Torah Portion
The Cravings Of The Body
Signify A Spiritual Need
*Samuel Kirsch, son of Cherie and Alan
/- Kirsch; Melissa Gayle Marcus, daughter of
Andrea and Kenneth Marcus. Baby nam-
ing of Blake Evan Zack, son of Maria and
Steven Zack.
TEMPLE KOL AMI
5085 Walnut Lake Road, West Bloomfield,
48323, (248) 661-0040. Rabbi Norman T.
Roman. Rabbi emeritus: Ernst J. Conrad.
Services: Friday 8 p.m. Saturday 9:30 a.m.
/) Chevrat Torah; services 11 a.m. Friday bat
mitzvah of Jacqueline Scapa, daughter of
Sally and James Scapa. Saturday bat mitz-
vah of Maggie Lee, daughter of Ilene and
Tony Lee.
TEMPLE SHIR SHALOM
3999 Walnut Lake Road, West
Bloomfield, 48323, (248) 737-8700.
Rabbis: Dannel Schwartz, Michael L.
Moskowitz. Cantorial soloist: Penny
Steyer. Services: Friday 8 p.m.; Saturday
11 a.m. Friday bat mitzvah of Rachel
Kahan, daughter of Jane and Sidney
Kahan. Blessing of Teen Mission partici-
pants. Saturday bar mitzvah of Benjamin
Eider, son of Julie Elder and Leonard
Elder. Birthday blessings.
CONGREGATION SHIR TIKVAH
3900 Northfield Parkway, Troy, 48084,
\-1 (248) 649-4418. Rabbi: Arnie Sleutelberg.
7-- Services: Saturday 10 a.m. Bat mitzvah of
Emily Katz, daughter of Joe and Diane
Katz.
SEPHARDIC
SEPHARDIC
COMMUNITY OF
GREATER DETROIT
21100 W. 12 Mile, Southfield, 48075, in
/- the chapel, (248) 788-1006. Chazzan:
Sasson Natan. Services: Saturday 9 a.m.;
Sunday 9 a.m.
TRADITIONAL
B'NAI DAVID
/-
5642 W. Maple Road, West Bloomfield,
48322, (248) 855-5007. Rabbi: Milton
Arm. Cantor: Barry Ulrych. Services:
8:45 a.m. Haftorah, Saul Chudnow.
Temple Youth
Elect Board
Kol Ami Temple Youth (KATY) elect-
ed the following board members for
the 1998-99 year at its recent meeting:
L president, Caryn Roman; program-
-) ming vice president, Adam Rochkind;
religious and cultural vice president,
Hannah Hirschland; social action vice
president, Stephanie Fidler; member-
ship vice president, Olga Frankstein;
secretary, Jessica Fisher; and treasurer,
Jeff Krause.
Shlichah
Addresses Singles
Yael Waxman, community Shlichah
(Israel emissary) and director of the
Michigan/Israel Connection, will
speak at Singles Shabbat services 8:30
p.m. Friday, June 12, at Adat Shalom
Synagogue.
Mrs. Waxman
joined the staff of
the Jewish
Federation of
Metropolitan
Detroit in 1997,
serving as a
resource on Israel
to organizations,
students, travelers Yael Waxman
and to those who
wish to make
aliyah.
The Singles Shabbat services pro-
gram is sponsored by the Michigan
Board of Rabbis in cooperation with
The Detroit Jewish News and the
Community Outreach and Education
Department of the Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit.
Participating congregations
include Adat Shalom Synagogue,
Birmingham Temple, Congregations
Beth Abraham Hillel Moses, Beth
Achim, Beth Shalom, B'nai David,
B'nai Moshe, Shaarey Zedek and
Shir Tikvah; and Temples Beth El,
Emanu-El, Israel, Kol Ami and Shir
Shalom.
For information, call Kari
Grosinger at the Jewish Federation,
(248) 642-4260.
Beth Shalom Club
To Host Dinner
Congregation Beth Shalom's Social
Club will have its annual membership
dinner at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, June
24, in the synagogue's social hall.
Mentalist and magician Mel
Eisenberg will provide entertainment.
Dinner will be served at a cost of
$12.50 per person.
