Calling all young men and women, age 19 - 24:

Experience Israel
with

A Sense Of Justice,
A Need For Action

Project
Otzma

RABBI IRWIN GROPER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Spend 10 exciting months working side by side with the people of Israel
on the program that gives you the most opportunities to explore Israeli life.

• Study Hebrew on a kibbutz

• Work in a Youth Aliyah village with children from all over the world
• Help resettle new immigrants at absorption centers

• Lend a hand during harvesting season on a new kibbutz
or moshav in the Arava
• Live and work in Yavne, Detroit's Project Renewal city

• Tour the country

Now accepting applications.
Limited space available.

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jpi

01711IlD

For more information or an application,
call the Michigan/Israel Connection, (810) 645-7878

PROJECT OTZMA
A V9I

(formerly the Israel Desk)

Come to an information meeting:
Tuesday, January 18, 1994
7:30 p.m., U of M Hillel or
Wednesday, January 19, 1994
7:30 p.m., MSU Hillel

Time To Say,

"THANKS"'

It's customers like you
that makes us tick.
Happy New Year to
all of you.

Dion Zaniewski

Dio

n 's

Mark Zaniewski

"The Store To Watch"

World of Watches

4301 Orchard Lake Road

(Corner of Lone Pine) Inside Crosswinds Mall

539-1181

IMPORTANT IMPROVEMENTS

Plumbing • Electrical • Carpentry
Roofing • Cement Work

CUSTOM

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Jeff Collier

525-3733

T

his week's sedrah intro-
duces Moses and his en-
tire family, his birth, his
rescue by Pharoah's
daughter from the evil decree
of Pharaoh who sought to de-
stroy all the male infants, and
his early years in the palace.
We learn about the charac-
ter of Moses from his decisive
and dramatic actions. The
Torah provides three instances
where Moses intervenes to save
an innocent victim from an at-
tacker, each one an archetypal
situation. Moses first intervenes
when he sees "an Egyptian
beating a Hebrew, one of his
kinsmen." This is a clash be-
tween a Jew and a non-Jew.
Later, he tries to stop "two He-
brews fighting." In the third
case, he defends the seven
daughters of the Priest of Mid-
ian from the shepherds who
came to drive them away.
In all three, Moses rose to the
defense of justice — whether
the culprits were Jews or non-
Jews, and regardless of the
identity of the victims. Because
all three cases occur within a
few verses of one another, it
seems reasonable that they are
to be understood in relation to
each other; and, therefore, to
serve as a silent commentary
on Moses' concept of justice and
the need for action.
Commentators examined
carefully the first instance
where Moses intervenes. What
do most people do when they
see injustice being perpetrated?
They get upset and angry; they
sputter pieties, and they don't
get involved. Intervening can
mean trouble. But this is not
the course of action Moses
takes. "He turned this way and
that and, seeing no man about,
he struck down the Egyptian
and hid him in the sand."
A modern commentator says
that Moses sought to find a way
to bring the Egyptian to justice
for his criminal and inexcusable
conduct. But "he saw there was
no man" — there was no one to
whom he could appeal for jus-
tice, since they were all enemies
of Israel. Realizing that the law
would not protect the Jew in
Egypt, he took the law into his
own hands. He stepped in per-
sonally and forcefully. It is the
teaching of Moses that to pro-
tect the innocent and defend the
persecuted, we summon the
courage to challenge an unjust
society.

Irwin Groner is senior rabbi of
Congregation Shaarey Zeclek.

The Torah neither condemns
or praises Moses for killing the
Egyptian. The other Hebrews
criticized him, however. When
he intervened between the two
Jews who were fighting, the of-
fender struck back verbally at
Moses: "Who made you chief
and ruler over us? Do you mean
to kill me as you killed the
Egyptian?" At what point do
good intentions become sour re-
sults?
The retort of the Hebrew is
occasioned by Moses' question
"Why do you strike your fellow?"
Moses did not ask whether or
not he should get involved, for
he saw Jewish unity as a ne-
cessity. Shalom is the founda-
tion on which Jewish life and
achievement are built. "Shalom
Bayit" — peace at home — is a
prerequisite for "Shalom Al Yis-
rael" — peace upon Israel.
Shalom Bayit is a critically im-
portant Jewish goal that we
have not yet achieved either in
our personal homes or in our
Jewish communal family.
As we meet the critical issues
of our time. specifically the dif-
ficult and vexing process of im-
plementing peace between

Shabbat Shemot:
Exodus 1:1-6:1
Isaiah 27:6-28:13,
29:22-23.

Israel and the Palestinians, we
need to counsel together to co-
ordinate our response and to
support the duly elected lead-
ers of Israel. Communal strife
is a luxury Jews have never
been able to afford.
When Moses hears the an-
swer of the Hebrew, he flees
and heads for Midian — outside
the jurisdiction of the Egyp-
tians. There, he has an en-
counter at a well and protects
the Midianite maidens from
their everyday victimization.
Ahad Ha-am writes that Moses
had not learned caution from
his earlier interventions, despite
the fact that "his passion for jus-
tice" had brought about his ex-
ile from his country. As soon as
he approaches another place of
human habitation — even
while he sits by the well outside
the city, without a friend to of-
fer him shelter — he hears the
cry of outraged justice and im-
mediately hastens to the rescue.
This time, the quarrel is not be-
tween Hebrews, but between
people entirely unknown to