Spirituality TORAH PORTION Vo (-3 F F c i ea.- an g t tttl fie 90Ellf0.W9 HAGOPIAN CLEANING SERVICES Bring us your Oriental & Area Rugs right now, and we'll clean them for An Eye For Kindness 50% Off! Shabbat Mishpatim: Exodus 21:1- 24:18; Jeremiah 34: 8-22, 33:25-26. No, I do not want the eye of anyone rowing up, I was taught by who has hurt me in my life. Seeing my parents to be the bet- them being mocked or exduded or ter person. Whenever I was wounded won't erase my memories of hurt by someone, the message to me when I was treated that way. I would was always "two wrongs don't make a never want someone to experience pain right!' I was never led to believe that on my account, even if they caused hurting the person who hurt me would me pain. I am still young; but I am old accomplish anything besides leaving enough to have seen for myself that my me feeling even worse at the end. parents were right: What goes around As I grew and the concept of justice does come around, and we all have became more defined, they taught me enough pain and wounding coming at the same lesson in a more sophisti- us even without exact retribution. cated way. "What goes around comes If we all went through life saying around" was their mantra. I was being an insult for an insult, a cold shoulder told that not only should I not seek for a cold shoulder, we would all end revenge and stoop to the up mean and alone. That other person's level, but I is not a world I want to live didn't even have to. in, and I surely wouldn't Somehow, I was learning, want the world to become the universe itself would that way on my account. teach that person a lesson. In the end, people should It was inevitable. All I had get punished when they to do was to wait and see. It injure another or steal or gave me a modicum of com- even murder; but for those fort at the time, but I never injuries that are tougher truly believed that it would to see, we can still learn a Rabbi really happen. Would the lesson from this passage. Jennifer T. person actually feel the pain All we have to do is spin its Kaluzny that I was feeling? If some- message in a positive man- Special to the how the world did exact ner. "An eye for an eye" — if Jewish News some sort of punishment someone cares for you and on the person who caused me so much watches over you, care for them in kind. pain, would I know it? If the universe "A tooth for a tooth" — if someone visits the sins of a person upon them- cooked for you when you were sick selves and the victim of the original or in need of help, return the favor. "A offense is not there to see it, does it hand for a hand" — contribute to your really happen? I wasn't convinced. community because you never know In this week's Torah portion, we when you might be the recipient of read the famous words of "... eye for an that tzedakah. "A wound for a wound" eye, a tooth for a tooth, hand for hand, — heal this world. For every wound foot for foot; burn for burn, wound you see, do two acts of gemilut chasa- for wound, bruise for bruise" (Exodus dim, acts of lovingkindness. That is the 21:24-25). The intent of the passage, kind of exact retribution I like. 0 as the rabbis explain it, was never to be taken literally. It was never to be Jennifer Kaluzny is a rabbi at Temple Israel read or understood as actual, physical in West Bloomfield. retribution. This passage conveys the severity of bodily injury and the need for the Conversations perpetrator of such injury to be pun- What are some other ways we ished in kind. Whether that is through can turn this passage into a monetary damages or today, serving a positive message? How can prison sentence, the punishment had to we take responsibility for our fit the crime, but should not repeat it. actions? G Thru 2/10/2008 24 Hour Water and Fire Damage Response in Home Cleaning Specials 5 2 Rooms* of Carpet cleaned Rooms* of Carpet cleaned 9995 4 990 Sca-f c:, r 4995 7 I 2 Chairs* cleaned 'T Expect the best...Expect the Purfote truck! *Some restrictions apply "I -800 HAGOPIAN (424-.6742) Oak Park 8 Mile W / Coolidge Rug Care Centers Novi Birmingham Ann Arbor 12 Mile & Novi Rd S. Old Woodward N 14 1 /2 The Courtyard Shops The earth is running out -- of fresh water. Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed techniques that today enable Israel to recycle up to 60% of its wastewater, more than any other country. New Technion developments, using membranes to remove salt, promise to desalinate water at lower costs. NO CHALLENGE TOO GREAT To find out how you can participate in events email. detroit@ats.org , call (248) 737 1990 - or visit www.ats.org/water Jo Strausz Rosen, Detroit Chapter Director New Location: 30230 Orchard Lake Road, Suite 155 Farmington Hills, MI 48334 January 31 • 2008 B5