Torah Portion / Synagogues
The Hobgoblin Of Sacred Minds
Shabbat Naso:
Numbers 4:21-7:89;
Judges 13:2-25.
IV hile watching ESPN
SportsCenter during my
morning run at the
Jewish Community
Center, I channel surfed over to The
Ellen DeGeneres Show in time to see
her interview Cynthia Nixon, a star of
the recently completed Sex and the City
series on cable's HBO.
During the interview, Nixon men-
tioned her 7-year-old daughter, and
Ellen asked her what her daughter
thought about the show. Nixon said,
"We don't have a TV in our house. We
don't let our children watch broadcast
TV."
I almost fell off my treadmill. A
woman who starred in one of the most
risque, provocative and lurid television
shows in history admitted that she
wouldn't expose her child to her own
show. I wonder: If Sex and the City isn't
Reuven Spolter is rabbi of Young .
Israel of Oak Park. His e-mail address
is rabbispolter@yiop.org
CONSERVATIVE
ADAT SHALOM SYNAGOGUE
29901 Middlebelt, Farmington Hills, 48334, (248) 851-
5100. Rabbis: Daniel Nevins, Herbert Yoskowitz. Cantor:
Howard Glantz. Rabbi emeritus: Efry Spectre. Cantor
emeritus: Larry Vieder. Services: Friday 6 p.m.;
Saturday 9 a.m., 8:45 p.m.; weekdays 7:30 a.m., 6
p.m.; Sunday 8:30 a.m. Bat mitzvah of Jaclyn Pilcowitz,
daughter of Phyllis and Robert Pilcowitz.
AHAVAS ISRAEL (GRAND RAPIDS) .
2727 Michigan St. SE, Grand Rapids, 49506-1297,
(616) 949-2840. Rabbi: David J.B. Krishef. Cantor:
Stuart R. Rapaport. Services: Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, 7:30 a.m.; Friday, 7 p.m.; Saturday, 9:30 a.m.
BEIT KODESH
31840 W. Seven Mile, Livonia, (248) 477-8974. Cantor:
David Gutman. President: Larry Stein. Vice presidents:
Martin Diskin, Al Gittleman. Services: Friday 8 p.m.;
Saturday 9 a.m.
CONGREGATION BETH AHM
5075 W. Maple, West Bloomfield, 48322, (248) 851-
6880. Rabbi: Charles Popky. Ritual director: Joseph
Mermelstein. Rabbi emeritus: A. Irving Schnipper.
Cantor Emeritus: Shabtai Ackerman. Services: Friday 6
p.m.; Saturday 9:30 a.m., 8:30 p.m.; weekdays 7 a.m.,
7 p.m.; Sundays and civic holidays: 8:15 a.m., 5 p.m.
Bat mitzvah of Eden Faye, daughter of Stuart and Karyn
Faye. Baby naming of Raquel Serah Rosenfeld, daugh-
ter of Joel and Amy Rosenfeld.
BETH ISRAEL (FLINT)
G-5240 Calkins Road, Flint, 48532, (810) 732-6310.
Cantor emeritus: Sholom Kalib. President: Leonard
Meizlish. Services: Saturday 9:30 a.m., 6 p.m.; week-
days 7:30 a.m., 6 p.m.; Sunday and legal holidays 8
a.m., 6 p.m. Ivriah religious school (810) 732-6312.
Last Thanksgiving, my doctor yelled
appropriate enough to bring into her
at me to lose some weight. So, I've fol-
own household, how can it be appro-
priate for her to bring into hundreds of lowed the "Sugar Busters!" diet, which
has thus far worked well for me. It's a
million homes of around the world?
pretty strict diet, allowing no
Naso juxtaposes the seem-
refined sugar (among other
ingly unrelated topics of the
things). Now, if I decided to
nazir — the person who
go on this diet becaUse I
takes a vow of abstinence
began hanging out at our
from wine and other physi-
local kosher Dunkin' Donuts,
cal pleasures — and the
it would be a recipe for disas-
sotah — the wayward wife
ter. Why go on a diet and
accused of cheating on her
then specifically frequent an
husband. Rashi explains that
establishment where every
the Torah connects these
cream-filled donut screamed
two topics to teach us that,
for me to break that diet?
