INSIGHT New runaway favorite Seiko's sleek streak of black matte. Taking the good and the bad BY ROBERT GOLDENBERG Special to The Jewish News The 'Sports 100' with so much dash, so much style that Seiko's done it twice: for him, for her. While you're admiring the racy look, note the step second hand, day/date function, and — very important — water-resistance to 100 meters. Next year's design news now from Seiko Quartz. s..&? WEIS111112A113 JEWELERS Sunset Strip 29536 Northwestern Highway Southfield, Michigan 48034 (313) 357-4000 Witter' [SEIK01 QS= VISA AVISIOICIDCAALEII Mattot contains three chapters of the Torah, Numbers 30-32. Each of them could give rise to some interesting observations and could even provide some religious inspiration and/or challenge, but only if we can disregard the pro- foundly troubling aspect that each of them presnts as well. Chapter 30 contains the rules governing fathers' or husband's right to cancel vows undertaken by girls or women under their authority. The bad news here is obvious: this chapter is one of the major texts cited in feminist critiques of the Jewish tradition, and it is cited with cause. Why, after all, should the reli- gious experience of certain individuals always be sub- jected to the veto power of others, and why should the subjection always be gender-linked? The good news is a little less obvious, but there nonetheless; any chapter whose theme is that one should keep one's word, that one must "do according to all that proceedeth out of (one's) mouth," is a chapter worth pondering. Some- times the least promising parts of our tradition turn out to have something to offer us. Chapter 31 is even more troubling. Here Moses is in- structed to organize a war of extermination ("the Lord's vengeance," no less) against the Midianites. The war Robert Goldenberg teaches Judaic studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. OFFER ENDS JULY 25th Presented by Hall Real Estate Group illellwa,....vailetaalkio ,.....v.wikolillrhil.16.41iiiiNit4IiiiMINUtititatiiiiitalia.li:aaroaidiailkiLeanitirLI:L ral /7 a AA ci tie succeeds, all the male Midianites along with the females who had known a man are killed, and the Is- raelite army, having lost not a single man, returns home in triumph with im- mense booty. Yet even here there is good news too. The booty is split according to a complicated formula that reflects a kind of social egalitarianism; everyone gets a share, even those who had no direct role in acquir- ing the new wealth. Possi- Parashat Mattot: Numbers 30:2-32:42. Jeremiah 1:71-2:30. bly more interesting, the soldiers who did all the kil- ling must now be purified; even the Lord's vengeance defiles. In the last chapter, the situation is reversed; it's the good news that's easy to find. The story is well known: two tribes, eventu- ally joined by half of a third, find the East Bank of the Jordan river so attractive that they lose their interest in crossing to the actual Promised Land. Moses first becomes angry with them, accusing them of spliting the community, but once they make clear that they have no intention of with- drawing from the efforts of the nation as a whole to conquer its new homeland he consents; Here is a preacher's field day — the themes of national unity and Promised Land. The bad news is that those of us in the havurah movement who are troubled by the current settlement policies of the Israeli gov- ernment must now realize how deeply rooted in Jewish history those policies really are. It is true, after all, that the settlement of the Jews in the Land of Israel was a settlement grounded in conquest (or at least the Torah presents things that way, which is what mat- ters), and indeed settlement and conquest were seen as connected aspects of a single Divinely-ordained process. This week's parashah re- cords the earliest stages of the Israelites' settlement in their land, and it makes us stop and notice how that settlement reportedly took place. In other words, if we wish to study Torah we must walk through a mine-field of religious ambivalence. We are deeply moved by our heritage, we feel irrevoca- bly attached to it, we seek in various ways and degrees to govern our lives by it. Yet at the same time we cannot avoid standing in judgment over that same Torah; we cannot help say- ing — sometimes within a single chapter — "Here I submit but here I reject." And we cannot deny the bit- ter truth that it is we who must make these distinc- tions; the Torah itself, in the very nature of the situation cannot make them for us. Copyright 1984, National Havurah Committee. Bernard E. Linden, seated, center, was honored by the Metropolitan Detroit Federation of Reform Synagogues at a dinner on the occasion of his retirement as president of the federation's College of Jewish Studies, a post he held for 18 years since its inception. Pictured from left seated, are: Rabbi Richard C. hertz; Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler, who ‘was-guest speaker at the dinner; Mr. and Mrs.. Linden; Rabbi Leon Fram and Rabbi Milton Rosenbaum. Standing are, from left: Rabbi Norman T. Roman, Rabbi Lane Steinger, Cantor Harold Orbach, Rabbi Ernst Conrad, Rabbi Dannel I. Schwartz, Rabbi M. Robert Syme, Rabbi Harold S. Loss, Rabbi Richard Weiss, Frank L. Simons, st},§130.40Agivid S. Hachen and Cantor Norman Rase.