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D
uring the summer,
A few minutes into the tour,
I took my kids go-
Yaakov realized he hadn’t quite
karting. The sight
mastered the stopping maneu-
of other adults lining up for
ver so suddenly there he was,
a turn made me feel like I
clinging on for dear life, wail-
could do it, too, so I joined
ing “Help! Help!” as he sailed
the queue with 8-year-old
past our entire group, dodging
Binyamin.
cars and people who were out
Soon the cars were rev-
Rochel Burstyn leisurely walking their dogs. Our
ving up and speeding around
kind tour guide caught up with
the course. Within seconds,
him and reset poor trembling
I realized I feel much safer
Yaakov’s Segway so it couldn’t go
when there are speed limits, traf-
faster than 5 mph, and we set off again
fic lights and drivers who are mature
(although I admit I had a much harder
enough not to aim directly at you (and
time steering after that because I was
if they do, won’t flash a rude gesture as
laughing so hard).
they pass by). Completely ill at ease, I
The uncanny thing was that when we
drove sloooooowly and carefully, allow-
got home Yaakov forgot all his fear and
ing all the other riders (and perhaps all
only remembered the exhilaration —
the caterpillars in the vicinity) to over-
he’s actually willing to try again. And
take me, while an extremely annoyed
that’s part of the wonder about stepping
Binyamin plaintively begged me to
out of your comfort zone: You discover
“Please drive faster.” It was an experi-
you can do something you didn’t even
ence I’m not eager to repeat.
know you could and that feels great!
Then, recently my husband, Yaakov,
Even when we’re not anxious to repeat
and I went on a Segway tour, something the experience, we have a newfound
we’ve never done before. We were allot-
appreciation for what we do have.
ted 20 practice minutes to get used to
Part of Sukkot is about leaving the
the sensation of being a few inches off
comfort of our homes, exposing our-
the ground and, right away, Yaakov was
selves to the elements and eating in the
zipping around the parking lot, exclaim- sukkah. It’s great fun when the weather’s
ing how fun it was while I was swerving gorgeous, but even when it’s not and
wildly this way and that, confident I’d be rain is dripping in your soup or a con-
taking a spectacular flop to the sidewalk gregation of bees are humming uncom-
any moment.
fortably close to your nostrils, trying to
get at the chocolate cake on your fork, it
still gives us that renewed appreciation
for our heated, insect-free homes.
During Sukkot, we’re looking at things
from a different perspective — from
within a temporary house — and a
different perspective somehow always
makes even the most ordinary things
more fun.
It’s like getting any mundane object
from another country — it’s the most
unexciting item on the planet, but it just
looks so exotic with a label in a foreign
language. For example, I was thrilled
when my mother-in-law gave me pack-
ages of Hebrew-labeled toothpicks and
straws when she returned from her
recent trip to Israel. (Or maybe she was
responding to my unique and meaning-
ful gift of special-from-Australia toilet
paper after my last trip overseas? But in
my defense, they had frogs printed on
them! They were so cute!)
Wishing you an extra-ordinary
Sukkot!
*
letters
Apathy And
Ignorance Are
The True ‘Trouble’
I’m writing regarding Rabbi Robert
Orkland’s Sept. 1 commentary “Trouble
In The Tribe: The American Jewish
Conflict Over Israel” (page 6) — a
review of the book of the same name by
Professor Dov Waxman.
Seeing “Israel’s occupation and settle-
ment of the West Bank” early in the
commentary alerted me that I should
have stopped reading this put-down of
Israel.
These terms are the fodder for our
enemies everywhere in the Arab world:
for Black Lives Matter (whose stated
platform is anti-Zionist and anti-Semit-
ic) and BDS (the leading worldwide Jew-
hatred vehicle).
Orkland mentions a book by Peter
Beinart as a reference without men-
tioning that Beinart has become infa-
mous in some circles for his calls for a
complete boycott of Judea and Samaria
in the hopes of forcing Israel to with-
draw and allow terrorist Hamas to fill
the vacuum.
Orkland’s “J Street, a progressive
alternative to AIPAC” gives credibility to
an organization that consistently takes
the side of Israel’s enemies.
While claiming to be pro-peace, J
Street encourages continued war by
absolving the Palestinian Arabs of all
responsibility for the death and destruc-
tion they cause.
Rabbi Orkland ends his piece with “A
critical but activist relationship to Israel,
Waxman suggests, can help bring about
changes in Israeli policy.”
Not one word in the review about
Palestinian Arab policy of murder-
ing 13-year-old Jewish girls in their
beds, relentless incitement in schools,
mosques, the media; encouraging
their children to murder Jewish chil-
dren.
He makes no mention at all of the
“Israeli policy” of unconditional negoti-
ations totally ignored by the Palestinian
Arabs while they pledge to annihilate
Israel.
The problem in our Jewish com-
munity is total apathy; ignorance of the
issues; allowing our university admin-
istrations to sit by while pro-Israel
students and visitors get demonized,
ridiculed and driven from the stage;
support of organizations like BLM and J
Street; allowing anti-Israel/anti-Semitic
school textbooks; and paying atten-
tion to the Rabbi Robert Orklands and
Professor Dov Waxmans.
Ed Kohl
West Bloomfield
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letters continued on page 10
October 13 • 2016
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