"anyone who views the sotah
RABBI
The same rule holds true
in her degradation should
REUVEN
in life.
abstain from wine" to pre-
SPOLTER
, If I lead. a consistent life
vent sin.
Special to the
— careful of my behavior, of
Yet, the Torah later tells
Jewish News
the company I keep and the
us that the nazir must bring
places I go — I need not
a sin offering at the end of
worry about the temptations I might
his avowed abstinence. His sin, Rashi
teaches, lies in the fact that, "he caused encounter. But if I live a carefree life,
unconcerned with my environment
himself pain by abstaining from the
and the enticements I might
pleasure of wine." So which one is it?
encounter, even if I take a vow of absti-
Does abstinence from wine prevent
nence to prevent myself from sinning,
sin, or is it inappropriate self-denial?
that abstinence is itself sinful because it
Rabbi Mordechai Cohen suggests
that it's not the vow that's problematic, speaks to an internal hypocrisy. If I
really didn't want to sin, I didn't have
but instead the need to abstain from
to become a nazir. All I had to do was--
that wine in the first place.
BETH ISRAEL (ANN ARBOR)
CONGREGATION
2000 Washtenaw Ave., Ann Arbor, 48104, (734) 665-
9897. Rabbi: Robert Dobrusin. Services: Friday 6 p.m.;
Saturday 9:30 a.m.; weekdays 7:30 p.m.; Sunday 5
p.m.
CONGREGATION BETH SHALOM
14601 W. Lincoln, Oak Park, 48237, (248) 547-7970.
Rabbi: David A. Nelson. Cantor: Samuel L. Greenbaum.
Ritual director: Rev. Samuel Semp. Services: Friday 6
p.m.; Saturday 9 a.m., 6:30 p.m.; Sunday 9 a.m., 5
p.m.; weekdays 7 a.m., 6:30 p.m.
BETH TEPHILATH MOSES
146 South Ave., Mt. Clemens, 48043, (810) 465-0641.
Services: weekdays 7:15 a.m.; Saturday 10 a.m.;
Sunday 8 a.m.
CONGREGATION B'NAI MOSHE
6800 Drake, West Bloomfield, 48322, (248) 788-0600.
Rabbi: Elliot Pachter. Cantor: Earl Berris. Services:
Friday 6 p.m.; Saturday 9 a.m., 8:45 p.m.; Monday-
Thursday 7 a.m., 6 p.m.; Friday 7 a.m.; Sunday and
legal holidays 9 a.m.; Sunday 6 p.m. Bar mitzvah of
Daniel Rosenthal, son of Barbara and Jeffrey Rosenthal.
ISAAC AGREE DOWNTOWN
SYNAGOGUE
1457 Griswold, Detroit, 48226, (313) 961-9328.
Chazan: Cantor Usher Adler. Baal Kriah: Rabbi Craig
Allen. Cantorial soloist: Neil Barris. Ritual director: Dr.
Martin Herman. President: Dr. Ellen Kahn. Services:
Saturday 8:30 a.m.
CONGREGATION SHAAREY ZEDEK
Rabbis: Joseph H. Krakoff, Jonathan E. Berkun. Rabbi .
emeritus: Irivin Groner. Cantor: Chaim Najman. Ritual
director: Leonard Gutman.
Southfield: 27375 Bell Road, Southfield, 48034, (248)
357-5544. Services: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 7:30
a.m.; Monday, Thursday 7:15 a.m.; daily 6 p.m.; Friday
6 p.m.; Saturday 8:45 a.m., 8:45 p.m.; Sunday 8:30
a.m. Bar mitzvah of Jeremy Joseph Bittker, son of
Sandra and Alan Bittker.
