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Congregation Shaarey Zedek
presents
In
Celebration
Celebration
of
of
Jewish
Jewish
Music
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Month
Music
Month
Tuesday, March 19 • 7:30 PM
Congregation Shaarey Zedek Southfield
Main Sanctuary
FREE ADMISSION
Alden Leib and Marta Rosenthal Co-Chairs
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in. time kr Waskaver!
BARNES & NOBLE BENEFIT
for Congregation B'nai Moshe
Friday, March 22 • 10 AM to 5 PM
Barnes Noble's West Bloomfield Store
6800 Orchard Lake Road, WB
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Purchase books and other items at the specially-
designated "B'NAI MOSHE" REGISTER, and the
synagogue will receive a portion of the proceeds.
For more information, call B'nai Moshe at (810) 788-0600.
180 figeffeneTIONNO
Each Jewish Connection
Is A Building Block
ROBERT NOSANCHUK SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
T
hey say Jewish identity be-
gins in the home. Mine be-
gan in the home ... of the
Detroit Lions in the 80,000-
seat stadium we call the Silver-
dome.
I was only 10 years old, but
since then it has remained one of
my favorite memories. We were
members of the now-defunct
Temple Beth Jacob in Pontiac,
where my father grew up and my
grandparents belonged.
Yet with all the changing de-
mographics, our synagogue sur-
vived for many years on the
strength of a unique fund-raiser;
each Sunday, the congregation
took charge of a refreshment
booth at the Silverdome, home of
football, soccer, concerts and, yes
— tractor pulls. We were strange
pioneers of Jewish living, the first
in history to sell kielbasa sand-
wiches in the name of the Jewish
community.
What I believe is important
about this memory, however, is
the message that came across to
me and to the other children.
Through their individual contri-
butions to the temple, our parents
were teaching us not to reserve
our Jewish involvements for wor-
ship on an occasional Shabbat or
the annual shlepp on the High
Holidays.
As I came to understand it,
Jewish meaning implied that
one's connection to the organized
communuity be about an indi-
vidual sense of belonging, no mat-
ter the setting. Whether you
belong to a synagogue, summer
camp, community center, or even
an 80,000-seat domed stadium,
the message of family learning
and relationship comes across
loud and clear.
This week's parsha, Vayakhel-
Pekudei, traces the individual
meaning attributed by Jews who
built the ancient tabernacle, sanc-
tuary of the Jewish people. Un-
der the direction of Moses and
leadership of Itamar and Bezalel,
our people contributed individual
and meaningful family efforts to
build and sustain the sanctuary,
just as we continue to build our
institutions in modernity. We are
taught in Midrash that the con-
tributions of the Israelites were
even greater than the necessity
to build.
In Exodus Rabbah 51.2,
Robert Nosanchuk is education
director of the Agency for
Jewish Education, the Miracle
Mission for Teens and
Midrasha Center for Adult
Jewish Learning.
"When Moses came to Bezalel
and saw the amount of material
left over after the Tabernacle had
been constructed, he said to God,
`God of all the worlds, we have
now made the Tabernacle and we
have material left over; what
shall we do with what is left
over?'
"God replied, `Go make with
them a tabernacle of the pact."'
Rabbis Lawrence Kushner and
Kerry Olitsky point out in Sparks
Beneath the Surface: "This seems
to imply a separate tabernacle
was built ... where the tables of
the covenant were kept ... Moses
said to God, 'Already we have
completed the work of the Taber-
nacle, but the people are still
bringing free-will gifts.'
-L
Shabbat Vayakhel-
Pekudei:
Exodus 35:1 - 40:38
12: 1-20
Ezekiel 45:16 -
46:18.
The Holy One replied to Moses,
`This religious enthusiasm is a
sign of the people's freely giving
spirit and the soul flame they feel.
And they themselves are a living,
faithful testimony that the Divine
presence will dwell in this taber-
nacle."'
Reflecting on this interpreta-
tion of Torah, I believe our lead-
ership challenge in the Jewish
community is to actualize that
"freely giving" spirituality and
faith in Jewish modernity — de-
spite the obstacles and realities
of religious living in America.
Did you read the story last year
of the two parishioners whose
church in Pennsylvania had a
court order imposed against
them, forcing them out of church,
not to return unless they prayed
more quietly. I laughed when I
thought of Bezalel and Itamar
telling the Israelites to, as our
teen-agers say, "chill out" and stop
pouring gifts of embroidery, car-
pentry, crimson yarns and acacia
woods into the community taber-
nacle.
I stopped laughing last week,
as we all did, while viewing the
memorial service from Jerusalem.
Somehow in the presence of such
shocking events, each of us can
summon up the voice to reason-
ably ask: Is there such a thing as
modern Jews praying too loud-
,_/