Parshat Ki Tavo: The Blink of An Eye

Jean-Dominique Bauby and Sarah Ezekiel.

These two names might be unfamiliar to most of us but each of these respective individuals has managed an incredible feat.

Jean-Dominique was a French journalist and author who was a former editor of the French fashion magazine, 'Elle'.

Sarah is a British artist whose works have been exhibited internationally.

There are many talented writers and artists in the world, however very few can claim to have created their output without the use of their hands.

Or feet (remember Christy Brown of 'My Left Foot' fame?).

Or virtually any other limb in their body.

Apart from their eyes.

In 1995, at the young age of 43, Jean-Dominique suffered a major stroke.  He woke up in hospital unable to speak, completely paralysed aside from the use of his left eye, which still had the ability to blink.  He was diagnosed with 'locked-in' syndrome (LIS), which is also known as 'Pseudocoma'.

Sarah was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) when pregnant with her second child.  She was only 34.  She has been living with this condition for twenty years and is unable to walk, talk or move on her own. Both Jean-Dominique and Sarah were afflicted with life-altering conditions.  A successful writer and journalist found himself 'locked-out' of his own body overnight.  An artist who expressed her innermost thoughts through her artwork lost control of how her most personal creation, namely her body, could function effectively.  To the point where she too, was 'locked-out'.

What makes these two individuals so inspirational is how they faced these challenges and 'what they did next'.

Jean-Dominique decided to write his memoir 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly', which was adapted in 2007 into one of the most critically acclaimed films of the 21st Century's first decade.

He had the entire book composed, edited and arranged in his head.  In order to have this inscribed, his literary assistant (technically called his 'amanuensis'), Claude Mendibil, recited the alphabet over and over again.  Whenever Claude (what a great name!) reached a letter that matched Jean-Dominique's choice, he blinked and Claude wrote it down.  Letter by letter, word by word, paragraph by paragraph, chapter by chapter.  Each letter was dictated by a blink. 

The system is known as 'partner assisted scanning'.

The book was published on 7th March 1997 and Jean-Dominique died unexpectedly two days later from pneumonia.

Sarah, meanwhile, utilizes a technology called ‘Eye Gaze’.

Its website explains that "Thanks to an inbuilt light sensor, the (electronic) tablet monitors reflections from the pupils, tracking eye movements and converting them into mouse movements and co-ordinated commands.  By looking anywhere on the screen, the user’s eye controls the cursor, while blinking performs a click."

Despite not being able to use her greatest assets, namely her hands, Sarah has created inspirational works of art and she even sells these online on a highly successful 'Etsy' website (you can read about her at http://sarahezekiel.com/photos/4534201453).

This week's Parsha of Ki Tavo contains the apocalyptic nightmare that is the Tochecha, Gd's warning to the Bnei Yisrael/Israelites of what will happen to them if they don't follow the just path described in the Torah.  The description is particularly disturbing, not only because it describes the horrors that our nation will endure but specifically due to its unnerving accuracy.

A cursory reading of Chapter 28 (Pesukim/verses 15-69) leaves one in no doubt as to how prophetic these words proved to be, granted the suffering our nation has endured since the time they were written.  I don't wish to dwell on the minutiae of horror therein but one Pasuk relates to both Jean-Dominique and Sarah and their ability to overcome the seemingly unsurmountable challenges that faced them:

In describing the horrific events that will befall the Jewish people, Pesukim 28 and 29 state:

“The LORD will strike you with madness, blindness, and dismay.  You shall grope at noon as a blind man gropes in the dark; you shall not prosper in your ventures, but shall be constantly abused and robbed, with none to give help.”

No-one can imagine what it must have felt like to experience the respective medical conditions inflicted on both Jean-Dominique and Sarah.  The startling image of a blind man 'groping in the dark' feeling completely vulnerable and open to potential abuse is surely not dissimilar to the way that Jean-Dominique and Sarah must have felt when faced with their stark new realities.

Which is why the way they faced these obstacles is so inspirational.

They were reduced to communicating through sight, blinking or scrolling a message over and over again until they achieved their result.

In the ghettos of Warsaw and Lvov, in the Shtetls of Russia and Poland, in the hidden cellars of Spain, in the walled inferno of Clifford's Tower in York or in the hidden tunnels of Jerusalem, our relatives and ancestors groped in the dark.  Verily were they robbed and oppressed and yes, there were very few who lifted a hand to save them.

But, despite all odds, they refused to stop blinking, letting in light wherever they were able to find it.  Whether it was scratching messages in their own blood, burying diaries under floorboards, hiding Shabbat candles behind closed cabinets or leaving behind reminders of their peril in the ancient Jerusalem dust, they refused to be browbeaten.

They may have groped in the darkness, but they never once closed their eyes.

We all face challenges, some more significant than others but the lesson that we can learn from people like  Jean-Dominique and Sarah is that, despite the hurdles and perils that face us, even those described in this week's Parsha, the human spirit has the ability to overcome these.

Victor Frankl a survivor of Auschwitz and described by Rabbi Sacks as 'one of the moral heroes of the 20th century' famously wrote:

"The prisoner who lost faith in the future - his future - was doomed.  With his loss of belief in the future, he also lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and become subject to mental and physical decay."

Jean-Dominque, Sarah and Victor bring light to the darkness because they prove that, in the blink of an eye, we can indeed save the entire world.

Shabbat Shalom.