West Bloomfield, B'nai Israel Center: 4200 Walnut
Lake Road, West Bloomfield, 48323-2772, (248) 357-
5544. Services: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 7:15 a.m.;
Monday, Thursday 7 a.m.; daily 6 p.m.; Friday 6 p.m.;
Saturday 9 a.m., 8:45 p.m.; Sunday 9 a.m. Bar mitzvah
of David Solomon, son of Julie and Jerome Solomon.
TEMPLE ISRAEL
2300 Center Ave., Bay City, 48708; (989) 893-7811.
Cantor: Daniel Gale. President: Dr. Jonathan Abramson.
Services: Saturday 9:30 a.m. A liberal, egalitarian con-
gregation serving the tri-cities area. Religious and
Hebrew`education programs for children and adults.
INDEPENDENT
AHAVAT SHALOM
413 N. Division St., Traverse City, 49684, (231) 929-
4330. Rabbi: Chava (Stacie) Bahle. Weekly Shabbat cel-
ebrations, holidays, year round programming, children's
education. Summer programming for downstate visi-
tors.
GROSSE POINTE JEWISH COUNCIL
(313) 882-6700. Rabbi: Nicholas Behrmann. Cantorial
soloist: Bryant Frank.
JEWBILATION
P.O. Box 130014, Ann Arbor, 48103, (734) 996-3524 or
995-1963. Rev. Lauren Zinn. Services: Friday 6:15, fol-
lowing dinner. Jewish Roots with Interfaith Wings holds
bi-monthly Shabbat dinner, services, kids' programs,
family school and Hebrew school for all ages.
stop hanging around with and looking
at the sotah.
We all struggle with this lack of
inner consistency in different ways. If I
drop my kids off at temple on Shabbat
morning so that they fulfill their
requirement, but I hit the golf course
or beauty parlor, my kids get the mes-
sage. If I preach the values of kindness
to others, but never volunteer for any-
thing greater than grill duty in my own
back yard, I'm wasting my breath. If I
want to use synagogue time to connect
to God, but then hang out with the
shmoozers in the back, whom am I
really kidding?
And if I want to rid my home of the
smut on TV (a very laudable goal), but
then work on a show that's perhaps the
smuttiest of all, I fool no one but
myself. 0
Conversations
What part of my lifestyle do I
find most challenges the religious
and spiritual goals I have for
myself and my family? What
small change could I effect that
would make a difference?
ORTHODOX
AGUDAS YISROEL MOGEN
ABRAHAM
15751 W. Lincoln, Southfield, 48075, (248) 552-1971.
Rabbis: Dov Loketch, Asher Eisenberger. President:
Irwin Cohen.
ANN ARBOR CHABAD HOUSE
715 Hill St., Ann Arbor, 48104, (734) 995-3276. Rabbi:
Aharon Goldstein. Services: Friday at sundown;
Saturday 9:45 a.m., 20 min. before sundown; week-
days 7:30 a.m.; Sunday 9 a.m. Times for weekdays and
Sunday are for the academic year.
ANN ARBOR ORTHODOX MINYAN
1429 Hill St., Ann Arbor, 48014. Rabbi: Rod Glogower.
Services: Friday at sundown; Saturday 9:30 a.m. and
20 minutes before sundown; weekdays during the aca-
demic year 7:30 a.m.; Sunday 9 a.m.
BAIS CHABAD OF
FARMINGTON HILLS
32000 Middlebelt, Farmington Hills, 48334, (248) 855-
2910. Rabbi: Chaim Bergstein. Services: Friday sun-
down; Saturday 9:30 a.m.; Sunday 8:30 a.m.; week-
days 6:50 a.m.
BAIS CHABAD OF
NORTH OAK PARK
15401 W. 10 Mile, Oak Park, 48237, (248) 872-8878.
Rabbi: Shea Werner.
BETH TEFILO EMANUEL TIKVAH
24225 Greenfield, Southfield, 48075, (248) 559-5022.
Rabbi: Yisroel Menachem Levin.
SYNAGOGUES on page 58
5/28
2004
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