80 years and 3 generations
of quality paint-making makes us...

We're a paint store
and more!

Paint
Smart

premium coatings,

We feature

custom colors,
classic supplies,

home & garden

accessories,

antiques,
architectural

artifacts,
books to inspire,
comfortable chairs

and an expert who

cares.

Confused
about colors?
We make
house calls!

Let us help you with

your next project!

Paint Smart Studio
546 North Pontiac Trail

(Just South of Maple
(15 Mile Rd)
Walled Lake, MI
48390

248.960.6700

Fax: 248.960.6325
www.paintsmart.net

A new concept for a
traditional product
brought to you by

1920 in Detroit: Great Grandpa & Grandpa Craigie
helping customers.

FRUSTRATED
WITH SALES RESULTS?

BEFORE YOU OR YOUR SALESPEOPLE GO
ON THAT NEXT APPOINTMENT, ASK YOURSELF:

• In trying to get this order; ' have you already given away your knowledge of how
to solve the customer's problem?

• Was your presentation done before your prospect had really qualified?

• As you read this, is your proposal being shopped around town?

answer means prospects are in control of how you sell. We call it "going down
the Wimp Track"; the prospect gets your valuable ideas for free, then uses them to pit you

Any yes

against your competition. He requests more free information and, finally, since you have
been so nice, allows you unlimited unreturned calls to his voice mail.

There is a better way. A way that gets you more business with less unpaid consulting and
that works with almost any personal style. A way that does not involve a collection ofunre-

alistic, memorized closes.

That better way is the GERRY WEINBERG & ASSOCIATES way: a nontraditional, compre-
hensive business system that is working for clients in more than 230 industries and pro-
fessions. So well, in fact, that of the "Eight Great Sales People" cited by a recent major
midwest magazine as "Super Sellers," foul are using the GERRY WEINBERG &
ASSOCIATES system.

r more information, or to reserve your place at our next complimentary

As heard on

WWJ Radio
and seen in the

Wall Street
Journal

41 5/26

2000

76

Executive Briefing, please call Rebecca at (248) 299-9630.
Business

NON-TRADITIONAL SAL-ES TRAINING

GERRY WEINBERG & ASSOCIATES

Torah Portion

The Blessings Of Compliance,
The Threats Of Complacency

tion and commitment, of saying "no" to
certain impulses, of saying "yes" to cer-
tain obligations. Judaism has never
promised ease for a moment's devotion.
It has never sought to lure converts with
the glittering attractions of comfort,
convenience and eternal bliss.
Judaism does not promise an easy
his week's sedra (Torah por-
life, but a good life; not a comfortable
_tion), referring to the laws
life, but a life of value and meaning; not
which the Hebrew people are
to follow, states a promise: "If an untroubled life, but a sacred one.
This truth needs emphasis in our
you walk by My laws and guard My
time;
a sense of realism has been pre-
commandments and fulfill them, then
empted
by the more tangible and visi-
you will be blessed."
ble aspects of our life.
On the other hand, it
Science, business, and poli-
relates, if you disobey God's
tics — these are deemed real.
commandments, the most
"I'm realistic," a man says,
horrible consequences will fol-
"not religious, so Rabbi, we
low — disease, hunger,
must be practical."
famine, war, drought and a
In the judgement of the
host of other horrors.
Torah
and the prophets, the
The sedra is meant to
spiritual universe of values
shatter our complacency, so
and moral laws is as real as
that we feel the tensions of
the world our eyes see. To dis-
life — between what we are
RABBI IRWIN regard the basic rules of
and what we can become,
GRO NER
morality in the name of lust
between what he habitually
Specia
1 to the
or power or unlawful gain is
do and what we should be
Jewish News
to violate those laws and stan-
doing, between the Jewish
dards upon which the very
lives we are leading and the
structure
of
our society is built.
Jewish lives we could be leading.
There is a heroic quality in religion, a
For those who are disturbed and who
quality that is not emphasized enough.
are laden by sorrow and distress, we
You must lead a certain kind of life,
express the hope that religion will bring
restrain your appetites, train your mind.
comfort. But for those who are too
You must educate yourself in the experi-
comfortable, we voice the plea that reli-
ences of faith and love through prayer
gion should disturb us, so that we can
and deed, act and attitude.
be worthy of divine blessing.
It is a great "if with which the por-
Tradition ordains that this passage
tion begins. Consolations of faith can be
be read rapidly from the Torah in an
attained only by those who are willing
undertone, so painful is its content.
to submit to the discipline of religion.
Why, then, this liturgy of punish-
It is not a matter of saying a few
ment?
words or raising a hand to indicate
For the Bible, the core of life is
acceptance when an evangelist calls for
moral. God has hammered into the very
those who want to be saved. We
structure of the universe the principles
believe that religion is true and serious
of justice and right. Since we live in a
and makes demands. It is dedication,
universe of law, there must be penalties
commitment, work and study. It is
and sanctions for violating the law.
saying "no" to certain impulses, it is
But this message needs to be under-
saying "yes" to obligations; it is saying
stood personally. Religion makes
"no" to the evil inclination, it is saying
demands on each of us, on the commu-
"yes" to duty. 0
nal life we share, on the society of which
we are a part. Religion deserves our
respect and our commitment not only
because of the benefits it brings, but also
because it provides a true picture of our
place in a moral universe.
Should one expect a reward for
This week's sedra begins with a great
foregoing an evil impulse for an
"if." In order to reap the rich harvest of
obligation, and punishment for
reward, you must lead a certain kind of
the opposite? Why are the laws of
life, you must fulfill your moral respon-
Judaism comforting to some and
sibility, your spiritual potential.
upsetting to others? What purpose
Religion makes demands of dedica-
does Judaism serve by demanding
so much of its followers?
Rabbi Irwin Groner is senior rabbi at

Shabbat Bechukotai:
Leviticus 26•3-27•34;
Jeremiah 16:19- 17: 14 .

T

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Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield