.Z ONE GIANT LEAP
FOR JEWISH EDUCATION!
Beth Achim Touches Down in
Southfield and
West Bloomfield/Walled Lake
We Must Not Live
`By Bread Alone'
DR. RICHARD C. HERTZ SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
The Beth Achim Religious School
K Post Bar/Bat Mitzvah
Free Kindergarten
■
6144(4 4)44 Qtt 4447
Za4/
Contact Barry V Levine, Religious School Executive Director
(810) 352-8223 or (810) 352-8670.
4vgaiAd#4 44 -
(centrally located)
21100 West Twelve Mile Rd., Southfield
CONGREGATION SHAAREY ZEI)EK
invites all members and prospective members
to attend their
SUMMER. GRANDE FINALE PICNIC!
Wednesday, August 30, 1995
5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Adler Hall
27375 Bell Road, Southfield
FREE to Prospective Members!
$15.00/family
$10/couple
$5/individual
featuring
the Abraham Ben Ze'ev
Orchestra
The Clark Family Players
Food, Fun and More!
J EWISH NEWS
Sponsored by Congregation Shaarey Zedek
Men's Club, Education Department and Membership Committee
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29791 Northwestern Hwy.
Southfield, MI 48034
(810) 355-1400
he sedrah this week con-
tains some remarkable in-
sights into human nature
and people. The lines
served as a warning to the peo-
ple of Israel, especially after their
long wandering in the wilderness
toward the promised land.
Now that they were about to
enter that land, the Torah warns
against the blandishments of
wealth, station and pleasure,
against the sins of pride and self-
satisfaction. The idolatry of ma-
terialism may be all right for
other people, but not for the an-
cient Hebrews; for Israel has a
mission. If we Jews become like
other nations, the Torah warns
we will surely perish. This is a
lesson eternally valid, equally
true 4,000 years ago, no less than
in 1995.
In this sedrah is the famous
line, "Man dost not live by bread
alone." Physical food is not the
whole thing that insures man's
safe existence. Apart from what
he needs to keep his body going,
there are divine forces that sus-
tain man's soul in his progress
through life. Man has a soul as
well as a body. There is spirit as
well flesh and both must be nur-
tured. Despite what some
philosophies teach about taking
care of the bodily needs of man
alone, when he fails in spirit, he
is done for.
It is dangerous to think that
man can live by bread alone. Ma-
terialism insures that when we
give our all to the physical needs,
of the great god Mammon, we be-
come idol worshippers.
Wherever there is pride, there
is the forgetting of God. Prosper-
ity often tempts man to fretful-
ness against every idea of
restraint. Whenever man forgets
God, his whole way of life drops
to a lower level to serve baser is-
sues.
Scripture follows a diligent ad-
monition against the sin of pride
and self-righteousness. Affluence
brings spiritual dangers. The
temptation to say, "My power and
the might of my hand have got-
ten me this wealth," is universal.
Logically the more a man has, the
more deeply heartfelt ought to be
his thankfulness. Yet a strange
perversity of flocks or herds or
gold or silver often turns the eyes
not outward to God, but inward
toward the self. Just the mere
fact of possession may poison the
whole system with pride; and
pride, in turn, is the root of the
problem.
Addiction to worldly goods can
create selfishness. To forget God
T
is to gorget also that one is but
a steward of one's possessions.
Feeling his possessions to be his
own, a person will cling more des-
perately to them. We must bear
in mind that God gives and God
can take away. When we make
idols of wealth, station or plea-
sure, we become estranged from
God instead of drawing nearer to
God and our fellow man.
Worldly possessions may pro-
duce what biblical writers called
"hardness of heart." The self-
made man, conscious of having
created his own wealth, easily
feels scant room for sympathy.
He may even arrogantly despise
his brother who has less.
Far more serious in its impli-
cations, however, is the tenden-
cy of worldly possessions to
inculcate a materialistic outlook.
Insidiously, money comes to ap-
pear as the most potent factor in
buying the good things of life, but
some things cannot be bought.
One has to learn to depend on
God for security, contentment,
power — the power of peace.
The sedrah bids us to turn
within and seek God. When our
stomachs are full and we are sur-
rounded with beautiful posses-
sions, scripture warns we must
beware lest pride and forgetful-
ness begin. Israel is bidden to re-
member that wealth comes from
God's power, not its own, and is
given in accord with covenant-
ed promises, not in payment for
what the nation thinks it de-
serves.
Shabbat Ekev:
Deuteronomy
7:12-11:25
Isaiah 49:14-51:3.
Even civility can be lost. Once
a preacher told the story of two
goats who met on a bridge which
was too narrow for either to pass
or turn back. When one goat lay
down to let the other walk over
him; civility was born. When peo-
ple, one the whole, abide by a pas-
sive agreement to hold back from
doing what they please if it is in
opposition to what is best for the
whole of society, they are prac-
ticing civility.
These days many people's
problems are said to be due to a
lack of self-esteem. Good man-
ners and civility build self confi-
dence because people who have
them can be reasonably sure that '\
wherever they go they will be ac-