The Great
Purim Parcel
Project zoo

Torah Portion

Making A Dwelling Place
For The Spirit Of God

Sunday,
February 17, 2002

9:30 a.m. - 3 p.m.

ways that YOU can

T

"Repair illelivorki

MAKE Mishloach Manot Parcels at home!

BRING your completed Mishloach Manot!

MAKE Mishloach Manot Parcels with us!

TAKE your Mishloach Manot parcels!

from the Max M. Fisher Federation Building
to places like: Shalom Detroit Newcomers, 0111
Jewish New Americans, Residents of
various senior facilities, families of Jewish
hospice patients, and many others!

Adults and Kids!
Please come in costume!

Repairing
WQrld "
Together!

For information, call the JEFF office

at (248) 645-7860.

WE'RE PART OF THE TEAM

THE

RBAN
COLLECTION

In Fabulous, Fashionable Downtown Ferndale

Hirschel and Toni Levine welcome you to fashionable downtown Ferndale.
We now offer an eclectic montage of home furnishings as well as handcrafted gifts and jewelry.
Come see what's uniquely new, comfortably vintage or just plain funky.

phone 248-399-9449

2296 I Woodward Avenue,
Ferndale, Michigan 48220
urbancollect@aol.com

fax 248-399-9943

Control Your Closet

DESIGN • INSTALLATION • SERVICE

` 6(/ / / / i

CLo s E DF sIc \ s

"The only call you need to make for the perfect closet".

Phone (248) 851 2804 for a personal appointment

-

Former! Desi: ter & Owner o The Closet Corn 'any

2/15

2002

56

support our community's Great
Purim Parcel Project; during the
year we give help to Yad Ezra, the
local kosher food pantry; and we
help the Meals on Wheels program
Even a contribution to a tzedakah
box prior to Shabbat is a true gift.
Second, we can take as a daily
hey shall make a sanctuary
task the building of our Jewish
for Me so that I may
homes and families and the care of
dwell among them."
our aging parents. Encourage the
(Exodus 25:8)
visiting of elderly in nursing homes;
The Torah portion this week
it is incumbent on us to remember
details the construction of the sanc-
all of our seniors.
tuary, a visible emblem to the peo-
Next, we can work to
ple that God dwells among
protect
our children from
them.
negative influences that
The Tabernacle was a
are contrary to our basic
portable structure, primari-
ideals.
Support such pro-
ly a tent, with an outer
grams
as
our Jewish day
court, an altar for sacrifice
schools, the Holocaust
and the tabernacle proper.
Memorial Center in West
In the wilderness that
Bloomfield and syna-
was Sinai, Moses mobilized
gogues.
the Jewish people to con-
Though it is always eas-
tribute physical, mental and
ier
to give in, to overlook,
SY MANELLO
financial resources to pro-
to
rationalize,
we owe it to
duce a sanctuary in . which
Editorial Assistant
ourselves
and
our
posterity
the Divine presence could
to
consciously
preserve
a
dwell.
religious idealism to maintain the
Moses is commanded, "Tell the
Divine presence in our homes.
Israelite people to bring Me gifts.
Judaism is not an organization we
You shall accept gifts from every
join to get the benefits of belonging.
person whose heart so moves him."
It is a vibrant process that demands
The gifts to be brought are gold, sil
our continued investment. As we
ver and copper, blue, purple and
give of ourselves, we become active
crimson yarns, fine linen, goats'
partners with God; we are partici-
hair, dolphin skins and acacia
pating in the great covenant He
wood."
made with us. We create holiness in
We must ask ourselves about
our lives one small detail at a time,
these gifts. Why does God, the cre-
one small task after another.
ator of the heavens and earth, need
Holiness can be found in doing
gold, silver, colored yarns and fine
everyday things with attention and
wood? It is, I believe, not the gifts
love.
God wants from the people, but
This is the gift we are to bring to
rather the giving.
0.
the Tabernacle of our faith. This is
This element of volunteerism for
how we make room for God and
the donations ("from every person
make real the words of God to
whose heart so moves him") places i t
Moses: "Let them make Me a sanc-
beyond the specific mandates of
tuary that I may dwell among
Halachah (Jewish law). The dona-
them.T1
tion is worthy of God's approval
when it is motivated by the spirit of
true generosity. A problem today is
that we are so full of our own selves
that there is little room to house
God. We must make a genuine
effort to turn our hearts to making a
Why did God want the people
"home" for the Divine presence.
to build the mishkan (sanctu-
How do we do this?
ary)
in the first place? Can any-
First, we can see to it that we
thing really contain God? What
serve, as best we can, those who are
qualities should be in a home,
in need; the image of God we see
and its inhabitants, for God's
should be in the face of a neighbor.
presence to be realized here?
At Passover, we help others
through moat chitim (a special fund
to help the needy); on Purim, we

Shabbat Terumah:
Exodus 25: I -27: 19;
I Kings 5:26-6:13.

.,A "411k
.

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