.

Every creature made in God’s image reflects a new aspect of God’s image. Communities, families, friendships and governments would do well to remember the truth which Moses hinted at and the Rabbis of the Midrash made explicit. Everyone is different, and those differences are to be cherished, nurtured and cultivated. God grant that each of us may see our parents, our children, our siblings, our neighbors and our friends as unique and precious, and as another sign of God’s presence in our midst. Amen.