Torah Portion DR. HENRY J. SPIRO IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THE ASSOCIATION OF: DR. STEVEN A. SHANBOM, M.D. SPECIALIZING IN LASER VISION CORRECTION DR. HENRY J. SPIRO, M.D. DR. STEVEN A. SHANBOM, M.D. THE LASIK SPECIALIST THE CATARACT SPECIALIST 111111111M111 a 28747 We're WOODWARD • BERKLEY, MICHIGAN (248) 546-2133 Michigan Heritage Bank Rates Above The Rest. 5.90% APY 6.00% ,„ 12 Mo. CD 18 Mo. CD Minimum $500 Minimum S500 Si AtICHIG. HERITAGE (Arta 4•50% APY Heritage Classic Checking Account Minimum $2,500 Unlimited Free Checking Visit our web site: www.MIHeritage.com or call for a CD by mail application. TROY: Troy Sports Center NOVI: Next to the Novi Hilton 21211 Haggerty Road at 8 Mile 1 800 914 3524 - - = FDIC LIZA insured - 1917 East Big Beaver at John R./Next to Starbucks Coffee 1-248-619-0264 *Annual Percentage Yield is effective as of December 24, 1999. Penalty for early withdrawal. Business or brokered accounts not eligible. Rates subject to change without notice. Pe Our CDs Don't play Music, but could be Music 6.05 k to your Ears STS BANK Member F.D.I.C. One Year Certificate A.P.Y.* 248-338-7700 or 248-352-7700 2600 Telegraph Rd. • Bloomfield Hills • MI 48302 12/24 1999 58 This is a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insured account (FDIC). A minimum opening deposit and balance of $500.00 is required to obtain the stated Annual Percentage Yield. *Annual percentage yield when compounded quarterly. Rate is accurate as of 11/19/99. Penalty for early withdrawal from certificate accounts may be assessed. Egyptian dungeon, there would be no ascent to the royal palace as a base of rescue for the family. The text curiously continues (Genesis 50:15) "and Joseph's broth- ers saw that their father was dead." They had just returned from the bur- ial journey at Machpelah Cave. Why does the verse say now that they saw that their father was dead? Furthermore, why the sudden words of panic: "Perhaps Joseph still bears a hidden grudge against us. He is like- ly to pay us back for all the evil we did him." This hardly demonstrates successful family reconciliation. The Midrash Tanchuma Yashan clarifies the episode with a dazzling insight: "What is meant by 'and Joseph's brothers saw'?" They noticed his death and its effects on Joseph, for they had been accus- tomed to dine at Joseph's table; and he would be friendly toward them out of respect for his. Father. But once Jacob died, it seems that Joseph was revealing a latent animosity toward them, and "he was not friendly toward them.' The real rea- son, this Midrash conrinues, was Jacob's insistence that Joseph demonstrate his rank over his broth- ers' in the banquet chambers. With their father's passing, Joseph was truly uncomfortable pulling rank over his older brothers. He instruct- ed them to "fear not," that life is not just a series of ruefully random events, bearing no positive relation- ship to one another. Rather, "You might have meant to harm me, but God intended it for good ... than: the life of a great nation be kept alive." (50:19-20). Five hundred years ago, one of our most prolific historical figures, Don Yitzchak Abarbanel, philosopher, statesman and financier to the Royal Houses of both Portugal and Spain, took a practical lesson from our Torah portion. Using the entire portion as a proof-text, he learned chat one should not delay in drafting a will prior to death, lest the pain of final ill-less cloud one's mental faculties. Summing up one's life implies he dialectic of both finality and conti- nuity. The message of Jacob's passing is that death is anything but final. Rather, the "torch is passed" to Jacob's children in a conveyance of earthly bounty and spiritual values. It answers mankind's age-old dilem- ma in the face of death: What did one stand for? What sense of pur- pose?