I INSIGHT I

Dr.
Elaine
Kissel

FOREIGN

DOMESTIC

will

help
you ...

Maxie Collision, Inc.

32581 Northwestern Highway, Farmington Hills, MI 48018
(313) 737-7122
JIM FLEISCHER

- le- TAB LE

IMPROVE YOUR
LOVELIFE

Spend a wonderful weekend with Elaine Kissel
Ph.d and your partner at her luxury 120 acre
retreat in the country learning:

•HOW TO MAKE YOUR RELATIONSHIP WORK BETTER
•RESOLVE ISSUES
•DEVELOP HARMONIOUS COMMUNICATION
•018-AGREE ... AGREEABLY
•OVERCOME PAST HURTS
•BREAK DOWN BARRIERS
•BUILD A LIFELONG BOND OF LOVE AND COOPERATION
•AND MUCH MORE!

Two days and nights of intensive group and
private seminaring, workshops. Your own room,
meals, sauna, jacuzzi whirlpool, nature trails.

MEET ELAINE KISSEL IN PERSON

For those who
want-the finest custom
furniture at...
AFFORDABLE PRICES

Preliminary evaluation absolutely required
prior to attendance. Appointment by pre-
paid Visa-Master Card.

Tel. 350-2270

THE ELAINE KISSEL HYPNOSIS CENTER, INC.

The simplest cube to the most
intricate wall unit built to your
specifications by meticulous craftsmen.

Selections for every room in your
home or office in fine woods, laminates,
marble, glass and specializing in...
OUTSTANDING LUCITE DESIGNS

op p,

F r

Call

An exclusive program of

Now —
breast cancer
has no place to hide
in Michigan.
Call us.

ttlea46 661-3838

Simple Elegance at LaBret's

AMERICAN
CANCER
SOCIETY

A beautiful diamond slide that can be worn with this stunning gold choker
or a lovely strand of pearls. LaBret's always 20% OFF.

LaBret Jewelers

Fine Jewelry And Gifts

IN ROBIN'S NEST • WEST BLOOMFIELD • 7421 Orchard Lake Road
Corner of Orchard Lake Rd. and Northwestern Hwy.

Mon.-Sat. 10-5:30 • Thurs. 10-8 • Repairs done on premises • 737-2333

Visa, American Express, Mastercard, Diners Club • Free Gift Wrap • Cash Refunds

Shavuot

Continued from preceding page

radical character of Jewish in-
sight is that holiness has to
do with morality.
Israel Salanter, founder of
the Musar movement, was a
man of vast ethical concern,
and also fastidiously ob-
servant. Yet he cautioned
against the shokling (or sway-
ing) of davening, of intense
prayer. "When you are so in-
tense and praying with such
avidity, make sure you do not
trample the foot of your
neighbor. Make sure that
when you whip the tallit
around your shoulders, you do
not slap the face of your
neighbor with its fringes."
If study and prayer are
means, what are the ends?

Ritual

What of kashrut, ritual ob-
servance in general? Who can
deny these? Yet a penetrating
midrash asks: "What dif-
ference does it make to God
whether you kill the animal
by the throat or by the nape
of the neck? Is God helped by
the one way, or frustrated by
the other? Rather, the func-
tion of the mitzvot is to sen-
sitize the character of the
human being." Ritual is a
crucial means, but to take
means for the end is to flirt
with idolatry.
Salanter said it well. Citing
the law that prohibits eating
an egg in which a speck of
blood is found, he said, "And
if you take money in which
there is blood, the blood of ex-
ploitation, do you think it is
kosher?" He cautioned, "It is
prohibited to swallow an in-
sect alive. And if you eat up
another human being with
your eyes, in envy, in jealousy,
in corruption, do you think
that is not tref?"
Before reciting the motzi,
others would take a large
pitcher of water and pour its
contents over their hands up
to the wrists. But Israel Sal-
anter would take only a few
drops of water and cover the
tips of his fingers. Asked why
he was so sparing, he an-
swered, "Observe that maid-
servant. She carries a yoke
with two large pails of water
on her shoulders. I don't want
to earn mitzvot on her
shoulders."

The Soul

Tradition suggests that
Jewish ends aim at the culti-
vation of the yiddishe nesho-
mo, the untranslatable term
akin to soul and the traits
attached to it: rachmanut,
erlichkeit, edelkeit; sensi-
tivity, dignity, care, compas-
sion. It is not that prayer or
study or ritual are not sacred.
But without neshomo, study
becomes exhibitionism. With-

out neshomo, rituals become
dead wood. What good is it to
kindle the Sabbath lights
when the lights are extin-
guished with the breath of
quarrelsomeness in our
homes? What good is the
chanting of the text, when we
shout at each other? Children
given all their material wants
still speak of their pain and
their sadness at such sounds.
What meaning the sweet-
ness of the kiddush wine
when the table talk sours it
with bitter accusation and
fault-finding? What good the
soft challah when conversa-
tion has become hard and
judgmental? What good the
Grace after Meals when rela-
tionships are so graceless at
our tables?
The wisdom of Proverbs in-
structs: "Better a dry morsel
and quiet therewith than a
house that is full of meat and
sacrifices with strife."
If there is no love, the house
can be technically kosher, but
spiritually tref.

Gemilut Chassadim

Do we conclude from all this
that it is not too important to
study or to pray or to practice

"Make sure when
you whip the tallit
around your
shoulders, you do
not slap the face
of your neighbor."

ritual or to go to shul? Quite
the contrary. Once you
understand and feel the
moral purpose of being, the
religious activities take on
new meaning. We pray, but
differently, we keep kosher
but differently, we come to the
synagogue, but differently.
We recite the blessings with
a different comprehension:
"Blessed art thou 0 Lord our
God who has commanded us
by Thy commandments and
has made us sanctified."
Within us are sanctifying
powers and therein lies our
identity and our human
career, our purpose. We who
are hallowed can hallow.- We
who can be moved to tears,
can transform the bitterness
of others and discover our real
place in the universe.
Greater than tzedakah
(charity) is
gemilut
chassadim, our acts of love.
Gemilut chassadim means
clothing the naked, visiting
the sick, comforting the be-
reaved, burying the dead,
making records for the blind,
settling the stranger in our
midst, writing a letter to a
Russian family. These acts