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.