Synagogue
Listings
Torah
Portion
Looking For Proof
ESTHER ALLWEISS TSCHIRHART
Special to the Jewish News
p
art show and part lecture, Aish
Detroit's Discovery Seminar
drew 300 people Dec. 19 to
the Birmingham Theatre.
Many attending had responded to an
intriguing postcard that called Discovery
"a one-stop extraordinary multimedia
presentation that combines philosophy,
psychology, history and computer science
to take audiences on a journey into the
`why' of being Jewish." E-mail from the
New York-based organizers calling it "the
Jewish event of the year" created more
interest.
With its promise of enlightenment,
Discovery is "at the forefront of innova-
tive Jewish education," said Aish Detroit
Executive Director Rabbi Alon Tolwin,
whose Orthodox outreach organization,
Aish HaTorah, co-sponsors the Discovery
Productions seminars.
Three mathematicians at Technion-
Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa
created Discovery 15 year ago, said the
rabbi. The mathematicians brought a.sci-
entific approach to the Torah they hoped
would engage uninvolved, even skeptical
Jews. Since then, Rabbi Tolwin estimates
that "more than 100,000 individuals in
500 locations" have participated in
Discovery.
For the free seminars held several
times yearly in Detroit, Rabbi Tolwin's
office in Birmingham handles the venue,
registration and follow-up with partici-
pants, acquainting them with other
opportunities to learn about Judaism
through Aish.
Speakers at the Dec. 19 event were
psychologist Yaakov Salomon of New
York City and Eliyahu Bergstein of
Monsey, N.Y., a systems analyst on Wall
Street. Both travel frequently as volunteer
emissaries for Discovery, Rabbi Tolwin
said.
Divinely Written?
The presentation was interactive with the
audience. The speakers, taking turns as
"emcee," elicited individual responses
and often responded humorously. Power
Point slides (the "multimedia" aspect)
outlined the talk with visuals to illumi-
nate the night's question: "Why Be
Jewish?"
"The basis of our religion is a docu-
ment over 3,000 years old. Who wrote
it?" posed Salomon.
What followed was a rational examina-
tion of the Torah to determine its
authenticity as a divinely written docu-
ment, following analytical techniques
developed by the Israeli intelligence
agency Mossad.
With Salomon delivering the first and
third parts of the seminar and Bergstein,
a George Carlin sound-alike, in the mid-
dle, the audience was challenged to think
about passages in the Bible that might
indicate God's authorship.
Much of the program was devoted to
revealing prophetic codes in the sacred
text, with Bergstein noting how comput-
ers have accelerated this scholarly tradi-
tion. He pointed out patterns in names,
words and dates that could point to
events taking place years hence.
AISH'S ENTERTAINING DISCOVERY SEMINAR SEEKS
TO APPLY RATIONALITY TO BIBLE STUDY.
1/ 3
2003
38