Akiva Hebrew Day School

`Staff, Faculty & its Families...

Albert Abraham
Elizabeth & Phillip Applebaum
Brenda & Eli Apt
Sonya & Albert Askarinam
Adina & David Barth
Susan & Avie Benaderet
Marci & David Beneson
Linda & Paul Blumberg
Malka & Aaron Blumenfeld
Deena & Steven Borzak
Celia & Barry Braver
Philicia & Marty Brin
Helen & Larry Brown
Rose & Henry Brystowski
Stacy & Noam Carmen
Bela & Michael Chopp
Devorah & Michael Cohen
Jayne & Seth Cohen
Sharon & Steven Z. Cohen
Tansy & Neil Craft
Rita Deych
Betty Rose & Melvin Eisenberg
Karyn & Mark Faber
Goldie & Rabbi Simon Feld
Donna & David Feldman
Dorit & Sam Flatt
Sarita & Mayer Fox
Judith Freier
Rivka & Rabbi Yechezkel Fried
Gloria & Joseph Gardin
Caren & Jeffrey Goldenberg
Janice & Irving Goldfein
Wendy & Edward Goldman
Laurie & Phillip Goldmeier
Margaret & Bernard Gonik
Ruth & Morris Goodman
Aviva & Edward Gordon
Sarah & Eric Gordon
Jill & Joseph Greenbaum
Marla & Michael Greenbaum
Sandra & Joseph Greenberg
Naomi & Rabbi Karmi Gross
Barbara & Zvulon Haddad
Julie & Eli Halpern
Carol & Michael Havis
Gail & Mark Hennes
Gali & Gerald Hillman
Judah Isaacs
Deena & Joseph Jacobovitz
Hedy 8£ Bruce Jacobson
Cheryl & Marc Jerusalem
Elaine & Richard Kahn
Renee & Jeremy Kallenbach
Carolyn & Robert J. Kelman
Debra King
Cillia & Leslie Kleiman
Marilyn & Kenneth Kohn
Sheryl & Seth Korelitz
Sharon & Brian Krasner
Lea & Isaac Lakritz
Linda & Harvey Lefkowitz
Anne & Michael Lehmann
Cherie & Noah Levi
Joanne & Steven Levine
Chayala & Stephen Levitz

Bonnie Lieberman
Lyle Lieberman
Edith & Paul Linden
Peggy & Alan Linker
Natalie & Lawrence Lipnik
Inna & Anatoly Lishak
Lea & Richard Luger
Hadassah Lustig
Ann & George Mann
Amy & Sanford Margolis
Lisa & Dan Mendelson
Sarah & Shalom Michlin
Elaine & Ronald Miller
Leslie & Ronald J. Miller
Ariella & Mark Nadel
Gila & Sasson Natan
Rose & Bruce Newman
Paula & Jay Novetsky
Terry Peretz
Solomon Pesis
Barbara & Dean Pichette
Brenda & Stuart Pieczenik
Arleen & Allen Platt
Susan & Leonard Pollack
Madalyn & Martin Rabinowitz
Deborah & Emanuel Reinitz
David Rider
Dalia & Jason Rogers
Janis & Myer Roszler
Alissa & Alan Rothstein
Yona & Karl Rybak
Judy & Hershel Saks
Ziva & Joel Schechet
Toby & Herschel Schlussel
Suzanne & Robert Schneider
Faye & Jeffrey Schreiber
Diana & Rudolf Shabayev
Julie & Eugene Sherizen
Ellada Shimiyeva
Nailya & Mais Shumunov
Mariya & Gadiil Shumunov
Shelley & Sanford Singal
Amira & Josef Skoczylas
Ann & Robert Spitzer
Caren & David Srolovitz
Michelle & Richard Stiennon
Linda Stein
Brenda & Michael Tainsky
Janelle & Stuart Teger
Rena & Steven Tennenberg
Datia & Michael Traison
Clarisse & Matthew Visnaw
Ruth & Alex Voss
Mark Weisberg
Glenda & Joseph Weiss
Susan & Robert Weiss
Helene & Stuart Weiss
Penina & Gary Weltman
Rita & Laurence Winer
Ziporah & H. Ira Winkler
Ruth & Benjamin Wolkinson
Debbie & Herschel Wrotslaysky
Randy & Marc Zwick
Judy & Stuart Zwick

...would like to wish the entire
Detroit Jewish community a
Sweet & Prosperous New Year!

