Annual Fundraising

LAS VEGAS NIGHT

Saturday, November 4, 1995
9:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.

CONGREGATION BETH SHALOM

14601 West Lincoln • Oak Park, Michigan

Fun and Gambling Entertainment in

A Torah Orientation
Explains Our obligations

SHLOMO RISKIN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

THE LAS VEGAS STYLE

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Cash Admission of $7.00

Inicudes $3.00 in Chips
$500.00 per person limit on Winnings

For More Information Call 547-7970

Proceeds To Benefit Congregation Beth Sholom

license M26160

Juried by leading gallery owners

Over 60 new artists

Our 23rd year

BIRMINGHAM TEMPLE

28611 W. 12 MILE RD., FARMINGTON HILLS

ART SHOW

GRAND OPENING FESTMTIES

NOVEMBER 3 6-11 PM $10
NOVEMBER 4 & 5 10-5 FREE

Prize Drawings

Low Tea Saturday 11-2

Bagels & Beethoven Sunday 11-1

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"I recently lost my job when my company downsized.
Is there an agency that can help me update
my resume and find another position?"

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Jewish Information and Referral Service refers people who are
looking for jobs to agencies that provide employment services.
One call can lead to information about agencies that offer
counseling. Last year, JIS referred 176 people to the Jewish Vocational
Service, where they learned job hunting skills; resume writing and
interviewing techniques.

JIS has thousands of resources to answer your questions.
For information or referral, call JIS, (810) 967-HELP (4357);
967-0460 TT. JIS is a program of the Jewish Federation of Metro-
politan Detroit.

abbi S. was one of my
childhood heroes back in
the 50s, a professor of
mathematics at Columbia
University and a highly respect-
ed pulpit rabbi.
Everyone spoke of the need to
combine the worlds of Torah and
university, but it was rare to find
a practicing rabbi responsible for
a synagogue whose Ph.D. was not
just a framed piece of paper on
the wall of a study.
Imagine my complete surprise
then when one day the Chasidic-
looking Jew who gave me a lift to
Jerusalem turned out to be none
other than Rabbi S.'s son. Be-
tween addressing his children in
Yiddish, we caught up on old
times. In Israel, he had changed
his life completely, sending his
children to a religious school that
taught no secular subjects. For
Professor S.'s grandchildren, uni-
versity study was out of the ques-
tion. They'd never be in a position
to teach calculus or physics or
chemistry or philosophy.
When I asked him why the
changes, he explained that his fa-
ther's path was necessary for
America, but that Israel was dif-
ferent. Here there was no press-
ing need to comprise, combining
Torah with a career in science,
law, engineering, medicine...The
true ideal, he wanted me to know,
was that a Jew should dedicate
himself to unadulterated Torah,
isolated from outside influences.
Could he be right, that only in
the Diaspora was it necessary for
the Jewish people to partake of
the secular disciplines important
to that country's existence? Does
it make sense that in Israel, on
our own soil, we need not be con-
cerned about anything other than
religion and Torah study? I saw
before me two Jewish rivers, one
that flowed into an ocean and
met head-on with all the scien-
tific and intellectual battleships
of the age, the roar of the waves
exciting and liberating, but at the
same time possibly overwhelm-
ing and destructive, while the sec-
ond river was diverted by a dam
which produced local energy, but
was fearful of all that water dis-
appearing into the ocean without
a trace of where it came from.
That encounter in the car
forced me again to consider the
basic question in the life of a
Torah Jew—how should he relate
to the world? Do we enter it, or
do we reject it?
The approach of my rebbe and
mentor, Rav Joseph B.
Soloveitchik was that we have to
enter the world. He was convinced

that to be a Jew meant that we
had to sanctify the work, and this
could not happen unless we had
knowledge of it, even mastery over
all of its diverse and divergent as-
pects. He meant no the superficial
knowledge of a salesman selling
a computer but the profound
knowledge of the scientist devel-
oping the chips inside.
In this week's Torah portion,
the Bible records the three sons
of Noah — Shem, Ham and
Japheth. Shem becomes the an-
cestor of Israel, the people of the
One God who reject any form of
idolatry, even the idolatry of the
self. Canaan is the ancestor of a
pagan nation of idolaters utterly
enslaved to their gods, to their
passions, to their unconscious
fears.
Japhet, the third brother, is
neither blessed or cursed. Rather
the Torah connects the fate of
Japheth (the cultures who strive
for beauty, grandeur, scientific
prowess and aesthetics) with
Shem: "God shall enlarge
Japheth, and he shall dwell in the
tents of Shem..." [Gen. 9:27]
Now, depending on how we
understand the connection be-
tween Japheth and Shem will de-
termine to what extent Rabbi S.'s
son was doing the right thing in
Meah Shearim or not.

Shabbat Noach:
Genesis 6:9-11:32
Isaiah 54:1-55:5.

The verse that refers initially
to enlarging Japhet, and then to
the tents of Shem contains with-
in it a central ambiguity. To
whom does the lie" who dwells
in the tents of Shem refer, God or
Japhet?
If it's the latter, "and he
(Japhet) shall dwell in the tents
of Shem", then the need to main-
tain a close, even intimate, link
between Japhet's culture and
shem's Torah is desired by God for
all times and in all countries.
Japhet must recognize that with-
out the tents of Shem there is no
possibility of his enlarging or in-
creasing. He must see his destiny
closely linked to Shem — to Israel,
to One God. And this would clear-
ly imply that Shem dare not cut
himself off from Japhet. Other-
wise how could Japet live in
Shem's tent? The doors have re-
mained open, the fundamental
tent atmosphere must be provid-
ed by Shem, but Japhet must be
welcomed in and "Kadoshified."

