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Experience our new Aliyah Planning Workshop

The Sound Of Tears

Shabbat Vayishlach: Genesis 32:4-
36:43; Obadiah 1:1-24.

Short /4 Long Term Aliyah Planning

Monday, December 15th • 8 - 10pm

Jewkll Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit

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"A cry is heard ...Wailing, bitter weeping
Rachel weeping for her children.
She refuses to be comforted
For her children, who are gone."

Bove are the words of
seemingly eternal suffering of our
Jeremiah, proclaimed by
nation: "Thus says the Lord,'Refrain
that great prophet of Israel
your voice from weeping, and your
as he witnessed the exile of the Jewish
eyes from tears; for your work shall
people from our land over 2,500 years
be rewarded ...There is hope for the
ago. He envisioned Rachel, Jacob's
future ... the children will return to
beloved wife, the mother of Israel,
their borders:"
weeping for her lost children.
How chilling a fulfillment of this
This is not the first time
prophecy, watching the
in the Bible that Rachel
bodies of the victims of the
cries. In our parshah this
Mumbai massacre return
week, we hear Rachel cry
for burial to the borders of
out in pain as she dies dur-
our Holy Land.
ing the birth of Benjamin.
The Zohar teaches that
We may imagine also
when the Messiah comes,
the tears that Jacob shed
he will be crowned at the
when he buried his first
grave of Rachel. He will
love, Rachel, by the road to
bring to her the news of the
Bethlehem. Centuries later,
Redemption and she will, at
Rabbi Eric
it is the grave of Rachel that
long last, be comforted. The
Grossman
Jews would visit to pour out
massacre in Mumbai makes
Special to the
their hearts to God.
salvation feel more distant
Jewish News
What is it about the image
than ever, but the image of
of Rachel's tears that has
caskets draped in Israeli
stirred the souls of generation after
flags, flown to the Jewish state aboard
generation? Is it the anguish that only
an Israeli Defense Forces aircraft offers
a mother can feel at the pain of her
a small banner of hope to our battle-
son, a life she has nurtured with her
wary people.
own body? Or perhaps it is the torment
At long last, we have a homeland to
of a parent who knows that she can-
which to return. Still, we await an end
not put an end to the suffering of her
to Rachel's tears, and to our own.
own baby? I saw it once put simply: A
mother crying for her child, it just does
Rabbi Eric Grossman is the head of school
not get worse than that.
at the Frankel Jewish Academy in West
The Jewish people heard the sound
Bloomfield.
of Rachel again last week in the cries of
2-year-old Moshe, son of Gavriel and
Rivka Holtzberg, the Chabad emissar-
Conversations
ies who were gunned down mercilessly
When Rachel gives birth, she
in Mumbai. The sight of the orphaned
names her child "Ben-Oni"
Moshe calling out for his mother in the
meaning "son of my suffer-
midst of her memorial service captured
ing." Why would Rachel want
the despair of the Jewish people at the
such a name for her son? Jacob
senseless massacre of our people that
changes the child's name to
has continued virtually without respite
"Benjamin" meaning "son of
since our inception.
my old age." What is the sig-
As if to echo the words of Jeremiah,
nificance of this change? The
an Israeli newspaper reported that the
parshah also contains the name
child had to be removed crying from
change of "Jacob" to "Israel,"
the service because"... he refused to be
meaning "One who Struggles
consoled."A child crying for his mother,
with God." How does this name
it just does not get worse than that.
reflect the destiny of the Jewish
Jeremiah foresaw an end to the
people?

15110 W. Ten Mile Rd, Oak Park

MnIti-media informotiongl !Ansion • Employment 8, Retirement in 1,,rael

Commi

FriXeS, S1:11001S (111d MOI

[(xi' obout our new 'Go North' project, offering enhonced ossistarice
pockwies foi Olin moving k) Northern bud

Foo more ittforniation owl to register www.nbn.org.il/workshops

Persona' Aliyah Meetings (h y ,,p r .intm.,n,,,,,i y )

Tuesday, December 16th

www.nbil.org ..11/ 121 • 1-866-4 -MAYAN

NefA B'Nefesh

5y- WP
Til3DI0n
We Jewish Agency for Israel

Aliyah: Live the dream
www.nbn.org.il • 1-866-4-ALIYAH

1 /1,1i

www.nbn.or9.it 1<q tv1-).b ,

SUPPORTTRO IRE

UEED

READ

USED BOOK & MEDIA SALE:

i.-0-mr-I-RmaltRtax.e.4—,

April 26-
May 3

DOI1ME USED BOOKS

*books on tape, records, videos, CDs & DUDs

Colossal Collection:
drive-thru & drop-off

Sunda's, Dec. 14, 11:00am-1:00pm

1.11mftaL.p14,0___.

Southwest Corner of Maple and Telegraph Roads, Bloomfield Hills
Additional Colossal Collections: Feb.1, March 22

additional drop-off sites:

Sarah & Ralph Davidson
Hadassah Rouse

act-'c-

Jewish Community Center
JP111 Building

5030 Orchard Lake Road
West Bloomfield
Mon.-Fri. 8am-3:30pm
(248) 683-5030

Wednesdays 10am-2pm

Until April 1
15110 W. Ten Mile, Oak Park

Until April 1

Until April 1

ALSO OPEN FOR VOLUNTEER SORTING

(248) 967-4030

JN

to volunteer or for questions:
(248) 64S-7840, ext. 36Sa:'1.4. www.bookstock.info

A community service project: proceeds to benefit education, donations tax deductible as allowed by law

December 11. 2008

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