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Lori Rakotz and the Staff of

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wishes all of their friends and clients a Happy and Healthy New Year

9/18

1998

60 Detroit Jewish News

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The High Holidays
Restored My Faith

be part of a community of which I
ne of my formative encoun-
had
once been a part.
ters with Judaism came just
I
didn't need God — I just needed
prior to the High Holidays
other
Jews. Still, I couldn't escape
15 years ago but continues
from the fact that every prayer men-
to stand out in my mind as if it hap-
tions God and every holiday involved
pened yesterday.
praise
of God.
I was sitting in a Hebrew
So I began to think: How
school classroom with my
terrible could God really be?
cousin, Steve, and the rabbi
Maybe if I developed my
began to tell us a High
own relationship with God,
Holiday story. It was that
I wouldn't have to be depen-
famous midrashic story about
dent on the painful theology
how, on Rosh Hashanah,
I was spoon-fed as a young-
God got up from his mighty
ster.
And as long as I could
throne in heaven and opened
avoid
the High Holidays
a heavy book known as the
and
that
dreaded Book of
"Book of Life."
Life,
everything
would be
RABBI
JOSEPH
Over the next 10 days,
fine.
•
H.
KRAKOFF
between Rosh Hashanah and
In college at Bucknell
Special to
Yom Kippur, the rabbi con-
The Jewish News University in Lewisburg,
tinued, "God would decide
Pa., I was able to develop a
who would be written down
very
deep
and special relationship with
in the Book of Life for the coming
God
through
the observance of the
year." Not only did this notion deeply
Shabbat,
holidays,
kashrut and other
disturb me but it challenged me theo-
mitzvot.
September
1988 came, and I
logically for many years afterward.
debated
whether
to
go
ro services for
How could God simply decide once a
the
High
Holidays.
I
got
a personal
year who would live and who would
invitation
from
Rabbi
David
die in the upcoming months?
Silverman of the Sunbury, Pa., congre-
I was devastated! I learned as a
gation and felt I could not turn him
young child that I was supposed to
down.
love God and God was supposed to
I went and was so glad I did. A
love me in return. That's what my par-
flood
of positive memories of going to
ents and my Hebrew school teachers
High
Holiday
services with my dad as
taught me. Now that I was nearing
a
young
child
re-emerged.
I prayed
bar mitzvah age, was I to understand
two
special
prayers
in
synagogue
that
that I was old enough to hear the
first
morning
of
Rosh
Hashanah.
First,
truth about how God really works?
for
God
to
write
me
and
my
family
in
I could not accept this theology at
the
Book
of
Life
for
many
years
to
all. I rebelled against it. I stopped talk-
come. But even more importantly, I
ing to God. I severed the relationship.
asked God to help me find the path in
Any god who would treat me and my
this world where I could touch the
family so arbitrarily each year at Rosh
most amount of people and help them
Hashanah and Yom Kippur was not
connect
with God in a positive, affir-
deserving of my praise or attention.
mative
way.
As time went on, and I continued
Little did I know at that time, 10
to distance myself from God and syn-
years
ago, that I would go on to
agogue life, I felt that something was
become
a rabbi.
deeply missing. I yearned for a func-
As
a
rabbi,
one of my primary goals
tional relationship with God. So I
is
to
help
people
develop a loving rela-
started to read books by Jewish
tionship
with
God
— one that is reci-
authors and began to observe Shabbat
procal
and
non-threatening.
and kashrut — not for God of course,
Everything else can flow from this. We
but for myself. I again felt a need to
need not fear God but rather be in
Rabbi Joseph H. Krakoff is the
awe of God's greatness and be able to
newest rabbi at Congregation Shaarey
love God with all our heart, soul and
Zeclek.
might. I know I do. ❑

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