NolkA".
Temple Israel invites you to the
tv;4
- ‘k
Annual Harry Laker Memorial Concert
MEMORIES OF LTITMAN'S PEOPLE'S THEATER
SUNDAY, MARCH 31, 1996, 3:30 p.m.
The Admission
Of A Mission
RABBI MORRIS ADLER
Cantor Robert Abelson Cantor Martha Novick Cantor Harold Orbach
featuring
Mack Pitt
Zina Shaykhet
and the Temple Israel Junior Choir, directed by Elaine Greenberg
Join us for an afternoon of
MUSIC of the YIDDISH THEATER*
*understanding Yiddish not required for
enjoyment of this program
5725 Walnut Lake Road, W Bloomfield
co-sponsored by Temple Brotherhood
for complimentary tickets, call 661-5700
410
•
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ye
FELDBRO QUALITY MEATS
FRESH FISH
FOR YOUR PASSOVER FEAST
"Strictly Fresh"-100% Natural
Never Frozen-No Pinfeathers
Completely Cleaned
Turkey/Turkey Breasts
Capons/Soup Chickens
Cornish Hens/Amish Chickens
Amish Chicken Breast
Wishing the Entire
Jewish Community
A Very
Happy Passover
The Finest In USDA Top Choice
* Beef Tenderloin
* Prime Rib Roast
* New York Strip Roast
* Rack of Lamb
* Sirloin Tip Roast
* Briskets
* Leg of Lamb
* Rack of Veal
The Finest In FRESH FISH
Flown in daily from around the world
* Florida Swordfish
* Hawaiian Yellowfin Tuna
* Australian Orange Roughy
* Alaskan King Crab Legs
* Mexican Shrimps
* And Much More!
Fresh fish is delivered 6 days per week
2 Times per day!
EVERYTHING FOR YOUR PASSOVER NEEDS. PLEASE ORDER EARLY!
THIS WEEKS SPECIAL!!
r USDA CHOICE WHOLE
NEW YORK
I STREP STEAK
cut & Freezer Wrapped FREE
WITH COUPON ONLY!
EXPIRES APRIL 1, 1996
32902 MIDDLEBELT ROAD • NEXT TO STRAWBERRY HILLS • FARMINGTON HILLS
626-4656 OR 626-465 7
Editor's note: In recognition of the
30th anniversary of the yahrtzeit
of Rabbi Morris Adler and in trib-
ute to his memory, Rabbi Irwin
Groner selected this Torah com-
mentary from Rabbi Adler's book,
"The Voice Still Speaks."
single word gives its name
to the portion we read this
week, as well as to the en-
tire third book of the Pen-
tateuch
Vayikra
"And He
called" The first verse of the book
reads, "And He called unto Moses
and the Lord spoke unto Moses
in the tent of the assembly."
"And the Lord called unto
Moses." Here is that wonderful
old English word that is becom-
ing rare upon our lips, a "calling."
A man's work was not simply his
task, a means of establishing sta-
tus or even for earning a liveli-
hood. It was a calling. We have
somewhat degraded the word
"vocation" when we speak of vo-
cational training or vocational
guidance. Vocation, in Latin,
means "calling." Once when the
word was used, a man felt that
he had been placed upon earth in
the midst of fellows to fulfill a
purpose and that he had been
given an assignment. It would be
a betrayal of both the God he be-
lieved in and of his own inner in-
tegrity not to fulfill the vocation,
the call that had come to him.
We still use the word occa-
sionally in connection with the
clergy. We say a man has re-
ceived a call, but it is not a call
from God; it is a call from a board
of trustees, and it comes in a very
tangible form with very tangible
promises and conditions ...
This sense of mission we ought
to recover for ourselves, for we
live in a difficult and challenging
time. The challenge is in propor-
tion to the difficulty, and the
opportunity is as great as the
danger. In one respect, this may
be the greatest time in all history,
for the decisions we make in our
generation, or perhaps in the gen-
eration immediately following
ours, will determine,.in a very lit-
eral sense, life or death. If more
people felt a sense of calling, if
they felt that their existence must
be translated into service, that in
addition to their personal fulfill-
ment there rests upon them a
burden of responsibility for their
times and their society — then
perhaps we might find our way
to the solution that will spell life
for the future.
America started as a calling.
It started as a revolution, and I
sometimes feel we spent the rest
A
—
—
of our history in cancelling out
the implications of the revolution.
We started with a great idea. If
you read the documents of the
founding fathers, you sense a
prophetic zeal in them. They
were not founding just another
state. They were not setting out
simply to conquer a continent,
frontier after frontier. They were
not striving simply for wealth.
They had a purpose to fulfill
How important is it for us to
recapture this sense of calling,
the idea that being an American
is something more than having
opportunities denied to the larger
part of mankind. Being an Amer-
ican places upon us tremendous
responsibilities, which must be
borne however great the sacrifice
if we are to be true to our voca-
tion.
Somewhere in our educational
system, somewhere in our reli-
gious life, somewhere in our po-
litical life there is a void because
we are not communicating a
sense of destiny that does not
make us better than anyone else,
but gives us the greatest of all
privileges, the opportunity to be
the servants of mankind.
Is this not true about Jewish
life? There was a time when to be
a Jew was to be filled with con-
tent, when a Jew had a perspec-
tive that stretched from the
earliest paganism to the end of
Shabbat Vayikra:
Leviticus 1:1- 5:26
Isaiah 43:21 - 44:24.
the days of brotherhood and
peace the prophets foresaw. We
had large horizons ... We were a
people that walked in light in the
midst of darkness. We held up
the torch of learning. We guard-
ed our faith against d‘ terioration
into superstition. Being a Jew
was to be called ... How small and
trivial were the discriminations
and the burdens alongside the
great and enlarging privilege of
being called.
I do not wish to shut anyone
out of Judaism, but I feel that un-
less the sense of purpose comes
back to Jewish life, the call that
does not set us above or apart,
but gives us a specific assignment
in the pattern of our tradition—
that tradition will disappear.
Soon we will be sitting down
to the seder to talk about free-
dom. In common with all of our
freedom-loving friends, we shall
enunciate once again our loyalty