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October 29, 2009 - Image 40

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 2009-10-29

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

Spirituality

TORAH PORTION

Lech Lecha: An
Improbable Journey

Parshat Lech Lecha: Genesis 12:1-
17:27; Isaiah 40:27-41.

A

BC World News
tern of many people who
announces,
left Haran and headed
"Michelle Obama
to Canaan. Canaan was
has traced her family tree
on the route to Egypt
and her roots lie in slav-
and Egypt was in ancient
ery. From the low country
times what Manhattan is
cabins of South Carolina
to us today, a destination
to the White House, it
for opportunity.
has been an improbable
If Abraham can get
journey.
to
Canaan, if Michelle
Rabbi Tamara
The words descend on
Obama
can get to the
Kolton
me like rain after a long
White
House,
then think
Special to the
drought. They bring sur-
of
the
enormous
potential
Jewish News
prise, relief and the pos-
for change that defines
sibility for transformation. Sitting
us today. Surely, we can figure out
alone in my living room watching
health care. Maybe we can even put
the newscast, I find myself over-
an end to the brutality of famine.
whelmed with emotion and I begin
If we are to survive as a species
to weep.
with nuclear weapons and toxic
I weep for all
waste, we are
the children who
going to need to
have been bruised
continue to "Lech
and abused in
Lecha' "to go
body and spirit.
forth:' into new
I weep for their
possibilities for a
fathers who tried
better world. We
to protect them
are going to need
in vain. I weep
to pull off many
for their mothers
more improbable
and their grand-
journeys.
mothers who were
Perhaps
raped and humili-
Michelle Obama is
ated.
the beginning of
Most of all, I
many new stories.
weep for the grati-
Perhaps gen-
tude that I feel
erations from now
because of this
people will trace
story and what it represents.
their roots back to us and be proud
Is it possible that we have broken
of what they discover.
the barrier of hate? Is it possible
This is the work that will define our
that we, as a society in the United
generation.
States, have grown from a place of
deep fear of the other to acceptance
Tamara Kolton is rabbi at the Birmingham
and even appreciation? It indeed has Temple in Farmington Hills.
been an improbable journey.
This week's Torah portion is Lech
Lecha, which literally means "Go
forward" or "You will go:' In the
Conversations
text, Abraham takes his family and
Are we proud of our deeds as
leaves the place of his birth. He is
we "go forth" into the future?
promised a new land where he will
In terms of race relations, have
prosper and be part of a great gen-
we as a country reached the
eration.
"Promised Land"?
In fact, he is following an ancient
trade route that mirrors the pat-

If Abraham can
get to Canaan, if
Michelle Obama
can get to the White
House, think of the
enormous potential
for change that
defines us today.

40

October 29 • 2009

Listen To JPS Audio Bible
On Podcasts And iTunes
Philadelphia, Pa. — For the first
time, the new JPS translation of
the Jewish Bible, the JPS Tanakh, is
available in audio format. Produced
and recorded for the Jewish
Publication Society (JPS) by JBI
International over the course of 12
months, this groundbreaking project
— known as JPS Tanakh: The Jewish
Bible, audio version — features 60
hours of readings by 13 narrators.
They included stage and TV
actors, radio personalities, teachers
and voiceover talents. Special guests
such as actor and singer Theodore
Bikel, TV and Broadway actress
Tovah Feldshuh, and best-selling
authors Bruce Feiler and Rabbi
Harold Kushner also contributed
their talents.
"For many years JPS had been
hoping to produce an audio version
of its Bible. The 1917 JPS translation
is in audio, but not the 1985 transla-
tion, which is the version everyone
reads today:' says JPS COO and pub-
lishing director Carol Hupping.
"We were delighted when JBI
agreed to record for us. It was the
only organization we considered
working with because of its new,
state-of-the-art studios and, more

importantly, because of the expert
care its staff would give to every
aspect of production: the right
mix of voices, timing, sound, and
pronunciation of all those Hebrew
names!
"Like so many important projects,
the work was more involved than
anyone anticipated. But it was worth
it; the JPS Tanakh Audio Bible is sure
to become a classic."
Beginning with the new cycle on
the holiday of Simchat Torah, JPS
features free podcasts of the weekly
Torah readings all year long on its
Web site: www.jewishpub.org/books/
audiobible. In addition, the entire
audio Bible will be available soon for
purchase through the JPS Web site,
Audible and iTunes, and through
many public libraries' online access
programs.
JBI, the world's largest library
of talking books of Jewish inter-
est for the visually impaired, blind,
and reading-disabled of all ages
and backgrounds, will offer the
entire recording free to the visually
impaired and blind. More informa-
tion on the JBI Library is available
at www.jbilibrary.org .
JPS, a nonprofit organization, is
the oldest publisher of Jewish works
in English, including the JPS Tanakh.

Yeshiva U. Talmudic Scholar
At Young Israel Of Oak Park
Rabbi Hershel Schachter, a noted
talmudic scholar and rosh yeshivah
(head of the rabbinical school) at
Yeshiva University
in New York, will
speak at 8 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 7,
at Young Israel
of Oak Park. His
talk is open to the
entire community.
Rabbi
The rabbi's topic
Schachter
is "Honest to God:
Living Our Lives
with Integrity."
Schachter, who became an
assistant to the late Rabbi Joseph
B. Soloveitchik at age 22 and the
youngest rosh yeshiva at RIETS
(Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological
Seminary) at age 26, will visit
Detroit for the weekend. His stops
include a talk for parents and chil-
dren at Yeshivat Akiva in Southfield
at 8:30 a.m. Sunday and a 10:30 a.m.
discussion that morning at Young
Israel of Oak Park about the halachic

implications of genetic engineering.
Schachter is known for his ability to
translate complex legal ideas for a
lay audience.
Aside from his duties at RIETS,
Schachter, 68, also serves as head
of RIETS' Marcos and Adina Katz
Kollel (Institute for Advanced
Research in Rabbinics), holding the
institution's Nathan and Vivian Fink
Distinguished Professorial Chair in
Talmud. He is the senior halachic
authority in the kashrut division of
the Orthodox Union and a prolific
writer and lecturer on subjects rang-
ing from Jewish divorce to conver-
sion.
Tickets for the Saturday evening
event, sponsored by Mr. and Mrs.
Steven Cohen in memory of their
fathers, are $20, and include mela-
vah malkah, a light meal to usher
out Shabbat. RSVP by Nov. 3 by call-
ing Young Israel of Oak Park at (248)
967-3655. The synagogue is at 15140
W. 10 Mile, just east of Greenfield.
Schachter's visit is co-sponsored
by the National Council of Young
Israel.

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