x

‘,4NI klaa 4,Nail.4.atrAki '43:4,940Mtaatt VP : A a pfO n .*

'

\..

-\\
on select vehicles on sale

on select models

\',

At Toyota of Bloomfield

ALL VEHICLES ON SALE

Discounts up to $5000

All rebates to dealer. 0% financing for tier one approved credit on select models for 36 months only.
Please see dealer for details.

MI MI MI

NMI NMI

l

■

MI

Spring Special

Clip

MIN MI

extended till April 26

OIL
CHANGE

Any Toyota Express Lube • in 29 Minutes or Less (or next one FREE)
No appointment necessary • Includes 12 point inspection
.IttuslyreLeat Loon .

MIN MI

ONO

MI

.1

(:e) 1765 Telegraph • 1 Mile North of Square Lake

Rd.
www. toyotaofbloomfield. corn

(248)333'3300

Attalf t ivof

/Ong*

or-sctsik
avarnavilk

irwt

Hours: M-F 9-6, Sat 9-3

TN

4/19
2002

62

to Your Administrative

Professionals.

The delicious way to say
"ThankYou" to your
Administrative Professionals
is with our unique,
hand-decorated
cookie arrangements

Ides by Design®

TWO LOCATIONS CERTIFIED KOSHER TO SERVE YOU!

Certified Kosher by Council Kashruth Supervision
Simsbury Plaza • 33250 W. 14 Mile • West Bloomfield • (248) 539-4029
In Southfield • 29211 Southfield Road N. of 12 Mile • (248) 483-9502

www.cookiesbydesign.com • www.cookiebouquet.com

form the substance of the book, along
with Mordechai's analysis, and reveal the
astounding breath of Mordechai's
knowledge of halachic literature and
sources. His intention was to present
this enormous body of knowledge in a
systematic form, and his students began
editing the work.
The task was not to be finished in
Mordechai's lifetime. On Aug. 1, 1298,
the Rindfleisch mob entered
Nuremberg. Mordechai, his wife, Selda,
and their five children were among the
728 Jews murdered that day.
Before Rindfleisch descended on
Nuremberg, he had been active 40 miles
west in Rothenburg. From June to July,
his supporters killed 469 Jews, practical-
ly annihilating the community.
Among the few survivors was Rabbi
Asher ben Yechiel (born about 1250),
the foremost student of Rabbi Meir.
When Rabbi Meir was imprisoned in
1286, Asher emerged as the acknowl-
edged leader of German Jewry. He soon
became known as Rosh, Hebrew for
"head."
Asher worked to protect and comfort
survivors of the massacres and laid down
legal decisions to help the many widows
and orphans. Because of his prominent
communal role, however, he feared that
the German rulers might try to do to
him what they did to Rabbi Meir —
put him in prison and hold him for ran-
som.
In 1303, Asher left Germany for
Spain. The following year, he arrived in
Barcelona, where Rabbi Shlomo ben
Avraham Adret (Rashba), one of the
greatest talmudic scholars of the time,
arranged in 1305 for the Rosh to
become rabbi of Toledo in Castile.
Asher soon was fluent in Spanish and
Arabic, the two languages commonly
spoken in Spain at the time. He under-
took to form a bridge between the
French and German schools of Torah to
that of Spanish halachic interpretation.
His piety, brilliant intellect and striving
for communal harmony soon made
Asher one of the leaders of Spanish
Jewry. Modeled on the work of Alfasi,
Asher's main halachic work is Piskei ha-

Rosh.
Throughout Asher's career, hundred of
religious questions from throughout
Spain came to him and more than 1,000
of these responsa were later published.
His yeshiva attracted students from
almost the entire Jewish world.
Asher was strongly opposed to philos-
ophy, which he found in profound con-
flict with the Jewish view of reality. At
the same time, he encouraged the study
of science.
Although invited by the rulers of
Germany to return there, he refused and
lived in Spain until his death in 1327. ❑