TORAH PORTION
Congregation Beth Shalom
Honors
Rabbi David A. Nelson
on his 20th Anniversary as Spiritual Leader
at a
Thursday, September 17, 1992, 6 p.m.
Guest Speaker:
Rabbi Morton M. Leifman
Vice-President, Jewish Theological
Seminary of America
Family Oneg Shabbat Celebration
Friday, September 18, 1992, 7:30 p.m.
at
Congregation Beth Shalom
14601 W. Lincoln
Oak Park, Michigan
Dinner Couvert: $61.80
3 Percent of Dinner Proceeds will go to the MAZON Fund
Dinner music generously donated by
Abraham Ben Ze'ev and Ensemble
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•
How We Look At Life
Tells What We See
RABBI MORTON F. YOLKUT
Gala Tribute Dinner
I
lab
Special to The Jewish News
T
he student of Hebrew
grammar will notice
something strange in
the opening words of this
week's Torah portion. The
text reads: Re'eh anochi no-
tain lifneyhem hayom bracha
u'kelalah, which means:
Look, I give you this day a
blessing or a curse (Deutero-
nomy 11:26). The problem in
the text is that re'eh is
singular and lifneyhem is
plural. It is as if it is said:
Each of You, look and you will
see either the blessing or the
curse.
What this verse suggests is
that it is up to us to decide
what we see in life. We can
look at the very same cir-
cumstances and one will see
in it life and blessing and
another death and curse. One
will see in it challenges and
the other futility. Experience
is not so much what happens
to us but how we perceive
what happens to us. The same
reality that discourages and
depresses one person brings
out the very best in another.
Legion are the examples
that illustrate this truth.
Consider the reactions of
European civilians during
the dark days of the Nazi
Holocaust. When many post-
war Europeans were asked
why they did so little to help
their doomed Jewish
neighbors, most of them
answered, "We saw what was
happening to the Jews, but
what could we do?" When the
few hasedei umot haolam,
righteous gentiles, were ask-
ed why they risked
everything to save their
neighbors, they replied„ "We
saw the Jews and what else
could we do?"
One person looks at
American Jewish life today
and says: See how vacuous it
is, how superficial and vain
and empty it is. Another
looks at the same communi-
ty and says: See how inspiring
it is, or if not, how much bet-
ter it can be made; what a
challenge it is to change it
and improve it.
So it is with all of life. Yes,
we are realists and ra-
tionalists and we know that
some situations are worse
than others, that evil is real
and painful at times. But
what really counts the most
in life is not what happens to
us but how we respond.
Morton Yolkut is rabbi of
Congregation B'nai David.
*-1
A story is told about Simon
Wiesenthal, the famed Nazi 4
hunter. When Mr. Wiesenthal
was a prisoner in one of the", 4
concentration camps, there
was one Jew there who had a a
siddur. This Jew wouldn't let
other Jews borrow it to pray
from unless they first agreed
to give him some of their I
meager food rations. Mr 4
Wiesenthal watched these
emaciated Jews turn over
part of their rations in order
to borrow the siddur for a few
minutes, and he was
disgusted by the man's
callousness and greed. He
said to himself: "If this is
what Judaism is, then I want
no part of it." He !swore that
he would never set foot in a
synagogue again.
After the war, Rabbi Eliezer el
Silver, of blessed memory, the
great rabbi who did so much'
to save Jewish lives during
the Holocaust, came to the
Shabbat Re'e:
Deuteronomy
11:26-16:17
110 " •
Numbers 28:9=15
Isaiah 66:1-24.
camp and met Mr. Wiesen-
thal. He heard the 'story of
why Mr. Wiesenthal no
longer had any respect for
Judaism after what that Jew
had done. Rabbi Silver said to
him: "Why do you focus on
this one man who was willing
to trade his siddur for food?
Why don't you think instead
about all those Jews who
were willing to give up some
of their food for a siddur?"
Some are blessed with the
ability to find reasons for
gratitude wherever they look
andjathers develop the abili-
ty to find reasons for discon-
tent in whatever they see and
experience. What Moses, in
the name of God, said to his
people centuries ago is still
relevant today: Re'eh, look:
each and every one of you,
look and you can see depen-
ding on whether you look
with eyes of faith or with eyes
of despair; look and you can
see reasons for life and bless-
ing or reasons for death and
malediction.
In the end it depends on us
which way we choose to look,
whether with eyes that focus
on bracha, on blessing, or eyes
that focus on kelalah, on a
curse. The Torah tells us that
the decision is ours — and the
ability is ours as well.
■ •