TORAH PORTION I Get All Your Holiday Gifts At: The Beth Abraham Hillel Moses PTO Gift Bazaar SUNDAY, DEC. 2, 1990, '11 A.M.-3:00 P.M. 5075 W. Maple Rd., W. Bloomfield Making Of Our Lives A 'Place Of Springs' between Inkster and Middlebelt Handbags Tupperware Baby Blankets Giftwrap Clothing Toys Jewelry Menorahs 40 ■ 04,4i RABBI MORTON YOLKUT Special to The Jewish News T Books Stationery Painted Kippot Artwork And Much Much More! i P • Raffle for free gifts • i 1 ) ■ ris Refreshments Available .._1- 4 - , ft. . THE CULTURAL COMMISSION OF CONGREGATION BETH ABRAHAM HILLEL MOSES invites you to a CABARET EVENING starring NANCY GURWIN In an Original Musical Revue "BROADWAY LULLABY" Saturday, December 1, 1990 8:00 P.M. CONGREGATION BETH ABRAHAM HILLEL MOSES 5075 W. Maple, West Bloomfield Admission $10.00 Per Person TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR OR CALL THE SYNAGOGUE OFFICE 851-6880 SOMERSET CLEANERS FREE ,1 PAIR OF PANTS CLEANED AND PRESSED with any incoming dry cleaning order of $6.95 or more. May not be combined with any other coupon. Expires 12/30/90. 64 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1990 FRE Municipal Bonds Listing Receive Weekly Report' Member S1PC 4.G Edwards & Sons, Inc 7)-1 Till.\A WW1 BOB MORIAN 3 n:92_...... iSA ■ 7 he sages of the Mid- rash take a long, hard look at the life and times of the patriarch Jacob and conclude that "there is no rest for the righteous in this world." It is a sad and yet ac- curate statement. Indeed, the entire life of Jacob from before his birth until after his death is one continuous documentation of this truth. Jacob's life was one perpetual struggle, one con- tinual crisis. Even before he was born, he had to wrestle with his twin brother in his mother's womb. As a child he had to fight Esau for the birthright and the blessing. He ran away from Esau and into the amoral Leban. He married wives who quarrell- ed over him and raised sons who disobeyed him. In this week's portion, Jacob prepared for the con- frontation with Esau that could have been violent. Just prior to this reunion he wrestled with a mysterious stranger throughout the night and was wounded. Then he experienced the trauma of having his only daughter molested and violated. Later in the book of Genesis things deteriorate even fur- ther. Jacob's favorite son was taken from him and left for dead. And then when he was informed that Joseph was in fact alive, he had to again leave his home because of a famine and spend his final years in Egypt. And even at the very end, this aged man had to beg his children to bring his remains back to the Promised Land. Surely, the life of Jacob from beginning to end is a personification of the rabbinic teaching: "There is no rest for the righteous in this world." We can appreciate this truth from our own lives as well. The world is so fashion- ed that each person in it has his full measure of sorrow and pain. No one enjoys perma- nent happiness or peace of mind. But Judaism urges us to transcend our difficulties and provides the inspiration with which to rise above per- sonal crises. Thus the psalmist writes: "Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee . . . as they go through the valley of tears they make a place of springs." He is tell- Morton Yolkut is rabbi of Congregation B'nai David. ing us that though this world at times may be a "valley of tears," we still have the abili- ty to rise above sorrow and transform it into a "place of springs?' Jewish history is rich in ex- amples of finding the benedic- tion in the malediction and the opportunity in the catastrophe. Throughout a long and bitter exile, our peo- ple gave the world a lesson on how to cope with and over- come tragedy and misfortune. The Temple and its sacrificial service was destroyed, so our ancestors developed prayer as the most sublime form of religious ex- pression. In the Middle Ages, the Jew was made an outcast, imprisoned in ghettos, forbid- den to own land. And so our Vayishlach: Genesis 32:4-36:43, Obadiah 1:1-21. ancestors cultivated their minds instead of their land and produced brilliant works of scholarship and literature. In this generation, out of the ashes of Hitler's crematoria, rose the phoenix of Jewish statehood in Israel. Jewish history is the story of a people that was able to muster the strength not only to live with but also to over- come tragedy and misfortune. The measure of a person is not whether he has pain and sorrow — this all people do — but what he does to alleviate and overcome it. The message of the life of Jacob and the history of our people are one and the same. In spite of whatever life brings our way, we affirm that we will not succumb to despair. Rather, with God's help, we will find the strength and the resolve to hope, to create and above all to make our little corner of this world a "place of springs," a more noble, a bet- ter place to be. ❑ SYNAGOGUES Shir Shalom Members' Service Temple Shir Shalom will hold a second annual obser- vance honoring new members at Shabbat services Dec. 7. New members are those who have joined the congregation since Dec. 1, 1989.