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Yiddish Limericks

B'ham Brit

he word "ham" will not be uttered at the new
street-level Birmingham Aish Center at 555 S.
Old Woodward in downtown Birmingham.
British-raised intern Ovadia Safer has re-
recorded the Jewish learning facility's outgoing voice mail
message, replacing the
Americanized "birming-
HAM" pronunciation, so
offensive to the Anglo ear,
_O
with the proper "BIR-
0
mingum" inflection.
"When you pronounce it
`birming-HAM,' even
though it's spelled that way,
it doesn't sound right," he
said.
The 22-year-old Sofer was
born in Israel but grew up in
London. He is a former child
actor who played Malvolio in
Shakespeare's Twelfth Night
Ovadia Sofer at the
10 years before joining the
Birmingham Aish Center on Aish rabbinical seminary.
Old Woodward Avenue.
In the 10 weeks he's been
here, Sofer has impressed
Detroiters with more than his British accent. He has been
involved in all aspects of Aish's program to introduce the
Jewish experience to lightly observant Jews. He's taught
every Aish class at least once and has met with younger Aish
participants, encouraging them to bring along their friends.
Sofer has been working out of Aish's Birmingham center,
while living with programming director Rabbi Tzvi
Hochstadt in Oak Park. Sofer's impressions of Detroit?
"Big roads, big cars, big houses," he said. "I've been to West
Bloomfield and I've never seen so much land per person."
The Jewish community in London is over twice the size of
Detroit's," he said. "But there being few Conservative and
Reform synagogues, most people are either non-observant or
Orthodox." He was raised non-observant, but became fascinat-
ed with Judaism after attending a six-week Aish summer course
in Israel.
Sofer leaves Detroit on Tuesday, March 14, for a visit to
London before resuming his rabbinical studies in Jerusalem. 0

"My beauty's the fairest, you know,"
The queen said. "Snow White's gotta go!
So tell me I'm right."
The mirror said, "Not quite.
Tsevishen unz reddendik*, no!"

— Martha Jo Fleischmann

* (speaking) just between us

Why Does The Torah Command Us
To `Honor' Our Parents,
But Not To Love Them?

wo possible reasons exist for this: First, it is possi-
ble that the obligation to love your parents is
subsumed under the command to love your
neighbor (that is, since your parents are also in a
certain sense your neighbors, you are required to love them).
But the real reason, I believe, has to do with the Torah's
insight into human nature. Many people, both as adoles-
cents and adults, experience periods of alienation from their
parents. Almost all go through periods of ambivalence. This
is not surprising. Parents play so major a role in our lives
(among other things, they are our models of what it means
to be a man and a woman, a mother and a father, a hus-
band and a wife, and an adult), that inevitably we trace
some of our personal problems in relationships and our-
: selves to things our parents did or didn't do.
It is to provide us with a guideline during these peri-
1 ods of alienation and ambivalence, during which we
might not feel very loving, that the Torah enjoins us to
honor our parents, and to show a measure of respect .. .
If you are angry with your parents, express it. But put
fair limits on what you say. You are still bound, even
when enraged and even when you might not be feeling
love, by the requirement to show your parents honor.

Source: Excerptedfrom Rabbi Joseph Telushkin's "The Book
of Jewish Values," to be published in March by Bell Tower.

rsklar@thejewishnevvs.cOm
Check out JN Online at wwvv.detrohjewishnews.com and click
on Judaism 101 on the homepage.

— David Sachs,
Editorial Assistant

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