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Chametz Not Just A Matter
Of Cleaning Bread Crumbs
As the holiday of Passover approaches, many of
us are spending hours of grueling cleaning time.
We're vacuuming the basement floors, pulling out
the children's toys from the toybox, scouring ar-
eas of the house that we might have carried food
into during the year.
The purpose: to rid our homes, our cars, our of-
fices of chametz, any crumb of bread or non-
kosher-for-Passover foods we might have stored
away.
It's also at this time of the year that we ex-
change the "cleaning wars" stories we all love so
much. They're basically the same ones we told
last year — you know, the one about the puffed
rice cereal crumb we found in the sock drawer or
the one about taking the vacuum cleaner tool and
really cleaning underneath the family room sofa
pillows.
Passover is, according to Council of Jewish Fed-
erations surveys, the central address of Jewish
holidays. More Jews tend to congregate for the
seder than fast on Yom Kippur. Passover is the
time when we discuss our freedom from bondage,
and our exodus to a land of milk and honey.
But Passover is almost a halfway point in the
Jewish year, from the time we asked for forgive-
ness during the Days of Awe to the approach of
spring and summer in preparation for another
new year. And that's why it would be a good idea
to check ourselves for chametz.
You see, chametz isn't just a piece of bread our
children hid underneath their beds. Chametz can
be restrictions we place on ourselves so that we
don't seek to grow as Jews, so that we click on
that television set more often than we learn with
our children. Chametz is judging our friends and
relatives instead of working on improving our-
selves.
Like the Jews from Egypt, we Jews of 1994
have boundaries that restrict, internal demons
that enslave us. And like the biblical Jews, we
can break through them. Everyone's individual
obstacle is no less challenging.
For American Jews as a people, we face issues
in 1994 of continuity, assimilation, intermarriage,
anti-Semitism and Holocaust "revisionism." These
are the pharaohs we face.
In Israel, we wonder if there will ever be a
peace. After the Hebron massacre in February,
it sometimes seems that the parting of the Red
Sea now would be easier than achieving real Mid-
dle East peace. While we clean our houses, we ask
you to consider a couple of easy mitzvot.
First, many of our neighbors spend hundreds
of dollars on kosher-for-Passover foods from area
stores and suppliers. Typically, the foods we eat
during the rest of the year are kept behind closed
cabinets, sometimes sealed off in refrigerators or
covered by a sheet in the basement. We ask that
you consider donating this food to an appropriate
charity. If it's affordable, spend the money to re-
stock once the holiday is over. Donations to a lo-
cal effort such as Project Chametz is a possibility.
Second, many Jews go through their closets
and drawers, cleaning feverishly. We know that
along the way we'll all find that shirt that doesn't
fit anymore or the glasses you replaced last year
or the toys your children have outgrown. Again,
consider rounding up these materials and do-
nating them to Jewish Family Service or a re-
settlement agency.
But most of all, while cleaning the chametz
from the closet, think about the figurative
"crumbs" we all have inside that need cleaning.
That would be the first step in breaking the re-
strictions that bind us, that keep us stagnant as
Jews. Growth, be it as a better parent, a better
son, daughter, a better friend, a better person,
will make us all more free.
Letters
THE DETROIT J EWISH
Michael Jordan
And The Jews
I just had to write and thank
you for this year's Purim Spoof
section, which allowed me to do
a little spoofing of my own.
Thanks to what appears to
be a professionally written ar-
ticle, several of my co-workers
at First of America in Royal
Oak now "know" that Michael
Jordan is Jewish. A few even
asked where to buy cholent.
find it offensive, degrading and
not funny.
I take special offense to your
jokes about Temple Israel
whose social action effort is
probably one of the few decent
things we do for the general
community.
You can be sure that Jewish
News disrespect for Jews will
be duly noted by non-Jews who
read the paper. I think your
Purim Spoof is your biggest
goof.
