Spirituality
TORAH PORTION
Maimonides Society of Southeastern Michigan & American
Physicians Fellowship for Medicine in Israel are proud to present
0
Testing ' By God
Helps Us To Grow
'
Parshat Lech Lecha: Genesis 12:1-
17:27; Isaiah 40:27-41:16.
Ann Arbor
T
here is a story the late Reb
Noach Weinberg told about
the power and importance of
God's messages to us.
Reb Noach, the founder
of the Aish HaTorah out-
reach organization, was
once at the Kotel (Western
Wall) when he met a clearly
unobservant Jew. The man
had many tattoos and spiky
hair — his worldview did
not appear to be associated
with God and the Torah.
Reb Noach struck up a
conversation with him, and
the talk turned to Shabbos
and Jewish observance. After a while,
the man said "Rabbi, I know you want
to ask me about God, but let me tell
you, me and God — we're tight. We're
really close
Reb Noach was intrigued. Here was
a man, clearly irreligious, yet he said
he had a close connection with God!
"Why? How did that come about?" He
wanted to know.
It turned out that this man was a
serious biker from California. He had
been motorcycling along a narrow
highway one day when out of nowhere
he saw a huge semi truck headed right
toward him. It was going the wrong
way and blocking both lanes of traffic,
and he had nowhere to go.
He swerved at the last second and
went right over the edge of the high-
way, off of a cliff. The next few sec-
onds seemed like slow motion. As he
watched his bike fall away and hit the
ground in a gigantic fiery explosion,
his life flashed before him. This is the
end, he thought. This is it, I'm going to
die. I'm dead.
But he didn't die. At the last second,
he was able to grab onto a protruding
tree branch, which saved his life. As
he finished his story to Reb Noach, he
rolled up his shirtsleeve to show him
the long, deep scar he would forever
bear as a remnant of that near death
experience. "God saved my life,' the
man said simply.
`That's incredible," Reb Noach
responded. "God did save your life. I
just have one question for you: Who
do you think sent the truck in the first
place?"
In this week's Torah por-
tion, God tests Abraham
many times. Abraham is
told to get up and go far
from his birthplace and to
place his full and complete
trust in God. His wife,
Sarah, is kidnapped and
then given back. Abraham
went through 10 hard,
arduous tests.
Why? Why did God do
this to him? Why did God
have Abraham's wife taken
away and then returned? Why was he
tested so many different times?
The whole idea of the tests is actu-
ally very simple. God is not messing
with Abraham's mind. God is not play-
ing around. God wants to know how
Abraham will react. Will Abraham
come out of this difficulty a stronger
and better person?
We see this idea in recent economic
times. Thousands of people have lost
money. Did anyone who was affected
by the financial situation look at it from
`the God perspective'? How many of us
thought of the message God was send-
ing us through America's economy.
Of course, we need money. Of
course, people's lives were badly
affected. But the main point is that
God wanted to see how we would
react. Do our financial challenges, do
all of our daily challenges, make us
think and grow? Do we take the time
to see through the physical or emo-
tional hardships and think about "the
God perspective"?
If there is one lesson to learn from
Abraham, it is to grow from our chal-
lenges. Don't go through life — grow
through life! Become a super-Jew, a
super person. That's all God wants us
to do. 17
Fully Eisenberger is campus rabbi at the
Jewish Resource Center at the University
of Michigan.
P EPARIgGIFOR
13I0-TERRORISM
IN ISRAEL:
LESSONS LEARNED FROM PANDEMIC INFLUENZA
FEATURED SPEAKER
:
Dr. Dan Laor
Israel's Director of Emergency and
Disaster Management Division
Ministry of Health
Sunday, December 12, 2010
10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Adat Shalom
29901 Middlebelt Rd. • Farmington Hills, MI
This free event and brunch is for all
health care professionals
Event Chairs:
Dr. Jeffrey Forman, Dr. Joel Kahn, Dr. Elie Basse,
Dr. Robert Kelman and Dr. Jeffrey Devries
Maimonides Society Chairs:
Maimonides
Dr. Jeffrey Forman and Dr. Joel Kahn
National APF Representative:
IfSoatheastern Michigan
Dr. Jeffrey Devries
Frrlea-ulio, :47 Y,,,poiitan
Society
Hosted by:
Steven Arbit, MD
Hamid Banooni, MD
Howard Blank, MD
Marcy Borofsky, DDS
Marc Borovoy, DPM
George Blum, MD
Martin Bluth, MD
Richard Cooper, EMT
Steven Dunn, MD
Leo Eisenberg, MD
Mark Faber, MD
Robert Folberg, MD
Harold Friedman, MD
Paul Friedman, MD
Jerry Gold, DPM
Darryl Goldberg, MD
Bernie Gonik, MD
Ari Gotlib, Medical Student
Shirli Gotlib, RN
Dan Guyer, MD
Irvin Kappy, MD
Karen Kahn, RN
Howard Klausner, MD
Howard Korman, MD
Richard Krugel, MD
James Labes, MD
Harvey Lefkowitz, DPM
Steven Lefkowitz,
Medical Student
Larry Lipnik, MD
Jeffrey Maisels, MD
John Marx, MD
Bella Morgan, MD
Jeff Morgan, MD
Eduardo Phillips, MD
Judi Rapp, MD
Steven Rapp, MD
Leonard Rosen, MD
Sharon Rosen, RN
Jerry Rosenberg, MD
Steve Seidman, MD
Mitch Shek, MD
Rita Winer, RN
1627480
October 14 • 2010
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