The Social Action Committee Council,
In Cooperation With Resettlement Service
Announces:
TORAH PORTION
".3
The Helping Hand Drive
For New Arrivals
Can you imagine trying to pack your life into two suitcases?
Russian families arrive in our community with 2 pieces of luggage per person.
You can help provide our new Americans with basic living needs —
join the Social Action Committee of your synagogue or temple.
From September through June, the Helping Hand Drive For New
Arrivals will be collecting items for the new Americans. To make it-
even easier for you to help, each participating synagogue and temple
will be a collection point for donated items.
September-October
Donation Needs:
Lamps
(table and floor)
EXTEND YOUR HELPING HAND To OUR NEW AMERICANS! ■ •
For drop-off point locations, call
642-5393
PARTICIPATING CONGREGATIONS
Adat Shalom Synagogue, Birmingham Temple, Congregation Beit Kodesh,
Congregation Beth Abraham Hillel Moses, Congregation Beth Achim,
Congregation Beth Isaac, Congregation Beth Shalom, Congregation B'nai David,
Congregation B'nai Moshe, Congregation Shaarey Zedek, Congregation Shir
Tikvah, Congregation T'Chiyah, Temple Beth El, Temple Ernanu•El, Temple Israel
Temple Kol Ami, Temple Shir Shalom
You are still welcome
for the High Holy Days!
Come to Congregation T'chiyah,
a heimish place and Detroit's only
Reconstructionist synagogue
Reconstructionist Judaism is:
• Participation
• Involvement by Jews
• Care for tradition
of all ages and from all
• A meaningful approach walks of life
to Liberal Judaism
• Congregation T'chiyah
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Congregation T'chiyah, which is located in
Greektown on St. Antoine near Monroe*, draws its
membership from all over the metropolitan area.
build a strong
foundation with
good prenatal care.
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For High Holy Day services information, contact
Corinne Asher at 399-5771. She and Sandy Hansell
will be at services to help you ,
*Congregation T'chiyah will hold its first outreach service
Friday, Oct. 9 at the Workmen's Circle Building, 26341
Coolidge, between 10 & 1 1 Mlle Rds.
THIS SPACE CONTRIBUTED BY THE PUBLISHER
■ 111111. ■
Contrition, Repentance
Must Be Sincere
RABBI MORTON F. YOLKUT
Special to The Jewish. News
This is the "Homecoming
Season" that is now upon us.
On these Yomim Noraim
(Days of Awe) Jews return to
the synagogue by the tens of
thousands from wherever
they may be. If not today, then
in a few days our synagogues
will be filled with people, and
we shall see the sight which
Moses beheld when he spoke
the opening words of our
Torah reading for this Shab-
bat: "You are standing this
day, all of you, before the Lord
your God: your leaders, your
officers, all the men of Israel,
your children, your wives and
even the stranger within your
camp." (Deut. 29:9). What
brings our people back no one
can say for sure. But even peo-
ple who have been away all
year somehow feel a tug, a
call to come back, and they do.
I am not at all sure that
what most of us experience
during this sacred season is
teshuvah in the classical
sense of contrition and repen-
tance. But in its original and
more basic meaning, in the
sense of returning, teshuvah
is not too pretentious a word
with which to convey the
religious state of our
emotions.
For all of our callous indif-
ference to Judaism during the
year, come Rosh Hashanah
and Yom Kippur, there is a
compelling urge to repair the
estrangement. It really does
not matter how far we have
strayed from our roots and
our tradition the last 12
months, come these Days of
Awe, we want to return. We
want to identify with our peo-
ple. But where do we begin?
A famous story in S.Y.
Agnon's Days of Awe il-
luminates the spiritual
challenge of this season. A
great master used to tell the
following parable:
Once a king's son sinned
against his father, the king.
His father expelled him from
the house. As long as he was
near his home, people knew
he was a prince and so they
befriended him and gave him
food and drink. But as the
days passed, and he got far-
ther and farther into his
father's realm, no one knew
him and no one gave him
anything to eat. He began to
sell his clothing to buy food.
When he had nothing left to
sell, he hired out as a
Morton Yolkut is rabbi of
Congregation B'nai David.
shepherd. After he had hired
out as a shepherd, he was no I
longer in need because he
could forage for food in theL!,
countryside. Eventually he
forgot that he was a king's
son and all the pleasures he
had been used to.
Now it was the custom of
the shepherds in those days to
make for themselves thick
boots to keep out the mud.
The king's son wanted such
boots, too, but he could not af-
ford them and was deeply
grieved.
Once the king happened to
be passing through that pro-
vince. Now it was the custom
in those days that whoever
had a petition to the king
would write it out and throw
it into the king's chariot as he
passed by. The king's son
came with the other peti-
tioners and threw in his note,-
in which he asked for thick
boots, such as the other
Even people who
have been away all
year somehow feel
a tug, a call to
come back, and
they do.
shepherds have. The king
recognized his son's hand-
writing and was saddened to
think how low his son had
fallen: that he had forgotten
that he was a king's son and
felt only the lack of boots.
The matter concluded: "It is
the same way with our people.
We have forgotten that we are e .
God's children and what we
really lack. One cries that he
wants health and another
cries for wealth. But the truth
— who we are, what we are,
and that we want to come
back to where we belong —
this we forget to pray for!"
Indeed, the purpose of the
High Holy Day season is to
rediscover who we are, what C'
we stand for and to come back
to where we really belong.
During these days, we have a
unique opportunity to break
with what we have been, to
become what in the depths of
our hearts we know we can
yet be.
In this religious exercise, we
are not alone. God is our
facilitator. In the Mich-ash, we
are told that God proclaims,
"Open your hearts for me
even as slightly as a pin
point, and I will open it as
wide as the great doorways."
(Shir Hashirim Rabbah 5:3).
The Kotzker Rebee com-