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Rabbi Calls Autistic Child "Broken"

Submitted by Landon Bryce on Thu, 09/06/2012 - 08:19
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Rabbi Marc Gellman got a question from a reader about how to introduce an autistic child to God, and answered by calling the kid broken:

There's an interpretation of Exodus that teaches that Moses not only put the tablets of the law that he received on Mount Sinai into the ark of the covenant, but also was commanded by God to add the broken pieces of the first tablets that he broke in anger after seeing the people worshipping a golden calf. I love that idea. The broken and the whole were together in the same ark.

So, too, we are all in the embrace of a loving God. Those of us who are mostly whole and those of us who are slightly broken are all together in the same ark. The image of God is upon all of us. Your son is very lucky to have such a loving and spiritually sensitive father. God bless you both.