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PRESENTS
Fiddler
The Fact Of The Matter
W
Photo by Gary Mi ller
hy does Rosh Hashanah (Head of the Year)
come before Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)?
That's a fair question, especially since it seems
to make sense that repentance should
precede celebration. You want to start
off the new year with a clean slate, so
shouldn't Divine forgiveness for the past
year's sins come first?
If you think of it in terms of growing
up, there's logic in listening to the story
of the world again and applying the uni-
versal truths it teaches to your individual
Rabbi Friedman life.
So says Rabbi Mannis Friedman,
dean of Bais Ghana Women's Institute in St. Paul, Minn.,
and his explanation makes perfect sense.
"Growing up, we first listen to the facts as set down
by our parents; there's no theory. Then as teenagers, we
want to make the whole thing personal by asking 'Why
does it affect me? How do I fit in?"' he told 300 guests at
the Sarah Tugman Bais Chabad Torah Center's annual
dinner Sept. 19 at the Jewish Community Center in
West Bloomfield.
Using that analogy, he explained that on Rosh
Hashanah, we recount "the basic facts of life" as set down
by God. Then on Yom Kippur, we interject emotion and
theory. "That's when every person has to make these
facts their own," he said.
With that, I began to understand that the reason God
created a new year was to allow us to make changes, for
, the better, in our lives — for sweeter, more productive
times.
With facts in hand, we're equipped to fix problems. But,
the rabbi noted, "there is no forgiveness if we haven't refo-
cused on the facts."
"And in view of these facts, we may feel bad about how
we treated God in the past year."
So we reaffirm the facts on Rosh Hashanah and bare
our soul on Yom Kippur.
Judaism thrives because of the facts — the Torah
wisdom — we share as Jews. For 3,300 years, since
God first delivered the facts at Mount Sinai, we've
clung together because, as Rabbi Friedman so sagely
put it, "we know that when the chips are down, we
can go back to the facts." D
— Robert A. Sklar, editor
Itelit6 f
By Goldfein
© 2000
osh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is but one of
four new years on the Jewish calendar. Passover serves
as the new year for the counting of sheep. In the
summer is a new year for marking the reign of the Jewish
kings. Do you know the name of the new year that falls in
early spring in Israel?
fo 43,9A (nw
wmacts,q nii WWI :43insuy
Yiddish Limericks
A henpecked man said, "My advice
Is honey for New Year's is nice;
But, somehow I reckon
The hunik tsu lecken*
I get all year long should suffice!"
— Martha Jo Fleischmann
* (literal) honey to lick
(idiomatic) row to hoe, rough time
Quotables
"The Russians brought their training techniques, and a disci-
pline and seriousness that we did not have in Israel before."
— Golan Hazani, Olympic sports correspondent for Yediot
Aharonot, Israel's biggest daily newspaper, on the large number
of former Soviet emigres on the Israeli team.
"When you revisit the Torah portion each year, you view it
differently because of what has gone on in your life. The
words of the Torah don't change; you do."
— Alan Freedman, second-career rabbinic student at Hebrew
Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati,
in the fall issue of Reform Judaism magazine.
"[Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser] Arafat directs people,
but he doesn't tell them what he's thinking. He's a shrewd tacti-
cian, and he keeps his cards close to his chest. He's an expert in
brinksmanship."
— Iyad Sarraj, a Palestinian psychologist
and human rights activist in Gaza City.
GRAPEJEWZ BY Mendel
HI ALAN, t-H RUTH!
HI GERRY, HI 0- UP!
se RviCES
ARE OVER,
CAN WE
GO NOW?!
O.K.,
0-0N, (--H LISA!
NI DAN, Hi CLAIRE!
COME ON ! 410/6
BEEN MERE
FoR HooRs!
LET'S Go
HOME!
HI MICNAEL,NI TWA!
HI SA COB, HI REE3ECCA!
t ICA"
NOW I KNOW
WHY THEY CALI-
THEM THE
I " HOL8 DA B S
starring
cojeodore
OiRel
OCTOBER 24
OCTOBER 25
FISHER THEATRE
7:30 P.M.
YOUNG ADULT PRE-GLOW
(AGES 20 TO 40)
Wednesday, October 25
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Fisher Building
5:3o to 7:0o p.m.
Courtesy of Qe Lcans-
For information call the
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248-352-5277, ext. 418.
WIN TWO TICKETS* TO
FIDDLER BY CORRECTLY
ANSWERING:
WHAT IS TEVYE'S
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Wednesday, Oct. 4. Include your
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//M AR,
A Jewish Association for Residential Care
28366 Franklin Road Southfield, MI 48034
MICS 4209
2000
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