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GRAND OPENING COUPON 20% OFF COMPLETE DINNER ENTREE With Coupon Expires 5/31 /01 Dine in • Carry-Out • Catering Open Lunch & Dinner 7 Days Mon-Sat I 1-10 p.m....Sun 12 noon-9 p.m. Bangkok Sala Cafe 1M. THAI CUISINE I. Buy One Lunch or Dinner & Get a Second for 50% OFF One per customer • Expires 12/31/01 27903 Orchard Lake Rd. (NW corner of 12 Mile) Farmington Hills (248) 553-4220 j 5/25 2001 70 Open 7 days a week Mon-Sat 11 am -10 pm Sunday 4 pm - 9:30 pm Special to the Jewish News he current period in Jewish histo- ry has been compared to the time after the destruction of the Second Temple, when Jewish leaders looked around at their strange lands of exile and wondered how Judaism would sur- vive and interact with the new world. Modern Jews, for the most part, no longer have state sponsored anti- Semitism to define them and, especially in the United States, represent the most prosperous, assimilated generation in Jewish history. The Holocaust is fading into past history, and Israel is no longer the central focus of American Jewish attention. Where can Jews find meaning? To author Carol Ochs, the answer lies in their personal stories. In her new book, Our Lives As Torah (Jossey-Bass; $24.95), Ochs argues that those who are searching for God in modern life should not only look to ancient biblical stories but to the narrative of our own lives as nothing less than biblical parables. So, what elevates a personal story to the level of personal theology? For that, Ochs says, we need to almost remove ourselves from our own life, float above it and see it as a biblical story, even as a movie scene, broken apart into its components — lighting, scene and time period. Then take the narrative of your life and search your story for God's pres- ence. In that way, the Bible has more resonance, as we create our own per- sonal Torahs. "God's presence may turn us off, except that we have probably not defined what we mean by God since" Jewish religious classes, Ochs writes. "For now, let's say that we are seeking the aspect of the story that suggests we are part of something larger than our own life and effort. "We are looking for the element that turns our daily life into something of infinite worth. We search our own memories to discover where there has been wonder." We use our memo- ries to find who God is to us, and not neces- sarily who He was to biblical heroes or even our parents, Ochs explains. We "locate `the more' — the part of the story that cannot be accounted for by all the usual modes of explanation. Ultimately, we dis- cover that every carefully recollected event, in addition to being whatever it purports to be about, is also a story of God." It's a point that has been made by other modern Jewish thinkers, includ- ing Rabbi Irwin Kula, president of the New York-based CLAL: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, and Rabbi Irving "Yitz" Greenberg, chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. They have delved into a concept they call "holy secularity." "The rabbis, in response to the destruction of the Temple, expanded the concept of kedusha (holiness) from the Temple to the home," Kula told an interviewer last year. "The table becomes the altar, as does the hospital 1; ;3 , room when you visit the sick, or the bed when a couple make love, etc. "There is a constant expansion of kedusha, or covenantal con- sciousness," Kula con- tinued. "Where peo- ple are living their lives, in the so-called secular domain, that's the place where there is the most divine energy." The wonderful thing about Bible sto- ries is that even the ■ heroes have severe flaws and human frailties, just like the rest of us. Your flaws, your strengths, your triumphs, your failures, your suffering, your joy all are part of the narrative of your life. Have the "camera" pan back and your life is seen in the context of your family's narrative, your community's and the Jewish people's. Then look closely, and you'll see God in there. Viewing our lives as a kind of biblical narrative may work in our relatively comfortable lives, when we can step back from our emotional peaks and val- leys, and greater meaning can be given to them. But what about times of true suffering, of suffering without cause? The author provides inadequate explanation — especially for the Holocaust. You can see your successes and fail- ures in career, in relationships, as part of a larger narrative, but when we get into epic tragedy and unspeakable suf- fering on the level of the Holocaust, it A 111, 1. 4 VY P.1 3,C E .1 N E is