COATS UNLIMITED DISCOUNT THE NEW BAR MITZVAH Sterling Heights Sterling Place 37680 Van Dyke at 16 1/2 Mile ILLuL 939-0700 Oak Park Lincoln Center, Greenfield at 10th Mile 968-2060 AR PANASONIC PORTABLE $79500 COMPLETE West Bloomfield Orchard Mall, Orchard Lake at Maple (15 Mile) • 855-9955 • Financing • • Valet Service • PASSPORTj PHOTOS. Name Brands g NEAR WHOLESALE Prices! COLOR — B & W WHILE YOU WAIT WE SELL ONLY QUALITY MERCHANDISE Panasonic wIHANDS FREE • • • • $895 NEC IMMIGRATION VISA LICENSE APPLICATION $895 $795 AUDIOVOX wIHANDS FREE LEO KNIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY INSTALLED W/ ANTENNA CALL FOR OTHER PRICES (313) 474-9175 26571 W. 12 MILE RD. Comer Northwestern Hwy. SOUTHFIELD, MI 48034 TO JERUSALEM WITH LOVE! SANDRA JOHNSON-BEN DOR Leading Israeli vocalist Honoring New Olim To Israel Acknowledging Israel Program Participants . A JERUSALEM DAY CELEBRATION Commemorating the 21st anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem. United Hebrew Schools Auditorium 21550 W. Twelve Mile • Southfield Thursday, May 12, 7:30 P.M. $500 Adult (One FREE youth ticket with every paid Adult Ticket!) Tickets Available Through. Israel Allyah Center 6600 West Maple 661-5440 Youth (under 18) $po Hadassalt 5030 Orchard Lake Rd. 683-5030 Senior (over 62) $100 ZOA 8451 West Ten Mile 569-1515 DZF 21550 West Twelve Mile 353-8828 Sponsored By The Detroit Zionist Federation: Affiliated Organizations: American Mizrachl Women • Americans for Progressive Israel • Association of Reform Zionists of America • Jabotinsky Society of Herut USA • Labor Zionist Alliance • Metropolitan Detroit Chapter of Hadassah • NaAmat USA • Religious Zionists of America • Zionist Organization of America, Detroit District • B'nal Brith Hillel Foundation, Wayne State University • Michigan Students for Israel • Congregation Beth Achim • Congregation Beth Shalom • Congregation B'nal David • Congregation B'nal Moshe • Temple Israel • Parents of North American Israelis • Jewish National Fund • Americans for Safe Israel Co-Sponsored By: The Israel Aliyah / Program Center and The Jewish Community Council isRan 7rribi PRIL 29 1988 An Embarrassment of Riches Continued from Page 28 monks and nuns. Poverty is degrading. As Sholom Aleichem put it, "when a poor man eats chicken, one of them is sick:' Judaism never espoused a pinched-nose puritanism that H.L. Men- cken described as "the haunt- ing fear that someone, some- where may be happy." To the contrary, we declare "Serve the Lord with joy." Every Sabbath eve and in the prayer for the new month, Jews pray for parnasah, for a life of sustenance, and for osher v'kavod, a life of wealth and honor. Judaism is a preponderantly this-worldly, optimistic tradition en- couraging human initiative, energy and the enjoyment of all the permissible treasures in this world. I respect wealth and do not deride it nor those who earn it. Far from embarrassed by prosperity, I am deeply em- barrassed by the desecration of wealth, the disrespect for money, and the misuse of its power. Money is not the root of evil anymore than wine is the cause of intoxication. It is not the coin that is evil, but the coin pressed against the eye that blocks out the whole world. With the confusion of ends and means, life is trivialized. The idolo- trous pursuit of "more" ends in the miseries so often testified to in the revelations of the rich and the famous.. The exposure of corruption in New York politics, of fraud, bribery, tax evasion and the number of Jewish names associated with it — Lind- auer, Lipschutz, Manes, Simon, Friedman, Ehrlich, Kaplan, along with the Wall Street scandals and the names of Levine, Siegal and Boesky embarrass me — but not because of Lama yomru hagoyim, what will the gen- tiles say. But what will our children and grandchildren say. The perversion of Judaism is a more serious apostasy than the conversion of Jews. For if individual Jews assim- ilate to another faith, we may correct them with the ethics and theology of Judaism; but if normative Judaism itself is converted into hyper-mater- ialism, what are we defend- ing, and with what? Against the thrust of cults, mixed marriage, assimilation, we can struggle, provide argu- ments, change the environ- ment; but when the very -foundation of Judaism is subverted, when Judaism itself becomes deethicized, we are left defenseless. While opposing the asceti- cism and self-denial of other traditions, Judaism unam- biguously repudiates the obsessive drivenness for possession, the conspicuous and wasteful consumption of the world and the sharp prac- tices which raise knees and elbows over heart and mind. Those who have "made it" are challenged not by physical destruction or material bankruptcy but by our spiritual capacity to cope with abundance. Precisely because our tradi- tion has its eye on this world and how it is lived, the Talmud imagines a series of questions to be answered at the end of our lives. The leading question is Nosata v'notata b'emunah — "Did you deal honestly in your business?" Precisely because The appeal to place limits on the excess of Bar/Bat Mitzvah celebrations is made not only to the parents but to the young people who are to be inducted into the tradtion. ours is a this-worldly tradi- tion, our Biblical and rabbinic ethic stresses the importance of moral behavior between an employer and employee, seller and buyer, professional and client. The Jewish Bible is not about abstract formulations of the nature of God or salva- tion but about the concrete dealings in the marketplace. "You shall not falsify mea- sures of length, weight or measures. You shall have an honest balance and honest weights" (Leviticus 19:35). You shall not deceive anyone through "stealth of mind." You shall not rationalize your overcharging or disinforma- tion by claiming "caveat emp- tor" — let the buyer beware. Against that ethos Judaism declares, "caveat venditor," "let the seller beware." lb be a good Jew is to be careful not to place a stumbling block before the blind or curse the deaf. 'lb be a good Jew is not alone to observe what goes in- to your mouth but to watch what goes into your business dealings. Jewish ethics is predicated upon a fundamental belief about the ownership of pos- sessions. "The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it." Bless the earth, work its soil but remember that your pos- sessions are derived from God and consequently every energy, power, and good must be used in a Godly fashion — to heal, not to hurt, to profit, not to steal, to raise up, not to grind down the faces of the poor.