OPINION r3 P1 4 111111101W: Wishing You & Your Loved Ones A Joyous Passover 32506 Northwestern Hwy. Farmington Hills, MI (248) 851-7540 HATS OFF TO OUR GRADUATES! Reach an educated audience that wants to learn about your business! Advertise in CAP AND GOWN Detroit Jewish News JN A special section in The Detroit Jewish News. Issue Date: May 14, 1999 Advertising Deadline: May 7, 1999 Every day you wait could be the day the lowest mortgage rates in 30 years start rising again! Don't miss out! For a free, no obligation mortgage analysis, call: 1-800-931-7757 MORTGAGE WAREHOUSE The Loan Superstore 30300 Northwestern Hwy, Suite 280 Farmington Hills, MI 48334 CAL 7 DAYS12% HOt RS . 3/26 1999 32 Detroit Jewish News Ristered Mortgage Banker, Michigan Banking Dept. Equal Opportunity Lender. Finding Meaning in Jewish Text 33 OW do we understand the response. In the Shen2a prayer, the nature of our Jewish voices declaration, "Hear Oh Israel, the Lord — when they are heard, our God, the Lord is One," is fol- when they are silent, when lowed by a paragraph full of active and how they change? Studying commandments. They include to love, midrashim (commentaries) on God's teach and speak with our children, voice can be a helpful vehicle for bet- wrap ourselves in signs of our tradi- ter understanding ourselves. The texts tion, write down our teachings and can provide powerful messages that surround ourselves with reminders. have relevance for our Like God's voice, our own daily lives. voices are signs, which if When the people of followed closely, could Israel await the revelation lead to behavioral changes. of God's word, they hear The members of this small loud blasts of the shofar, community responded to thunder and lightning. their Jewish voices by God's first words are "I am learning more about the Lord Your God." One Judaism so that they can question asked by the reach their children. The Rabbis is how God could parents, mostly self-taught, have spoken His most run a Hebrew school for important words amidst 10 children. DINA such noise and cacopho- Other midrashim com- ny? One midrash (Exodus SHTULL-LEBER ment on how the Israelites Rabbah 29:9) comments could have heard God's Special to that when the Holy ., One voice and remained alive. The Jewish News gave the Torah, the birds Exodus Rabbah 5:9 did not chirp, the sea did explains that God's voice not roar, creatures did not speak — went forth to each and every Israelite the whole world was hushed into in keeping with his/her capacity to breathless silence. It was only then acknowledge God's presence — to the that the voice went forth. In other elderly, to the little ones and to the words, God knew that silence was women. The hearing of God's voice necessary for His words to be heard in was an individual and private experi- the proper way. ence. Commenting on the verse, "And Likewise, we often need to wait all the people perceived the thunder- for the noise around us to subside ings (Exodus 20:15), the Rabbis asked ,, why the word "thunderings was plur- before our voices can be heard. al when there was only one voice. Sometimes, the Jewish voice is loud- er amidst silence. I recently had an They answered that God's voice opportunity, together with Project mutated into seven voices, and the seven voices into seventy languages, so STaR students, to study Jewish text all the nations might hear (Exodus with members of a small Jewish Rabbah 5:9). community (Sault Ste. Marie). For During our visit to this Jewish those with minimal Jewish back- community, we also had an opportu- grounds, the experience of living in nity to visit Jewish prisoners in a_ _a remote town allowed them to first state facility. The Jewish voice of hear their own Jewish voices. The the prisoners was a sacred sound silence prompted the need to be amidst the noise of the surround- heard, to study and to learn who ings. Prisoners allowed themselves to they were as Jews. One woman hear God according to their own from an Orthodox Jewish back- capacity. Each hears a different ground discovered a previously dor- voice, but they react together to mant feminist voice as she struggled experience the God they hear. They with her desire to say the Kaddish hold their own weekly Friday night prayer for her deceased mother. services. They reach each other The revelation of God's word was Hebrew in organized classes held intended to produce an active twice a week. They seek out Jewish books; they study. The prisoners Dina Shtull-Leber ofAnn Arbor is au found God in a place where many adjunct faculty 172 ember of Project StaR, think God is silent. It was perhaps a graduate program in Jewish Commu- the initial silence that helped them nal Service sponsored by the University hear the strong voice of God within of Mich. igan School of Social Work in them and around them. cooperation with the Frankel Center for Song of Songs (5:16) describes the Judaic Studies.