COMMUNITY VIEWS
Caring For Our Innocent Lambs
What Beauty Within Do You See?
mon of the Akeidah (Abraham's bind-
few days before Rosh
ing of his son Isaac), I could not help
Hashanah, I received a
but think that Leah, also, was an
phone call from Rabbi
innocent lamb caught up in a briar
Bunny Freedman of the
patch — society's briar patch. How do
Southfield-based Jewish Hospice and
the Leahs of our society
Chaplaincy Network. He
wind up living in an adult
asked if I could take a Jewish
foster-care home in Detroit?
woman, who was living in
Oh, yes, there are more
Detroit, to Rosh Hashanah
Leahs. Just ask Rabbi David
services.
Polter of the Jewish Chap-
Because I am active in the
laincy Network about his
Jewish chaplaincy program
visits on West Grand Boule-
and other adult programs in
vard in Detroit or elsewhere
the area, the call did not
in the inner city. Our
come as a surprise to me. It
beloved elders and emotion-
turned out that Leah lives in
JAY KORELITZ ally impaired are just
an adult foster-care home in
thrown away, tossed a bone
Special to
the Davison-Woodward area
now and then, such as a
the Jewish News
of Detroit, not exactly a bas-
visit by a rabbi or someone
tion of current-day Judaism.
to take them to shul and
After speaking with Rabbi
then home again. Shame on our Jew-
Freedman, I made contact with Leah's
ish financial community! Shame on all
social worker who, by law, was not
of us!
able to tell me much about Leah
I challenge Jewish News readers:
except to say that she was 52, had
Drive down Seven Mile Road near
lived with her parents all her life, that
Lahser in Detroit. Walk through the
her mother had died about two years
Arnold Home. See
ago and that Leah was
the Jewish names on
not dangerous.
the doors and ask
I decided to contact
yourselves,
"Why?
Rabbi Nelson and
a Conservative shul
Why are not the
since when Leah lived
of our commu-
with her parents, she
Congregation Beth Leahs
nity in Elan Village
attended B'nai David.
or Menorah House in
Congregation Beth
Shalom forever will Southfield or Danto
Shalom was the closest
Family Health Care
shul to where Leah
Center in West
be
remembered
by
lived so I called to see
Bloomfield?"
about tickets. It only
Do not come back
Leah for their
took 20 seconds of my
with an answer that
telling Rabbi David
there is no money
Nelson of my need for
kindness.
for them. That's a
holiday tickets before
cop-out. The real
he told his secretary to
reason is that when it
issue me two tickets — no questions,
comes down to the nitty-gritty, so
no restrictions. The rabbi was being
many of us care only about ourselves.
what a Jew should be — compassion-
Someone else will take care of the
ate and understanding, and willing to
Leahs.
help a fellow Jew in need.
Stop for a moment. Eliminate all
During services on Sunday, Rabbi
of your family from your imagina-
Nelson stopped where we were sitting,
tion. Become old and ill. Picture
introduced himself and welcomed
yourself living where Leah does.
Leah. "Baruch habefah," I can still hear
Impossible?
him say. "And make sure you come
This coming year, I urge all of
next week for Yom Kippur."
you to talk among your friends, talk
Rabbi Nelson and Congregation
in the committee meetings at your
Beth Shalom forever will be remem-
congregations. Find a solution to
bered by Leah for their kindness.
this problem.
Thank you, Rabbi Nelson; you are
We can bring thousands of Jews
truly a mentsh.
out of Ethiopia and Russia. Can we
not bring home a handful of our peo-
Caught By Briars
ple from a mere 10 miles away?
As Rabbi Nelson spoke during his ser-
Maybe we should wait until our
innocent lambs just die off? That
Jay Korelitz is a Farmington Hills resi-
would be a much more cost-efficient
dent and member of Temple Israel.
way of eliminating this problem.
The Torah, the Divine blueprint of
uring Sukkot, time and
creation, bids us to dwell in booths
space is in our hands. We
(Vayikra 23:42) so our generations
walk into a sukkah with
remember that God brought us out of
someone we love, with a
Egypt. The reminder is that God cre-
friend, with someone whose Divine
ates safe-places in the most trying of
nature we have discovered or have yet
times. As the Jews had their desert to
to discover. During the holiday of
traverse going out of Egypt,
Sukkot, we live permanently
we have moments when life
in our temporary booths,
seems a desert, when depres-
made of building materials
sion darkens our skies, when
for which there are no
nations are against us. Yet,
national codes, only the
this holiday, this Time of
codes of our tradition, our
our Rejoicing, Zrnan Sim-
best understanding of God's
chateinu, comes to uplift us
will for us, in our lives.
— that we are daily deliv-
Our entire selves
ered towards the freedom to
enveloped in air not of gases
walk in the ways of our
but of Divine light — we are
RABBI SCOTT God. At the end of Sukkot,
by our own free will, stand-
we express the hope to dwell
BO L TON
ing entirely inside a mitzvah
in booths decorated with
Spec ial to
— the commandment to be
the Skin of Leviathan, the
the Jezvi sh News
in a sukkah that surrounds
ancient sea serpent, a sym-
us entirely. Three or four
bol of the evil in the world,
walls not high enough to need perma-
undone by those who would carve
nent fixtures or foundations, a roof
thrones of righteousness from spears
covered with only natural branches,
of destruction.
once of the earth, more shade than
The building of a sukkah and the
sun, and us, inside it .. .
commandment to do so is the mod-
See that the stuff we are made of
eling of how we must build safe-
was once clay, and in the potter's hand
places for ourselves, our families, all
formed into a vessel for a holy
of humanity and the world. We put
neshamah, our Divine soul. Sukkot is
our sukkot in our yards to say "if
a time to contemplate the Divine. Do
you are hungry, come and eat; if you
we accept metaphors of white beards
are looking for a connection to your
and giant human proportions? Or is
people, re-live the experience with
God light, in the way one thought
us."
relates to another, traveling to our
God is saying to us at the holiday
tongues, then we talk — what won-
of Sukkot: "Children of Israel, in a
der!
sukkah that resembles the ones that
Raise the lulav and etrog in a
My children, your brothers and sis-
dance with the earth, a dance of who
ters, slept in on their journey
knows who leads and of the knowl-
through the desert, know Me and
edge that we are connected to our
see my Divine light when you come
planet in wondrous ways. We are dust
together to eat, to sleep and to
out of which the Holy One formed
laugh. When I brought you out of
all of humanity, and we are individu-
Egypt, I brought you out, individu-
als, loved and loving, here for a pur-
ally, as families, and as a people, to
pose, to work with God to continue
be a light unto each other and to be
bringing order and holiness to the
a light unto the world."
world.
In the Talmud, the rabbis ask:
We shake the lulav in every direc-
Did we dwell in physical booths
tion, up then down, to model our
when we were led through the
interconnectedness to everyone and
desert, or does dwelling in sukkot
every thing; we see the lulav as a sym-
mean that we slept and journeyed
bol of the unique role that we may
under the Wings of the Shechinah,
play in the world. While each lulav
the Presence of God in the world,
and etrog dance in a similar way, no
the Clouds of Glory (Sukkot 11 b)?
two branches are alike. What makes
Perhaps sitting in our sukkot, we
an etrog extra-beautiful to one is but a
will come closer to an answer; but,
bump to another; and, we are
Jewish spirituality lies more in the
required to ask each other: what beau-
questions for which there are no
ty within do you see?
hard and fast answers. Ch. ag
A
❑
D
Sameiach!
❑
Rabbi Scott Bolton is the new director
of community learning at Hillel Day
School of Metropolitan Detroit.
Related cover story begins on page 101