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Where We've Got The
Congregational
Religious School
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J.E.F.F.
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‘Cta,s,
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Sizeziti
Sisterhood • Men's Club
Club Chayim • Young At Heart
Chavura
Concerts • Carnivals
Las Vegas Night
Book Bites Dinner Series
Lunch & Learn • Talmud Classes
Library • Mikvah • 2 Social Halls
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Te dull
For information call 352-8670
21100 W. 12 Mile Rd., Southfield
THE CULTURAL COMMISSION
OF
CONGREGATION B'NAI DAVID
Presents .. .
"THE PEACE PROCESS AFTER HEBRON:
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?"
with
DR. DAPHNA SHA_RFMAN
Professor of Political Science, Haifa University
11:00 A.M.
Sunday, April 10, 1994
At
CONGREGATION B'NAI DAVID
24350 Southfield Road
Southfield, Michigan 48075
557-8210
• Question and Answer Period • No charge • The Community is Invited
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Back by popular demand, Nathan Goldberg, owner
and designer of Dyed In the Wool' will be appearing
April 8, 1-5:30 & April 9, I 0-4 at 'Imaginknir located in
the Applegate Square. Join us for an exclusive 2 days
of consultation and creation.
LL,
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1--
30
Quality Yams, Kits S More
(810) 355-1400 / 800-737-4777
Applegate Square • Northwestern at Inkster
Love And Justice
Are Vital Issues
DR. RICHARD C. HERTZ SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
T
radition assigns a special
portion for the Sabbath
during Passover, which
this year actually is the
seventh day of the Passover fes-
tival. The regular order of read-
ing the Torah is interrupted and
the special reading of Exodus
33 and 34 not only includes
laws ordaining the Festival of
Passover but also tells about the
meaning of God.
Jews today spend much of
their time and energies talking
and devoting themselves to is-
sues confronting the Jewish
people: anti-Semitism, Israel's
security, Jewish survival, Jew-
ish education, and other social
and political concerns. Rarely
do they speak about God. Even
the sermons of rabbis seldom
touch on what God is.
It is good that our Torah por-
tion focuses on the essence of
God. After all, no human being
can ever penetrate the ultimate
mystery of God's being. Only a
glimpse of the Divine reality
was possible even for Moses. In
the religion of Israel there is no
magical practice that is auto-
matically effective in influenc-
ing Divine behavior. Moses
wanted to comprehend God's
essential personality, the at-
tributes that guide His actions
in dealing with mankind and
the norms by which He oper-
ates in His governing the world.
Moses wanted to know the
ways of God. Moses actually re-
quested a glimpse of the Divine
presence.
Moses was hidden in the cleft
of the rock as God passed by
him. Thus Moses witnessed the
Divine revelation. He heard the
voice of the Almighty: "The
Lord, the Lord God, merciful
and gracious, long-suffering and
abundant in goodness and
truth, keeping mercy unto the
thousandth generation forgiv-
ing inequity, transgression, and
sin."
These words emphasize the
theological ideas seldom heard
these days, for like Moses, we
too want to know more about
what God is and what His at-
tributes are.
Restraint of anger is one of
the attributes which Scripture
ascribes to God. God is "long
suffering," says Scripture. God
restrains His anger and permits
the sinner to mend his ways.
We see the same idea devel-
oped in the prophecy of Hosea.
Dr. Richard Hertz is rabbi
emeritus of Temple Beth El.
Hosea learned through a bitter
spiritual struggle to recognize
the divine attributes of mercy
and loving kindness. Hosea's
wife had proved faithless, but
his love for her was so great that
he forgave her and took her
back into his home. From his
own experience, Hosea learned
that God demands not only jus-
tice and righteousness but also
mercy and kindness, long-suf-
fering in God's grace and love.
Shabbat
Beshallach:
Exodus 13:17-15:26
Numbers 28:19-25
II Samuel 22:1-51.
We hear much of justice to-
day but little of mercy. It would
be a harsh concept of God ifjus-
tice excluded mercy, for what
man could stand before a God
of justice if there were no Divine
mercy? Only condemnation and
perdition would remain. The
two are intertwined. Justice
stands as the foundation stone
on which the cosmic structure
of society rests. Mercy is the
measuring line of compassion
that we all need.
The verses of this sedrah con-
taining the so-called 13 attrib-
utes of God are recited aloud on
festivals when the ark is dra-
matically opened and the Torah
scroll is about to be taken out.
The rabbis stressed that the 13
attributes of God brought into
the liturgy are not to be inter-
preted as automatically bring-
ing about instant forgiveness of
sin. Rather the idea is to em-
phasize them for human imita-
tion of God's moral qualities:
compassion, graciousness, for-
bearance, kindness and for-
giveness.
Gunther Plaut reminds us in
his commentary how the 13 at-
tributes of God tell us not only
of what God is not, but what He
is. Hermann Cohen condensed
the 13 attributes of God into two
— love and justice. In those two
concepts are illustrated what
man ought to pursue in search
of a godly life. ID
Bel Kaufman, who wrote the
script for the PBS hit series
"Up the Down Staircase",
was the granddaughter of
the famous Yiddish writer
Sholom Aleichem.
N