Torah Portion

Like The Stars In The Sky,
We're Part Of Abraham's Vision

7400 Telegraph, Bloomfield Township, 48301, (248) 851-
1100. Rabbis: Daniel B. Syme, David Scott Castiglione.
Cantor: David Montefiore. Services: Friday 6 p.m., 7:30
p.m. Saturday 10:30 a.m. Sunday 9:30 a.m. Friday early
service a family Kabbalat service. Saturday bar mitzvah
of Andy Polen, son of Cathy and Bernie Polen.

8700. Rabbis: Dannel Schwartz, Michael L. Moskowitz.
Cantorial soloist: Penny Steyer. Services: Friday 8 p.m.,
Saturday 11 a.m. Friday bat mitzvah of Samantha
Chyette, daughter of Susan and Richard Chyette.
Saturday bar mnitzvah of Daniel Burnstein, son of
Deborah and Michael Burnstein. Ma'at Shabbat at 9:30
a.m.

TEMPLE BETH EL (FLINT)

REPORWRENEWAL

TEMPLE BETH EL (MIDLAND)

3900 Northfield Parkway, Troy, 48084, (248) 649-4418.
Rabbi: Arnie Sleutelberg. Services: Friday 7:45 p.m. Bar
mitzvah of Harry Greenstone, son of Robert and Anna
Greenstone.

TEMPLE BETH EL

5150 Calkins, Flint, 48532, (810) 720-9494. Rabbi:
Karen Companez. Cantorial soloist: Aleksander
Chernyak. Services: First Friday of the month 6:15 p.m.;
second Friday 8 p.m.; all other Fridays 8 p.m.

2505 Bay City Road, Midland, 48642, (517) 835-4822.
Guest teacher: Hal Greenwald. President: Stuart J.
Bergstein. Services: Friday 8 p.m. once a month.
Regularly scheduled High Holiday services for the tri-city
area.

TEMPLE BETH EMETH

2309 Packard, Ann Arbor, 48104, (734) 665-4744.
Rabbi: Robert D. Levy. Chazzan: Ann Zibelman Rose.
Services: Friday 8 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m. Family service
once a month at 7:30 p.m. replaces 8 p.m. Friday serv-
ice; call for specific dates.

BETH ISAAC SYNAGOGUE

2730 Edsel Dr., Trenton, 48183, (734) 675-0355.
Services: Friday 7:30 p.m. Congregational leaders con-
duct services throughout the year.

TEMPLE BETH ISRAEL

801 W. Michigan Ave., Jackson 49202; (517) 784-3862.
Rabbi: Jonathan V. Haut. Rabbi emeritus: Alan Ponn.
Chazzan: Evette Lutman. President: Dr. Cathy Glick.
Services: Friday 8 p.m. Saturday 10 a.m. the first
Saturday of the month.

CONGREGATION CHAYE OLAM

4875 W. Maple Road, Bloomfield Twp. 48301-2805,
(248) 851-7485. Cantor: Stephen L. Dubov. Services:
Friday 7:30 p.m. High Holiday services for unaffiliated.
Weekly Shabbat services 10:30 a.m. Religious school.
This week the Bel Canto Women's Chorale Society choir
will participate in the service.

TEMPLE EMANU EL

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14450 W. 10 Mile, Oak Park, 48237, (248) 967-4020.
Rabbi: Joseph R Klein. Cantor: Norman Rose. Services:
Friday 7:30 p.m. Saturday 10:30 a.m.

TEMPLE ISRAEL

5725 Walnut Lake, West Bloomfield, 48323, (248) 661-
5700. Rabbis: Harold S. Loss, Paul M. Yedwab, Joshua L.
Bennett, Marla Hornsten. Cantor: Lori Corrsin. Cantorial
soloist: Neil Michaels. Rabbinic intern: Jennifer Tisdale.
Services: Friday 7:30 p.m., 8 p.m. Saturday 10:30 a.m.
Friday early service baby naming of Riley Alexa Shapiro,
daughter of Brenda and Adam Shapiro. Later service
b'not mitzvah of Erin Goode, daughter of Carolann and
Robert Goode; Ariel Oppenheim, daughter of Carol and
Philip Oppenheim. Saturday b'nai mitzvah of Eric
Tugender, son of Elyse Tugender and the late David
Tugender; Hillary Shapiro, daughter of Judith Shapiro
and Jeff Shapiro. Alternative service bar mitzvah at 11
a.m. of Eric Busch, son of Ellen Busch and Gary Busch.

TEMPLE KOL AMI

5085 Walnut Lake, West Bloomfield, 48323, (248)
661-0040. Rabbi: Norman T. Roman. Rabbi emeritus:
Ernst J. Conrad. Cantorial soloist: Susan Greener.
Services: Friday 6 p.m. Saturday 10:30 a.m.

CONGREGATION SHIR TIKVAH

SECULAR 1117112ANISTIC

THE BIRMINGHAM TEMPLE

28611 W. 12 Mile, Farmington Hills, 48334, (248) 477-
1410. Founding rabbi: Sherwin T. Wine. Rabbis: Tamara
Kolton, Adam Chalom. Services: Friday 8 p.m.

JEWISH CULTURAL SOCIETY

2935 Birch Hollow Drive, Ann Arbor, 48108-2301, (734)
975-9872. Board president: Karla Rice. School principal:
Ramona Brand. Shabbat services first Friday of every
month 7:30 p.m.; cultural Jewish celebrations, secular
bar/bat mitzvah programming, cultural Sunday school.

JEWISH PARENTS INSTITUTE

JCC, 6600 W. Maple, West Bloomfield, 48322, (248) 661-
1000. Director: Marilyn Wolfe. Alternative cultural Jewish
celebrations; secular bar/bat mitzvah ceremonies; adult
programming; cultural Sunday school from nursery
through teen.

