In the previous lecture we saw that there were opinions of Tanaaim and Amoraim in the Talmud that would have allowed for a reassessment of a deaf person’s status, but that halakha rejected these opinions and rules categorically that a deaf person is not a person of legal standing.  In this lecture, we will see how some poskim did reassess this status when it became clear that deaf people were fully intelligent and fully capable.

Some historical background:

• It was commonly accepted that deaf people could not be educated; when 
  

Introduction

Traditionally, halakha has ruled that a deaf person who could not speak – a cheresh –  is not considered to be a bar da’at – a person of sufficient intelligence and understanding to have standing as an agent or responsible party in halakha.  His status is the same as a minor and a shoteh, a person who has a confused understanding of reality (similar to a schizophrenic). Thus, a cheresh is not obligated in mitzvot, even

Can a person who is blind receive an aliyah?  The question, from a conceptual and analytic point of view, is how to understand the post-Talmudic practice of having one person (the one receiving the aliyah) making a brakha on the Torah, and having another person (the shaliach tzibbur) doing the actual reading from the scroll.  In Talmudic times, the person who would receive the aliyah would also read directly from the scroll, and thus it was obvious that a person who was blind could not read