App eTree@.cOm

,0\sh secte

Have you
ever asked "why me?"
Can you ever get over it?
What can we learn
from tragedy?

To Self Improvement

What's Hip In
The '50s

Lichterman
I Mark
AppleTree Staff Writer

With Noted Lecturer Rabbi Shmuel Irons

Jewish Community Center
D. Dan & Betty Kahn Building

There is no charge for this program.
Refreshments will be served.

The final lecture of the season will be
"How To Take Risks".
Tuesday, June 2, 1998 ■ 7:30 p.m.

•
Sperber's North Kosher Restaurant,
located inside the JCC, will be serving dinner until 8:00 p.m.

For the hearing impaired, an Infrared Sound System is available.

4/24
1998

76

For more information or to register,
please call (248) 661-7649.
Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit
D. Dan & Betty Kahn Building
6600 West Maple Road ■ West Bloomfield, MI 48233

The left side of the main selection
screen contains buttons leading to
the three main textual areas of the
hese days, I often think about
program: Torah, Haftorah and
my bar mitzvah. My son Yossi
blessings. Click the Torah button
attends first grade at Hi►lel
and you are presented with a
Day School, and his classroom is in
screen listing each of the five books
the same hallway in which I ner-
in tab form along the top. Click on
vously met with my bar mitzvah
one of the tabs and you are pre-
I coach, Mr. Schechter, during the
sented with a list of each of the
I months of April and May exactly
weekly portions in that book. Click
22 years ago.
on a portion in the list and into the
I often dare to defy the unanimous
text you fly.
sentiment of our carpool and actual-
The default view is with vowels
ly escort my son and his friend Josh
and cantillation marks. To actually
into their classrooms. When I do, I
hear the verse of the portion you
still feel a twinge of apprehension
are in, simply click on the line num-
as I look into the very room where
ber and it will turn to a tiny speak-
poor Mr. Schechter tried, so many
er, making your computer something
I years ago, to teach me my Maftir.
of a cha77an.
I The "high-tech" teaching aid avail-
The program allows you to
able to him then was a 12" L.P.
view the English text or Hebrew
Haftorah record "authentic, reliable,
with transliteration or the Hebrew
I and expertly done." You just put
only.
the needle down and let it rip.
This package allows the student to
Mr. Schechter was patient; I
break down and analyze what can
worked hard, and I did fine. I'm here
be a large and difficult body of text
I to tell you, however, that this is the
into manageable and easily under-
'50s (5758) (sometimes referred to as stood chunks. An important note: the
the '90s) and there is an easier way.
English translations are edited by
I Navigating the Bible, (stock num-
Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, translator of the
ber IW557, $99) is not quite an
Living Torah, probably the most lucid c,
electronic Mr. Schechter. But it cer-
and comprehensible version of the
tainly will help make the hard work
Torah on the market today.
of learning the Torah portion,
The "Calendar" button provides
Haftorah and blessings for each
the opportunity to determine the cot-
more entertaining and less stressful. : rect dates for the bar or bat mitz-
The opening screen of the pro-
vah, based on the appropriate date
gram provides a brief and easy-to-
on the Gregorian calendar. It also
: understand tour of the major feature
is easy to determine the correct
of the package. It took me about
Torah portion for any Shabbat or
10 minutes to figure out the lay of
holiday.
the land. It should take the average
To run effectively, this software
12-year-old less than five.
requires the following: PC 486-66
mhz, 8MB Ram, 30MB hard disk
Mark Lichterman lives in Hunt-
space, 2X or faster CD Rom drive,
: ington Woods with his wife and
Windows95, sound card. ❑
two children.

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