TORAH PORTION
TEMPLE EMANU-EL
The "Hamish" Place To Be
Captives Redeemed
In Our Own Time
Come Worship With Us Tonight at 7:45 p.m.and See
What "Hamish" Really Means
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RABBI RICHARD C. HERTZ
Special to the Jewish News
We Invite You, Your Family &
10- - -
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,
Friends to See What Temple
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Emanu-El Has To Offer.
Also, Join Us On
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Friday, August 23,
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at 7:45 p.m.
For Our Prospective New Member Shabbat Service.
EMANU-EL
1( • 1 Id I \ I TEMPLE
14450 West Ten Mile Road
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Oak Park, Michigan 48237
(313) 967-4020
Rabbi Lane B. Steinger • Rabbi David Feder
Rabbi Emeritus Milton Rosenbaum • Cantor Emeritus Norman Rose
Ira J. Wise - Temple Educator • Ellen Goldman - Temple Administrator
DON'T GET LOST
IN THE CROWD
Come To Our
OPEN HOUSE
And See What We Are All About
7:00-9:00 p.m.
Thursday, August 15, 1991
TEMPLE KOL AMI
5085 Walnut Lake Rd., W Bloomfield
661-0040
Ernst J. Conrad
Norman T. Roman
Founding Rabbi Emeritus
Established in 1966
Affiliated with the Union of American Hebrew Congregations
Rabbi
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FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 1991
661-3838
ome verses in the
sedra fairly leap from
the page of the Torah
and strike you with their
relevancy. Such a verse is
Deuteronomy 15:7. "If there
be among you a needy man,
one of thy brethren . . . thou
shalt not harden thy heart
nor shut thy hand from thy
needy brother, but thou shalt
surely open thy hand unto
him and shalt surely lend
him sufficient for his need
that which he wanted."
The tradition of pidyon
shuviim, "redemption of cap-
tives," has long been marked
by the Jewish people. In our
own time, the Ethiopian Jews
are the needy ones to be
redeemed. Long known as
Falashas, an ethnic group in
Ethiopia who claim to be of
Jewish origin from the days of
King Solomon and the Queen
of Sheba, the Falashas (mean-
ing "to be separated") were
devoted to the Jewish religion
preserving their biblical way
of life for 2,000 years.
Abandoned to the ravages
of oppression, famine and
civil war, the Falashas were
found mainly in Ethiopia.
Because the Talmud and rab-
binic Judaism did not reach
the Falashas, their religion of
Judaism was strictly based on
the Bible. For centuries they
existed isolated from modern
civilization, and in recent
times were discriminated
against and starved in pover-
ty because they were not per-
mitted as Jews to own land.
In 1972, the Israeli chief rab-
bi ruled that the Bete Yisrael
of Ethiopia were Jews and en-
titled to return to Israel
under the Law of Return.
In 1984 and 1985, Opera-
tion Moses and Operation
Joshua airlifted some 8,000
from Ethiopia. The Joint
Distribution Committee had
run a medical facility in Gon-
dar Province where many of
the Bete Israel lived, but it
was not accessible to many in
the villages. They lived in
hope that the government of
Ethiopia would renew rela-
tions with Israel, but th-e
trapped remnant living in the
Gondar region far from the
capital could not be
evacuated.
In May of 1990, a fresh start
was made. The American
Association for Ethiopian
Jews sent several staff people
Rabbi Hertz is rabbi emeritus
of Temple Beth El.
to assess the situation and see
what could be done for the
huge numbers of Jews pour-
ing into Addis Abba from the
Gondar region some two hun-
dred and fifty miles away. The
Religious Action Center of
Reform Judaism in
Washington was appealed to
and the first American doctor
came to treat Ethiopian Jews.
And then came May 24,
1991. Unmarked Israeli
planes arrived in a massive
transit miracle flying on the
Shabbat. Within thirty hours,
the last Jews of Ethiopia,
14,500 men, women and
children boarded the Israeli
military and passenger
planes in an orderly fashion.
No luggage, for there was no
room on the planes. No
K
c=(
N
K
Shabbat Re'e
Deuteronomy
11:26-16:17
Numbers 28:9-15
Isaiah 66:1-24
money; just hope as hundreds
of physical bodies crammed
into the planes in an un-
precedented airlift that
brought these Ethiopian Jews
to freedom. They were jolted
into the twentieth century
overnight. A journey of 2,500
years was made during a 30
hour airlift!
The miracle of the redemp-
tion of the captives from
Ethiopia has been performed,
comparable to the saving of
the ancient Hebrews from
Egyptian bondage. The end of
the beginning has come.
Operation Solomon is now
history. The task of gearing
up for resettlement and ab-
sorption in fulfilling the man-
date of pidyon shuviim is the
task ahead.
"If there be among you a
needy person, one of thy
brethren . . . thou shalt sure-
ly open thy hand unto
him." 0
I LOCAL NEWS
Bais Chabad
Hosts Lecture
Rabbi Elimelech Silberberg
of Bais Chabad Torah Center
will deliver a lecture on "The
Judicial System Within
Jewish Law" 8:15 p.m. Aug.
12 at the Bais Chabad Torah
Center.
The lecture is part of the
Project Talmud Lecture
Series. For information, call
the Torah Center, 855-6170.
(