ROSH 11111151111111111 Holiday
SERVICES FOR SIIIGIES Juggling Jig
Rabbi Dannel I. Schwartz
Makes A Return
11011'..
Senior Rabbi, Temple Shir Shalom
Thursday, October 2, 8 p.m.
TEMPLE SHIR SHALOM
3999 Walnut Lake Road
West Bloomfield
Services will be followed by refreshments
Prior to serving at Shir Shalom,
Rabbi Schwartz was senior rabbi at
Temple Beth El and assistant rabbi
at Temple Israel in New Rochelle,
NY. The author of two books, he
also wrote a bi-weekly column in
the Detroit News and has con-
tributed articles to national Jewish
publications. In his spare time, he
serves as a technical consultant on
Jewish mystical practices on the TV
show, The X Files.
The Shabbat Services program is sponsored
by the Michigan Board of Rabbis in cooperation
with The Jewish News and the Community
Outreach and Education Department of the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. For
information, call Kari Grosinger at Federation,
(248) 642-4260, ext. 241.
PARTICIPATING CONGREGATIONS
REFORM
Congregation Shir Tikvah
Temple Beth El
Temple Emanu-El
Temple Israel
Temple Kol Ami
Temple Shir Shalom
Ofaiunrad
.wiAhra
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CONSERVATIVE
Adat Shalom Synagogue
Congregation Beth Abraham
Hillel Moses
Congregation Beth Achim
Congregation Beth Shalom
Congregation B'nai David
Congregation B'nai Moshe
Congregation Shaarey Zedek
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Frames
(—/
T
he Talmud has a number of
references to the art of jug-
gling, the most famous being
Rabbi Shimon Ben Gamliel's
(the head of the Sanhedrin or High
Court — 1st Century CE) virtuoso act
during the all-night water-drawing cele-
brations in the intermediate days of
Sukkot. The feats of three other Jewish
sages and jugglers are also described in
the Talmud: the sage Levi bar Sissa
(150-220 CE), who juggled eight
knives, author and teacher Samuel bar
Abba (180-275 CE), who manipulated
eight cups of wine without spilling a
drop, and the distinguished scholar Ray
Abaye (280-339 CE), who mastered
the risky business of juggling eight eggs.
Today, juggling seems to be
reemerging as a form of entertainment
in modern Israel and a popular pas-
time. Juggling acts, frequently with
fire, are often preformed at religious
weddings in Israel, and even this year's
Israel Festival opened with a five-man
juggling act, adding fanfare to the
main event.
A jugglers club was started by
clown-about-town Charles Sofair, for-
merly of Sidney, Australia, who had
received formal training as a clown. On
his arrival in Jerusalem, he found many
talented people with a variety of skills,
so he went into action. Today the
group consists of about 15 men and
women of all ages who hold conven-
tional day jobs — teachers, writers,
artists, students, lawyers and soldiers —
but on Thursday night, from 7-11
p.m., shed their personas and come to
practice and show off new skills.
Click into his Website on the
Internet (Alta Vista: Scott Seltzer),
which includes drawings of tricks with
knives, torches, eggs and all kinds of
dangerous objects. "I am so thrilled
that I actually have my own Internet
page. There used to be a culture of jug-
gling in ancient Israel and it is definite-
ly on the upswing today," says the
obsessive juggler off to meet another
obsessive juggling friend in the park.
Almost in the same juggling league
as the venerable sages is 22-year-old
musician Joseph Rosenberg, who jug-
gles with five lighted torches. Originally
from New York, Rosenberg started jug-
gling when he was 12. "I bought a
copy of the book Juggling for the
Complete Klutz. It came with three
bean bags.
American-born Raphael Harris, a
professional juggler, recently organized
a one-day juggling festival in Jerusalem.
Besides having long been associated in
Jewish tradition with joy, Harris points
out that "it is taught in corporate
c'\
workshops because it is an excellent
training tool for patience, coordination,
and learning to deal with failures. It
also helps develop ambidexterity, dex-
terity, enhanced right brain/left brain
function and increased attention span,"
he says.
With so many mind/body benefits,
juggling's growing popularity should
come as no surprise.
—WZPS 1
Genetics And
Biblical Tradition
A Technion-Israel Institute of
Technology research team has reported
genetic evidence indicating that mod-
em-day Jewish priests (Kohanim)
appear to be descendants of a single
common male ancestor — presumably --/
the high priest Aaron.
This finding is based on the analysis
of genetic markers in the DNA of Y-
chromosomes of Jewish male priests
from different countries of origin in
7/
comparison with corresponding mark- 1
ers in their Jewish male lay counter-
parts. The Technion team is headed by
Professor Karl Skorecki, director of the
Molecular Medicine Laboratory at the
Faculty of Medicine and director of
Nephrology at the Rambam Medical
Center, Haifa, and his colleagues in
Israel and abroad.
The Y-chromosome is uniquely use- h
fill in this analysis because the Y-chro-
mosome of any one individual can be
traced back even over many generations
to only one male ancestor. This is not
the case for other chromosomes, each
of which carries representation from
many different ancestors on both the
maternal and paternal lineages.
Accordingly, since the Jewish priest-
hood designation is transmitted from
father to son, the DNA of the found-
ing ancestor is reflected in the Y-chro-
mosome markers of modern-day Jewish
priests. Of particular interest is the
preservation of the distinguishing Y-
(±\
chromosome markers among Jewish
priests of both Sepharadi and
Ashkenazi origin, despite the cultural
and geographic separation of these
groups for more than a millennium.
Some biblical tradition dates the
establishment of the Jewish priesthood
to 3,300 years ago, it may be possible
to utilize analysis of the Y-chromo-
some DNA of modern-day Jewish
priests to deduce rates and mecha-
nisms of DNA mutation and Y chro-
mosome evolution.