Metro

Torah

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1st Annual Fall Concert

Featuring works by

RABBI BEZALEL FREEDMAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Dreschler, Lezvandozvski

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and many others.

Sung in Hebrew, Yiddish
and Ladino.

The Zamir Chorale of Metropolitan Detroit

Benjamin Cohen

Music Director

Rochelle Barr

Accompanist

Janice Charach Epstein Museum/Gallery
Jewish Community Center
6600 W. Maple Road, West Bloomfield

To order tickets or for more information,
call (810) 851-2393 or (313) 861-8990

A recipient of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit's Max M. Fisher Jewish Community Foundation.

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38

A Woman's Plea
For God's Mercy

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n this weeks' Torah portion we
are told of the passing of our
Matriarch Rachel.
"Rachel died and she was
buried on the way to Efrat, which
is Bethlehem. Jacob set up a
monument over her grave which
is the monument of Rachel un-
til this day.” (Genesis 35:19).
The Medrash explains that Ja-
cob chose to bury her there, as op-
posed to the Marat Hamachpelah
(Tomb of the Patriarchs), so that
when the Jews would be led into
exile they would be able to pray
at her grave.
At one of the lowest points in
Jewish history, at the end of the
first Temple era, the leader of the
Jewish people, King Menashe of
Judah, set up an idol in the holy
Temple in Jerusalem. It was be-
cause of this episode that God fi-
nally decided to destroy the
Temple and send the people of Is-
rael into exile.
The Medrash tells a fascinat-
ing story of what took place in
heaven at that time. The soul of
Abraham came before God to
plead that he rescind His decree.
Abraham argued that in the mer-
it of his willingness to sacrifice
his only son, the son that he had
waited 100 years for, the son that
was destined to be the father of
the Jewish people, the nation
should be saved.
His plea was rejected. The
Medrash continues that at that
point, the soul of Isaac came for-
ward to beg for mercy on behalf
of his decendants, in the merit of
his having been a willing ac-
complice in the Akeida (sacrifice
of Isaac). He had been willing to
give his own life on the alter for
the sake of God.
God was still unmoved, so the
soul of Jacob came forward and
cited how he had been the father
of the 12 tribes and that although
his life was full of suffering he
maintained his faith which per-
sonified devotion to God.
His arguments were also not
accepted, at which time Moses
came forward and spoke of his
service as the faithful leader of
the people of Israel who had de-
livered them from Egypt and had
led them for 40 years as they
wandered in the desert. God was
still unmoved.
Finally, the soul of our Matri-
arch Rachel appeared before the
heavenly throne and cried, "Cre-
ator of the world, You surely know
that I was the beloved choice of Ja-
cob. He worked for my father for
seven years in order to many me.
"Then, when the seven years
had finally ended and the time

for our marriage had come, my
father plotted to exchange me
and I schemed with my desig-
nated husband and created a
sign between us whereby he
could distinguish between my-
self and my sister Leah, so that
my father's plan would not suc-
ceed. However, I later took mer-
cy on my sister who would be
shamed by this.
"On the evening of what was
going to be my wedding, I gave
over all the signs to her. I was
not jealous of her. I would not
stand by idle and allow her to be
shamed.

Shabbat Vayishlach:
Genesis 32:4 - 36:43,
Hosea 11:7 - 12:12.

"Master of the world, I, who
am but flesh and blood, dust and
ashes, was not jealous of my
competitor and did not allow her
suffer any shame. Surely You,
whose mercy is greater than that
of mortal man, why do you take
vengeance of idol worshippers,
which is of no substance.
"Why do you send them in ex-
ile and allow their enemies to de-
stroy them at the sword?"
Immediately, God's mercy
was aroused. "Because of you,
Rachel, I will return Am Yisroel
to their land."
How remarkable. Neither
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob nor
Moses, the greatest leaders of
the Jewish people of all times,
could convince God to rescind
His decree to destroy the Jewish
people in the merit of their ser-
vice to God.
Nevertheless, the plea of a
lone woman, who pleaded not on
the merits of her devotion to God
but rather on the merit of her
sensitivity to another human be-
ing, changed the decree and ul-
timately the destiny of the
Jewish people.
Indeed, this sends a powerful
message of the importance of
bain adam le-chavairo, the laws
that deal with man's relation-
ship to man. For adherence to
this fundamental principle is the
soul of our heritage and is cen-
tral to Jewish life. ID
Rabbi Bezaele Freedman is
director of the Central East
Region, National Conference of
Synagogue Youth.