For Openers
Hairy, Harried and Harassed
A
t first, Blake Levine's parents
weren't quite sure about the
hairy mitzvah project their 11-
year old son chose to take on.
But recognizing Blake's determination,
they encouraged him — especially after he
was teased — to remember his goal and
whom he was helping.
SHARON
Blake grew his hair long for a cause.
LUCKERMAN
It started last year when Rachel
Staff Writer
Buckman, his Hebrew teacher at Hillel
Day School of Metropolitan Detroit, told
her class about_how she was growing her
hair long for Locks of Love, a program that
makes hairpieces for financially disadvantaged children suf-
fering from long-term medical-related hair loss.
Blake, of Franklin, and two girls at the Farmington Hills
school were determined to do the same.
It eventually took Blake 18 months to grow his hair 11
inches long, and inch longer than the required minimum.
But what he didn't realize when he started was the nega-
tive reaction he would get for his good work.
"Some kids made fun of me and called me a girl. I
would ignore them or tell them why I did it — and most
would stop," he said.
Sometimes, strangers accidentally mistook him for a girl
— . such as the time he went to the men's room and was
told the women's restroom was next door. They usually
apologized.
But his experiences taught him an important lesson, he
said.
"I learned that sometimes you should do something even
if people try to put you down," he said.
Levine's mother recognized other lessons her son, now
12, had learned.
"Whereas Blake made a conscious decision to alter his
appearance, the children that he is donating his hair to
have no choice," she said.
"We're very proud of our son's strength and commit-
ment and hope that through this mitzvah we can all learn
to be more sensitive to others regardless of their outward
appearance."
Because of the long length of his endeavor, Blake's per-
sonal mitzvah eventually became one of his bar mitzvah
projects. A member of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield,
he will become a bar mitzvah next August.
© 2003
IV
bile Jews of European
ancestry are forbidden
from eating chametz —
bread or breads prod-
ucts — and kitniyot — certain beans
— on Passover, there is a slight differ-
ence in each prohibition. What is it?
—Goldfein
•ani2
pasEq-aoiCwanT E 2u!sn JO sloe'
ulatp 2urpaaj an 'magi ulcaj luauaq
pool-uou E 3ATIQp LIED QUO ‘lokulpT
autaviaAtstry
2up-ea upaij
notables
"We have to ask ourselves why the
Palestinians are so obdurate; the
answer is that they regard internation-
al law, which we prance around wav-
ing, the law which gave us all this, as
a Western invention by the Western
power that dominated international
politics in the 20th century.
Therefore, they think, it doesn't apply
to them. They never agreed to it.
They never accepted it."
— Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, whose
memoir, 'A Jew in America," was pub-
lished last year by Harper San
Francisco.
Yiddish Limericks
It just wasn't Dracula's day.
Seems nothing was going his way.
But with night's arrival,
He felt a revival ...
Fun tate lebedik, *you might say!
— Martha Jo Fleischmann
Shabbat Candlelighting
"Just as the flame reaches upward, so too does the soul try to reach
upwards toward the heavens. Shabbos is the day to set aside the
mundane activities and allow the soul to reach toward God."
— Dr. Aharon (Jeffery) Meer, Oak Park
10/31
2003
10
Sponsored by Lubavitch
Women's Organization.
To submit a candlelighting
message or to receive
complimentary candlesticks
and information on Shabbat
candlelighting, call Miriam
Ainzalak of Oak Park at
(248) 548-6771 or e-mail:
maniza&k@juno.com
Candlelighting
Candlelighting
Friday, Oct. 31, 5:09 p.m
Friday, Nov. 7, 5:01 p.m.
Shabbat Ends
Saturday, Nov. 1, 6:10 p.m.
Shabbat Ends
Saturday, Nov. 8, 6:02 p.m.
* (literal) from dead to alive
(idiomatic) dramatically improved
Yiddish-isms
vitz
A pointed piece of humor, a witticism,
a wisecrack.
Source: From The New Joys of Yiddish
by Leo Calvin Rosten, edited by
Lawrence Bush, copyright 2001, by
the Rosten Family LLC. Used by per-
mission of the Rosten Family LLC.