Fay and Jerry Jacobs and Phyllis
and Harvey Shapiro are presidents of
the Social Club. Adell Ozrovitz is the
club's social committee chair.
Paid reservations are due by June
15. Checks payable to Congregation
Beth Shalom should be mailed to
Adell Ozrovitz, 7073 Clements, West
Bloomfield 48322.
For details, call the Beth Shalom
office, (248) 547-7970.
tired of the manna; yet God says to him
give them "ruach," spirit. It is as if the
answer is unconnected to the question
and the solution is unrelated to the
problem.
Yet, upon reflection, we recognize
that God, of course, knew what He was
doing. He had carefully heard Moses'
oday's sedrah describes the
complaint and responded to it with
mutiny of the people of
compassion and wisdom. His message
Israel in the desert.
answered not the manifest question, but
Moses confronts a lusting,
the concealed question. God, who is the
angry and rebellious multitude which
keeper of man's conscience, recognized
he has been ordained to lead across the
that the core of the people's affliction
wilderness and to weld into a people.
was not physical.
They have lost the vision of Sinai and
Yes, Moses, the people are craving
the dream of the promised land.
meat. But that craving is not itself the
Moses' spirit wilts because here in
cause of their dissatisfaction. It is a sur-
the wilderness this erstwhile
face symptom produced by a
chosen people has set up a
deeper hunger of the soul, a
sickening clamor for food, for
spiritual famine and moral
meat, which the wilderness
starvation. The manna they
cannot provide.
received daily in the desert
"And the children of Israel
could sustain them. God was
... wept ... and they said,
telling Moses that a people
would that we were given
that has enough food for sus-
flesh, meat to eat ... We
tenance but is obsessed by
remember the fish which we
material craving must be spir-
could eat free in Egypt, the
itually hungry.
RABBI IRWIN
cucumbers, the melons, the
This text sheds light on
GRONER
leeks, the onions, the garlic,
the human condition. Doc-
Special to
but now our soul is dried
The Jewish News tors tell us that certain people
away ... We have nothing but
eat too much to the point of
this manna to look to."
affliction and disease — not because
This hungering cry echoes in the
their bodies physically crave or need
wilderness and Moses can stand it no
more food, but rather because of an
longer. He pleads to God in despera-
emotional maladjustment, a sense of
tion, "Have I conceived this people?
depression or anxiety or guilt. A spiritu-
Did I bring them forth that You should
al disorder afflicts them and drives them
say to me, 'Carry them in your bosom
to overeat or sometimes to starve, even
as a nurse carries a suckling child ...' I
as it drives other people to drink or
am not able to bear this people myself
drugs or other kinds of compulsions.
alone. It is too much for me. If this is
For two millennia the Jew has tri-
how You will deal with me, kill me
umphed over pain and suffering, over
rather, I beg You, and let me see no
every imaginable kind of hunger
more ..."
because he satisfied a deeper hunger —
These are remarkable passages. Thus
a hunger for Torah and righteousness
speaks the paragon of leaders, the
and redemption and the words of a liv-
supreme moral genius whom God has
ing God.
called His sure and faithful servant. The
It is an exalted privilege to be hungry
pathos of the words is profound.
in the service of a spiritual goal or an
God answers Moses in a paradoxical
elevating moral purpose. These goals
manner. "And the Lord said unto
and purposes are all about us, waiting
Moses, gather unto Me 70 men of the
to be answered, to satisfy the deepest
elders of Israel ... And bring them into
hungers of humanity.
the tent of meeting that they may stand
there with you ... I will come down and
speak with you there and I will take the
`mach' or spirit which is upon you and
Here are some Shabbat dinner table
will put it upon them. And they shall
questions based on the sedrah.
bear the burden of the people with you,
The children of Israel were crav-
that you bear it not yourself alone."
ing meat. How did Moses react to
The text seemingly makes no sense.
this crisis? How did the Almighty
Moses' problem is that the people want
respond? Why was Moses skeptical
meat and a variety of foods. They are
of God's response? What lesson can
Irwin Groner is senior rabbi of Con-
we learn about human hunger?
gregation Shaarey Zedek.
Shabbat Behaalotekha:
Numbers 8: 1-12: 16;
Zechariah 2:14-4:7.
T
Conversations
6/12
1998
69