SHOLEM ALEICHEM INSTITUTE

28690 Southfield, Suite 293, Lathrup Village, 48076,
(248) 423-4406. Co-presidents: Alva Dworkin, May
Moskowitz. Holiday observances; Friday night oneg
Shabbat; cultural events.

WORKMEN'S CIRCLE ARBETER
RING

26341 Coolidge, Oak Park, 48237, (248) 545-0985.
Chair: Arlene Frank. Michigan district director: Ellen R.
Bates-Brackett. Year round holiday observances, Nokh
Shabbes Havdalah once a month; secular bar/bat mitz-
vah; Sunday school.

SEPHARDIC

KETER TORAH SYNAGOGUE

5480 Orchard Lake Road, West Bloomfield, (248) 681-
3665. Rabbi: Michael Cohen. Services: Friday at candle-
lighting time; Saturday 9 a.m., Minchah 1 1/4 hours
before the end of Shabbat; Sunday 9 a.m.; Monday 7
a.m.; Wednesday 9 p.m., Thursday 7 a.m., 9 p.m.

TRADITIONAL

B'NAI DAVID

6346 Orchard Lake Road, Suite 100, West Bloomfield,
48322, (248) 855-5007. Cantor: Ben-Zion Lanxner.
Services: Saturday 9 a.m. Haftorah, William lcikson.

IVDNYANS

FLEISCHMAN RESIDENCE

6710 W. Maple, West Bloomfield, 48322, (248) 661-
2999. Rabbi: Avie Shapiro. Minchah Monday Thursday
5:30 p.m.; Sunday, Shabbat Schacharit 9:15 a.m.

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CONGREGATION SHAAREY
ZEDEK

1924 Coolidge, East Lansing 48823, (517) 351-3570.
Rabbi Emeritus: Morton Hoffman. Rabbi: Richard
Baroff. Cantor: Pamela Jordan Schiffer. Services:
Friday 8 p.m. Saturday 9 a.m.

TEMPLE SHIR SHALOM

3999 Walnut Lake, West Bloomfield, 48323, (248) 737-

YES HIVAT AKIVA

21100 W. 12 Mile, Southfield, 48076 (248) 386-1625.
Services: During the school year, morning services at
7:30 a.m.; afternoon services at 2:40 p.m. The commu-
nity is invited.

something different, something
spectacular.
I'm not an astronomer, but I love
to watch the nighttime sky. It is
both humbling and inspiring. A gift
that we can give our children is an
appreciation of that experience. As
Ann Arbor
we share it with them, we can
everal of my favorite movies
remind them of their responsibility
focus on the same subject:
The search for intelligent
to protect the Earth and the atmos-
phere so that future generations will
life beyond Earth.
One of these films, Contact,
be able to see, as clearly as we can,
the miracles of the heavens.
explicitly presents a theme that lies
In Lech Lecha, God takes
a bit below the surface in the other
movies. That idea is the
Abraham outside of his
fact that human beings are
tent to look at the sky and
complex creatures: so small
envision the future of his
people. God compares the
compared to the vastness
countless stars to
of space and yet with such
tremendous abilities. In
1 Abraham's descendants
who will be as numerous
Contact, one character
as the stars in the sky.
sums this up by expressing
But, perhaps, it isn't
the fact that he likes living
only numbers at issue.
in a space station because
his little room has a terrific
Perhaps God wanted
RABBI ROBERT
view.
Abraham to go outside so
DOB RUSIN
that he could appreciate
This statement reflects
Specia 1 to the
the fact that each of his
the status of all human
Jewish News
descendants would be like
beings. We are all little
the stars, each one a world
rooms with extraordinary
into and unto ourselves, joining
views, and the psalmist said it best:
with others to make a display of
"What is the human being that you
beauty rivaling the expanse of the
take account of him? Yet, you have
heavens.
made him a little lower than the
Perhaps God took Abraham out-
angels and crowned him with glory
side so that he could appreciate the
and honor." We are a curious mix-
fact that each of his children could
ture of mortality and spirit, of real-
dream great dreams but should
istic limitations and limitless
always remain humble when realiz-
dreams.
ing his or her place in the universe.
One of the ways in which we can
Perhaps God took Abraham out-
most readily appreciate this paradox
side to teach him that sometimes
is by walking outside on a starlit
we have to step out of our little
night and contemplating the
rooms to appreciate the great things
expanses of the heavens. It is no
we are capable of.
coincidence that the verse before
God said to Abraham, "Go
the psalmist's expression about the
forth." We should respond to God's
human being reads: "When I con-
command to Abraham and step out-
template the heavens, the works of
side, literally and figuratively, to
Your fingers."
enjoy and be inspired by what God
There are few sights as stirring as
has created for us. ❑
the sight of a sky filled with the
light of the stars, so distant and yet
each one a world unto itself.
This summer, the planet Mars
came the closest to Earth in tens of
In Biblical times, people might
thousands of years. Many of us took
have
been inclined to think of
the time to look at this bright
the
stars
and other natural phe-
object in the sky. It was a special
nomena
as
gods themselves.
moment, but not unique. Each year,
How
can
Nye
continue to admire
there are many opportunities to
the stars and yet see them as evi-
look into the night sky and see
dence of God's creation? In what
other ways are human beings like
Robert Dobrusin is rabbi of
the stars in the sky?

Shabbat Lech Lecha:
Genesis 12:1-17:27;

Isaiah 40:27-41:16

S

Conversations

Congregation Beth Israel in Ann Arbor.
His e-mail address is
rdobrusin@bethisrael_aa.org

11/ 7
2003

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