Peter Cooper
Mrs. Maurice Shepherd
West Bloomfield
Oak Park
Purim Spoof
Criticized
Michael Jordan
If your idea of Purim Spoof
(Feb. 25) is indicative of a Jew-
ish sense of humor, you may be
surprised how many Jews will
Setting
Standards
There have been two schools of
thought regarding the standard
by which Israel, and, indeed,
Letters
Jews, should be judged.
There are those who argue
that for a variety ()Treasons, Is-
rael must be judged by a moral
standard higher than that of
other nations — on a religious
basis, because God chose the
Jewish people from among all
the peoples of the world as His
Chosen People.
From a historical perspective,
since our history is inexorably
intertwined with being an op-
pressed people through the Di-
aspora and the Holocaust, this
experience gives Jews a unique
view which forms the basis for
the way we conduct ourselves.
Culturally, the Jewish popula-
tion has been filled with intel-
lectuals, scientists, artists, and
musicians, not barbarians.
On the other hand, some be-
lieve that Israel should not be
held to a standard of conduct
greater than other nations. It
is argued that for the same or
similar actions, Israel and Is-
raelis have been treated more
harshly than others. Those who
adhere to this belief think that
this "double standard" should
not exist.
There may be some truth in
both of these views.
However, in the wake of the
Hebron killings, a third school
of thought has emerged. What
the apologists mean in defend-
ing Dr. Baruch Goldstein's mur-
derous actions is that some
Israelis, some Jews, should be
judged by a standard lower
than other citizens of the world.
Jews must not accept this type
of rationalization.
William L. Fischel
West Bloomfield
One Lone Act
Vs. Arab Terrorism
In the make-believe world of
Rabbi Daniel Polish, "we have
extremists and terrorists in our
midst too; terrorism is not only
an Arab phenomenon ... it has
roots in the Jewish world as
well. For too long we have tip-
toed around that reality ... we
have looked the other way ...
(March 11)."
Of course the Hebron mas-
sacre was a despicable abomi-
nation, a terrorist act. But the
old canard of "extremists on
both sides," the attempt to
morally equate Israel to the
despotic Arab world, runs into
trouble when we consider that
the "terrorists in our midst"
amounts to only one crazed
man, Baruch Goldstein, who is
no longer with us.
Someone needs to point out
to Rabbi Polish that this has
never happened before. Never
since 1948 has a Jewish ter-
rorist attacked and killed
Arabs, a not-so-insignificant
fact in light of the relentless ter-
rorist attacks by Arabs against
Jews, the invasions by Arab
armies, and the never-ending
Arab propaganda denying the
Jewish state's right to exist.
It is outrageous to equate
this one event, condemned by
99.999 percent of the Jewish
world across the political-reli-
gious spectrum, to Arab terror-
ism, with its millions of
adherents who carry on the ji-
had to cleanse Jews from "their
Arab lands," and who are sup-
ported by Arab states and sanc-
tioned by Islamic clerics.
Mr. Goldstein, after all, did
not receive orders from state-
sponsored or organized terror-
ist cells, like those from Syria,
Iran Lebanon, Hamas and the
PLO, who rush to claim re-
sponsibility after every attack.
It is nonsensical to compare
this lone act, by a man who
snapped, to the thousands car-
ried out by officially organized
and sanctioned Arab terror
groups against Jews, which
since September, have been oc-
curring on an almost daily ba-
sis, without comment by most
Jewish leaders.
The action by this sick Jew-
ish man hands those enemies
of Israel, eager to see her
squirm, an opportunity to lump
the democratic state together
with the totalitarian, despotic
Arab world. To hear the same
accusations from one of our own
rabbis was shocking.
Marc J. Fink
Ann Arbor
Heroic Defender
Or Villain?
I was outraged to read Rabbi
Arnie Sleutelberg's comment
(March 4) that "Dr. Goldstein's
name, yimach sh'mo (may his
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