EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

In Search Of Healing

I n the chilly hours and minutes of uncertainty — when we're hurting
physically, emotionally or spiritually — we're most vulnerable.
It is then that we're most apt to reach into our souls and upward to
God to help heal the pain in our hearts.
It is then that we're most apt to want to feel God's breath on our
breath — and be invigorated by God's spirit flowing through us.
As Cantor Lori Corrsin put it at a special healing service at
Temple Israel in West Bloomfield last Shabbat: "We all are can-
dles lit by the breath of God."
It was Temple Israel's first healing service. Adat Shalom
Synagogue in Farmington Hills will hold its first healing lecture
at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, on June 28, to complement the healing
services it already offers.
ROBERT A.
I suspect this trend toward organized healing experiences will
continue as more of us begin to search for respite from the rig-
SKLAR
ors we confront in our everyday lives.
Editor
The mitzvah of healing takes many forms. For example, we
can care for the sick, comfort the forlorn or console the bereaved. Or we can
feed the hungry, house the homeless or inspire the skeptics.
But it doesn't stop there.
We also can heal others, and ourselves, through the power of prayer — judi-
cious prayer.
Praying for a fancy car when we're cash-starved, a promotion when we're lazy
or a good grade when we haven't studied is just plain silly.
But we can pray for peace, courage, strength and perspective. And healing
prayers often bring renewed hope. Says Temple Israel's Rabbi Paul Yedwab: "We're
not exactly sure how they work, but we know they are somewhat based on faith."
\Thich makes sense because Judaism is a faith-based religion.

Changing
6
6 Role

Adat Shalom's healing lecture is a memorial to Dr. Fred
Benderoff, whose family ties to the synagogue go back 50 years.
The devoted family physician, and doting husband, father and
grandfather, died at age 71 in 1999, just 10 months after learn-
ing he had metastatic stomach cancer.
The Southfield man was a medical traditionalist, but he
tAk
responded to his unfamiliar role as a gravely ill patient by going
Dr.
Benderoff
to one of Adat Shalom's new healing services. It proved to be
great therapy. It also prompted him to open up and share his
expertise and insights with others thirsting for help.
One of his daughters, Bloomfield Township's Ilene Kovan, recalls how the
diagnosis of terminal cancer affected her father, who had always been robust.
"He was just so sick, but he had such a positive outlook, taking each day as it
came and getting the fullest out of each day. He had to change how he lived,
but he lived with the same enthusiasm and was there to reach out to others. He
just had a way, a really strong presence.
The first Dr. Fred Benderoff Memorial Healing Lecture will feature New York
City Rabbi Simkha Y. Weintraub, a popular speaker who wrote the book
Healing of Soul, Healing of Body.
Like Temple Israel's healing service, the Benderoff lecture will appeal to any-
one who wants to know more about beating illness or trying rimes by tapping
into the spring waters of healing.
The seed for the Temple Israel healing service came from Synagogue 2000, a
nationwide push to make synagogues more relevant and engaging.
The Adat Shalom Caring Community-hosted memorial lecture sprang from
the Benderoff family's wish to memorialize a loved one in a life-sustaining way.
A rich vein of hope links the two events, each prepped to inspire people who
are hurting physically, emotionally or spiritually.
Together, these events celebrate life — and how not to let a weakened body
obliterate a still-vibrant soul. D

Related story: page 47

LETTERS

Letters are posted
and archived on JN Online:
www.detroitjewishnews.com

Justice, Closure
And Memory

I am not a proponent of the death
penalty and do not subscribe to the
biblical teachings of an eye for an aye.
Having said that, I empathize with
the families of the Oklahoma City
victims who suffered a tremendous
loss. With the execution of Timothy
McVeigh (Dry Bones, June 15, page
33), most of them seemed relieved
that they finally achieved justice and
closure only because we are living in a
free country where justice prevails.
However, I know that they can never
forget.
Being a Nazi Holocaust survivor, I
have endured a very similar predica-
ment. The Nazis annihilated millions
of human beings, including most of
my family. There are thousands of
perpetrators of those crimes against
humanity, who, unlike Timothy
McViegh, never came to justice: Some
of them came to this country illegally,
living among us, masquerading as
ordinary citizens. The Jewish News has
printed articles about them.
It pains me a great deal to finally
realize that we, the remaining sur-
vivors, will never achieve justice or
closure. Our loved ones were inciner-
ated in the crematoria; consequently,
we have no cemeteries to memorialize
them.
Sam Offen,
West Bloomfield

Bais Chabad
Keeps Trip

Pursuant to your article about cancel-
lations of trips to Israel ("Travel
Furor," June 15, page 25), we are
proud to inform you that the Sara
Tugman Bais Chabad Torah Center's
summer trip to Israel July 4-16 is con-
tinuing as scheduled with not one sin-
gle cancellation due to the current sit-
uation in Israel.
There are still openings available to
participate in all or part of the -trip.
People who are already in Israel are
invited to join our excursion, our
Shabbat experience or other pro-
grams.
Rabbi Elimelech Silberberg
West Bloomfield

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LETTERS on page 6

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6/22

2001

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