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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 • es' 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