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Yiddish Limericks

: 1 'II I'

Iff

.

ilton Marwil says he was "a mere 80" when he
and his late wife; Lenore, drove their car to
California. Now at age 89, he has just
returned from taking a lengthy solo motor
trip out west — a feat only others
consider remarkable.
The West Bloomfield resident,
who founded Marwil's Book Store
in Detroit in 1948, has some
impressive statistics from his jour-
ney: 11 states, 2.5 months, 25
motels, two emergency rooms and
three parking tickets.
The tickets came from parking
on his cousin's street where "you
Milton Marwil
can't park for more than an hour."
The cousin is Lee Oppenheim, 91,
of Century City, Calif, the inspiration for Marwil's journey.
A Conservative Jew who belongs to Congregation B'nai
Moshe and Adat Shalom Synagogue, Marwil kept six
Shabbats and observed kashrut all along the way.
He went to a synagogue in Dallas and to others whenever
the walk wasn't too far from his hotel. He was surprised to
see a Lubavitcher shul in El Paso, Texas, a city that stands
out for him because of a wonderful deli.
Most of all, this was "a medical vacation," he says with a
laugh. His left foot, the one not used for driving his Buick
Riviera, swelled up and required an ultrasound in a Santa
Barbara emergency room. Then in El Paso, he hit his foot
going up a step and "found my pants full of blood." That
led to stitches and a decision not to continue north to see
the Indian reservations in butte country.
In Lexington, Ky., he stayed nine days with his son, Dr.
David Marwil. His family includes four more children: Dr.
Daniel Marwil of Providence, R.I.; Sarah Marwil Lamstein
of Newton, Mass.; Ann Kainan of Raanana, Israel; and Joel
Marwil of Farmington, and 10 grandchildren. Marwil
expects his first great-grandchild in April.
Something else he looks forward to this spring: the sec-
ond annual Lenore Marwil Jewish Film Festival, named for
his late wife, which begins April 30 through May 7, spon-
sored by the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan
Detroit. With his foot on the mend and warm weather corn-
ing, Marwil says he's content to stay home for now

Copy Editor
— Esther Tschirhart,

A great talmid chochem* named Fred
Observed, "It's not what's in your head
That counts. More than saichel"**
He said with a shmaichel,***

Me daif hobben mazel,**** instead."
— Martha Jo Fleischmann
* a learned scholar
** common sense
*** smile
**** you have to have luck

What Blessing Do You Make
Alter Going To The Bathroom?

I.,

any Jews are unaware of a blessing called the
asher yatzar, which is supposed to be recited

after every trip to the bathroom. The blessing is:
Blessed are You, Lord our God, Sovereign of
the Universe, Who has formed man in wisdom, and created
within him many openings and cavities. It is obvious and
known before Your throne of glory that if one of them were to
be ruptured or one of them blocked, it would be impossible to
survive and to stand before You. Blessed are You, God, Who
heals all flesh and does wonders.

Dr. Kenneth Prager of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital,
an Orthodox Jew, said he started to appreciate the bless-
ing's profundity in his second year of medical school.

"Pathophysiology brought home to me the terrible con-
sequences of even minor aberrations in the structure and
function of the human body. At the very least, I began no

longer to take for granted the normalcy of my trips to the
bathroom ... After seeing patients whose lives revolved
around their dialysis machines, and others with
colostomies and urinary catheters, I realized how wise
Rabbi Abbaye [the composer of the blessing] had been."

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

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GRAPEJEWZ .Mendel

DP THE
CH IC KEN CROSS THE

Be Someone's Hero

IS THIS NOT THE CL-A.cSIC

ROAP? 1PENTIT.9 CRISIS FOR ALL
? SHOULD CAE
Ai-1, A PROFOUND QUESTION, MODERN SE
STA
WITH
OUR
TRAP rnONS
BUT PERHAPS MORE PERTIN-
OR CROSS THE ROAD To THE
enrr is,llwouLp iNECNICKEN
GREAT UNKNOWN
NAVE BEM BETTER OFF
STA 11.)G PUT ?"

YUT I SAO, "NAY CONFUS-
E-7 LITTLE CHICKEN, STAY
ON ,YOUR 517E OF THE ROAD
WHERE THE SDI L IS SEEP AND
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NEXT
QUESTION, WHY

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ext. 349.

Because doing something
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PH, THE CHICKEN
NEE P THERA P ?

Helping people with disabilities
lead full, dignified lives

28366 Franklin Road
Southfield, MI 48034
jarc@jarc.org • www.jarc.org

TN -

3/24
2000

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