PURELY COMMENTARY

L'Shana Tova
from our
"family"
to yours!

$100 off a 1 year

General Family Membership

$50 off any 1 year

Individual Membership

$25 off

JPM Branch Membership

Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit
6600 West Maple Road, West Bloomfield, Michigan 48322
661-1000 ext. 265, JPM 967-4030

This offer good during October 1987 only.
50% down required, balance in 90 days.
This offer not valid for persons or families that have been JCC members in the past 12 months.

g ib

AMERICAN ISRAEL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
OF MICHIGAN

OPENING MEETING

Cocktail and Dessert Reception

Keynote speaker:

Murray Lender

Chairman, I/Am Importing
and
MASCO CORPORATION'S
George Herrera, Director International Sales
Murray Snyder, President Brasscraft Mfg. Corp.

Tuesday, October 6, 1987

6:30 P.M.

RADISSON PLAZA SOUTHFIELD

Town Center

$35 Member
$40 Non-Member
$350 Table of 10

56

FRIDAY, SEPT. 25, 1987

For further information
contact:
Shelly Komer Jackier
Executive Director, AICCM
(313) 661-1948

I'ml'imm•

Narratives

Continued from preceding page

which she tells how she ac-
quired a devotion to listening
and then telling stories. She
learned from her father, who
told Bible stories, from her
mother's narration of folk
tales. Her comments are
valuable, especially when she
asserts:
All these stories gave
me the sense of belonging
to a people — the Jewish
People — and they taught
me how to live and what
values and traditions to
cherish. My parents left me
a rich legacy through their
tales, and these, in turn,
taught me what to
transmit to my children."
That was my first
answer, and it has not
changed, even after years
of hearing the oft-repeated
question.
The Jews are a storytell-
ing people. We cherish our
memories and celebrate
them through our stories.
We are called the People of
the Book, but we are also
a People of the Spoken
Word. Biblically, the world
was created with the
spoken word; the Torah
was given at Mount Sinai
along with the spoken
word; and the stories of
our people are told and
retold orally, for we all
carry within us ancient
memories of our history,
legends, songs, and
movements that must be
passed along.
The creative writer and
storyteller has added a prayer
of her own to the entire text.
She provides added en-
thusiasm and inspired sanc-
tification to a great book. In
her prayer she chants:
Rebono steel olam, God
of the Universe, listen to
my heart and my voice as
I stand before You, wan-
ting to tell our story.
Help me to understand
and find the right feelings
and words with which to
transmit the tale.
Make my voice ex-
pressive and clear so that
the collective wisdom of
our peple can reach the
hearts of those who listen.
May I merit to hear well
with my ears and heart.
Keep me from the
jealousy of other tellers
and from my jealousy of
them so that we may be
able to share and hear
each other with open
hearts.
Allow me to assume this
responsibility as my
forebears did before me —
to continue to retell our
stories.
Help me to choose my
stories wisely and let my
words live.

Make me worthy to be a
storyteller of our Jewish
people.
That's how Jewish Stories
One Generation Tells Another
has become the mirroring
and narration of legacies. The
author-narrator has drawn on
the Midrash as well as
history, on our people's
folklore and on family
reminiscences.
A master writer and
storyteller provides a great
treasure to readers who will
be very grateful for her an-
thological and narrative
skills. She has enriched the
Jewish libraries:

'Rosh Hashanah
To the Tashlich

The joy of a Rosh Hashanah
Walk, serving as the title of
a children's tale, provides the
additional purpose of explain-
ing the New Year regula-
tions. It serves to define the
Tashlich and its observance.
The story is like a holiday
pilgrimage and provides
delight for the young reader
in welcoming the new year.
Carol Levin relates the
story about a family and
friends walking on Rosh
Hashanah in search of a
stream to perform the tradi-
tional mitzvah of ridding
themselves of sins. A Rosh
Hashanah Walk (Kar-Ben
Copies) commences at once
with the chief aim of the
walk: "Tashlich (ashlikh)
means to throw. On the after-
noon of Rosh Hashanah,
families gather on the banks
of a river or stream and recite
prayers asking for
forgiveness. Then they shake
out the dust from their
pockets, or throw bread
crumbs into the water, as a
symbolic way of getting rid of
their sins."
This in an introduction to
the New Year theme. The
storyteller's personal poetic
devotion to the festival, ac-
claim for family observances,
home and synagogue devo-
tions, all have a role in a san-
cified theme.
Thus Rosh Hashanah's
theme and a symbolic obser-
vance gains enthusiastic
identification in a tale for
children that will charm their
parents.

L'Chayim!

41

n'i7

"L'Chayim" — To Life — is
more than a salutation. It is
a Jewish credo.
It is an emphatic salute to
the admonition from our