30 Friday, July 27, 1984
4
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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INSIGHT
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Machon L'Torah-Torah Center
of Metropolitan Detroit
invites you to take part in a conference on
"1111E JEWISH FAMILY"
It will be an exciting evening of lecture and discussion
with the outstanding team:
Rabbi Mechel Twerski, Ph.D.
in psychology, family counseling and
Mrs. Paige Twsrski,
voted most interesting woman in
Milwaukee Magazine, 1982.
TOPICS OF DISCUSSION WILL. INCWDE:
• Religious Diversity and Family Conflict
•Meaning a Values of Contemporary Jewish Family Living
When:
-
Sunday evening, August 26, 1984
8:00-10:00 p.m. — Registration 7:45 p.m.
Where:
Jewish Community Center
15110 W. 10 Mile Road in Oak Park
Registration: $5.00 of the door
(reserve by August 19, by calling
968-4835 or 545-0131 and your cost is $4.00).
Revelation goes on
BY ED GREENSTEIN
Special to The Jewish News
This week's Torah read-
ing, "Journeys," Masa'ei,
opens with what seems at
first glance to be a dull
itemization of all the stops
the Israelites made from
Egypt to the East Bank of
the Jordan. This roster of
places holds greater inter-
est than it seems, however.
At a number of points the
text mentions an event that
was connected with a par-
ticular place on the list.
It mentions the exodus
from Egypt, the plague
against the firstborn of
Egypt, the crossing of the
sea, finding water in the
wilderness, the death of
Aaron, the war with the
Canaanite king of Arad and
the imminent occupation of
the land of Canaan by the
Israelites. All these it men-
tions in the course of re-
counting the way-stations
of the Israelites toward
their destination.
Were we to but reflect on
the rest of Israel's eventful
trek through the wilder-
ness, we might notice that
many occasions worthy of
recollection are missing
from the account of the
journey: the golden calf
episode, the rebellion of
Korah, the death of Miriam,
the building of the taberna-
cle, the story of the man who
gathered woad on Shabbat.
Of all the missing events,
there is one that is so strik-
ing it almost provokes dis-
belief. It sends us back to
the text: "They journeyed
from Refidirn, and they
camped in the wilderness of
Sinai. They journeyed from
the wilderness of Sinai, and
they camped in Kivrot Hat-
ta'ava."
Just.like that — they
came to Sinai, they left
Sinai. Where are the thun-
derclaps and lightning
bolts? The quaking moun-
tain and the trembling
people? Where is Moses?
Where are the words of God?
The event that cries out of
the silence of the text is
Sinai, the revelation and
the covenant. How could it
be omitted? What can its
omission mean?
Could it be an accident? It
would not seem so. In fact,
there are a number of
psalms (78, 135, 136, for
example) that delineate the
events that revolved around
the exodus from Egypt and
the journey to Canaan.
They, too, lack any mention
of Sinai.
I would want to draw a
lesson out of the omission of
the Sinai revelation. It is
not mentioned because the
revelation of Torah, God's
— REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED —
Ed Greenstein teaches
Bible at the Jewish
Theological Seminary.
teaching, to Israel was not
really a single, one-time,
once-and-for-all phenom-
enon. Torah is connected in
the Chumash, the Five
Books of Moses, with any
number of events, not only
Sinai.. The commandments
of procreating and of
cherishing life are in
Genesis. The laws of
Pesach, too, precede the re-
velation at Sinai.
Numbers 33:1 -
36:13.
Jeremiah 2:4-28,
3:4.
continued
Revelation
through the prophets, men
and women who saw behind
nature and history to the
spiritual force motivating
them. Revelation continued
later through the interpre-
tation of the Torah text,
through midrash, a seeking
of the spiritual lesson in the
written word. Since ancient
times, the Jewish people
have found revelation in
their history and the history
around them. History, in
the Bible and in Jewish tra-
ditions, follows the plan of
God. It also follows the free
choice of people, not every-
thing that happens is God's
will.
Some of the ancient rab-
bis asserted that God re-
vealed all the Torah to
Moses at Sinai. Others
knew that what Moses could
understand of the Torah
and what later sages could
understand were different.
The perennial controversies
over what various phrases
in the Torah mean show
that it is for each generation
to seek out the Torah's
meaning. Tradaitions offer
guidance, but the lesson of
Torah study through the
ages is that new traditions
will emerge.
The fact that Sinai can be
omitted from the story of Is-
rael in the wilderness un-
derscores a point. The key
element in the revelation of
the Torah is not Sinai, be it
the mountain or the event.
The focus of revelation is
God. And God is of no par-
ticular time or place.
Copyright 1984, National
Hauurah Committee.
Religious school classes
slated in West Bloomfield
• includes studies of
Cong. B'nai Israel of West program
Bloomfield will offer reli-
gious training and Sunday
school classes at the
synagozue this fall.
The ldrogram will be run
in conjunction with the
United Hebrew Schools,
and is a two-day-a-week
program, with a curriculum
pointed toward bat and bar
mitzvah training.
Structured to continue
over a five-year period, the
the Jewish holidays, Jewish
customs, Jewish life style,
history and Bible, taught
both in English and He-
brew.
Classes will meet at the
synagogue, and a junior
congregation program will
be integrated into the
classroom program.
For information, call
William Nadler, 661-1082.
Teger leads congregation
Dr. Stuart H. Teger was
installed as president of
Cong. Beth Tefilo Emanuel
Tikvah in recent installa-
tion ceremonies. Rabbi
Leizer Levin was the instal-
ling officer.
Breakfast, art
at synagogue
The Cultural Commis-
sion of Cong. Beth Abraham
Hillel Moses is sponsoring a
free breakfast and slide pre-
sentation on "Micrography
— a Uniquely Jewish Art"
at 10 a.m. Sunday.
Dr. Leila Avrin of Hebrew
University will be the
speaker.
,,,
a • • ...a•-•
t
Installed with Dr. Teger
were: Rabbi Ernest E.
Greenfield, vice president;
Seymour Ribiat, treasurer;
and Norman Sukenic, sec-
retary.
Board members are:
Rabbi Max Kapustin, Dr.
Michael Chopp, Ezra
Roberg, Allan Cohen, Irv-
ing Weiss and Harold
Braverman.
Named to office
Lois Stulberg has been
named chairman of the
board of the Michigan
Foundation for the Arts.
Robert Sosnick has bee
elected a trustee.