WHAT page 7 influenced by such luminar- stock #2361 Variety of colors available Loaded with extras...including leather Backed by 4 year, 50,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty with no deductible! New addition p o r l i Exit -7;40 min 696 i cts,4, 1, -g t • IS '41111 le I ■ 1 11 rr li ioRr• • I. • ,. 0- Ca 11 . t if . .. "aN ,N‘ 4 ••■■■ 111.,,,o, -4/ MASTER DEALER DEDICATED TO EXCELLENCE MOVING SALE The Broadway in Downtown Birmingham is moving to APPLEGATE SQUARE on Northwestern Highway Now at our Birmingham location Cr) STOREWI DE SAVINGS LU Featuring a select group of Suits wilh values to $525 (/) NOW FROM $289 LU We're the Best...We're the Broadway C.) CC F— LU THE BROADWAY LU 135 E. Maple, Birmingham • 433-3800 (On the NE corner of Maple & S. Woodward) HOURS: S Thur. 10-9, Fri. 10-6, Sat.10-6 SUITS See the new collections of: Gianni Versace • Hugo Boss • Iceberg SUITS • SUITS ies as Martin Buber, who sought to explain the differ- ence in human and divine terms between authentic and functional relationships, and Abraham Joshua Heschel, who attempted to awaken spiritual consciousness to a God in search of mankind. Rav Joseph Soloveitchik has explained the attractions and repulsions of living within the traditional Jewish law. Most recently, feminist theology, such as that being developed by Judith Plaskow, has stim- ulated spirited discussion. My point, however, is that it is still too early for the essence of what these theolo- gians have to say to have fil- tered down to the average Jew. It is still floating up there in the seminaries. And it would float up there forev- er were it not for those who attempt to popularize the the- ology. It is that there is perhaps a new receptivity to spiritual matter within certain quar- ters among the Jewish people, among those, in particular, who have grown uneasy with having to contend with life's problems by themselves. Years ago, they spoke of the proste Yid - the plain Jew, the average Jew. For the proste Yid of yesteryear, it was the Jewish law, Halachah, that kept his world together. As explained by the iconoclastic Yeshayahu Liebowitz, a pious Israeli thinker, when one ad- heres to Halachah, theology becomes largely irrelevant. One does mitzvot and that's it. (Na'aseh v'nishma.) Ac- cording to Mr.Liebowitz, peo- ple always had their personal theologies, conceptions of God. But they basically keep their theology to themselves - thus preserving communal unity. Today the situation is re- versed. For most Jews - to- day's proste Yidden - Judaism has become a religion of belief and not a religion of behavior. Thus, most of us have ques- tions that have to be an- swered satisfactorily (within our secularized context) be- fore we permit ourselves to believe in God. If people are again ready to admit they have spiritual needs, there has to be some answers out there geared to their questions and worded in terms they can understand. Such is what is being pro- duced, for example, by Rabbis Harold Kushner and David Wolpe. Everyone can identify with Rabbi Kushner, who un- fortunately, lost a son, and who seeks to explain the rules by which God apparently works in the world, seeming- ly punishing good people. Similarly Rabbi Wolpe ad- dresses himself to examining a God that heals the broken- hearted. These are crucial is- sues, to people who, like most of us, need to put rationality ahead of faith in conducting their lives. The new theology says, however, that life transcends the rational. It's up to us,,_ therefore, to decide whether-1 to accept life as it is (and to find a spiritual anchor in life's shifting seas - without, and , this is the Jewish component - disengaging from reality), (i or to float with the changing 1 tides. (The argument is that it is fine to float with the changing tides, so long as you don't mind ending up - with j no control over your life - in c. some distant port.) To those seeking answers, responses are forthcoming:- They are being filtered down to the grass roots - slowly - being distilled from our high theologians by popularizers. These explanations are not yet well-enough understood by people in general to have-- made a serious impact on Jewish life. If the responses can permeate communal con- sciousness so thoroughly that they seem self-evident, we'll know that we will have en,TH tered a new era, a spiritual, _J era, one in which people will no longer be hesitant to le God into their lives. Then, perhaps, we will be able to ask the next question: What does God want from us? ❑ Mark Finkelstein is the director of the B'nai B'rith Hillel at Michigan State University in ' East Lansing. Egypt Travel Is Dangerous t,7 Jerusalem (JTA) — In the of recent terrorist at- 4 tacks aimed at tourists visiting northern Egypt, Israel's tour operators have been advised by the govern- ment to warn clients of the c, dangers of traveling there. The prime minister's ad- viser on terrorism, Yigal, Carmon, this week warnea tour companies that Israeli as well as foreign tourists are potential targets of at- tacks by Islamic fundamen- talists. His warning precedes the expected in/- crease in Israeli tourism t6-- , Egypt during Chanukah. "Although they are not specifically aimed at Israelis, tourists are the target," he said.