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Black & White Glasses

O

ne delightful thing about kids
can’t actually see the grade because your
is that the way they view the
thumb is right …”
world can be so refreshingly
Before I could finish my sentence, she’d
simple. No shades of maybe, perhaps or
snapped, “So what? My teacher said you
uncertainty, just clear-cut black
just need to sign my test; she
and white.
didn’t say I had to show you my
Once, my then 6-year-old Avi
grade.”
returned from a bike ride around
Well. There’s no arguing with
the neighborhood and told me
that, is there?
he’d seen Jeremy. Now, Jeremy’s
Recently I was having my
someone I barely know, someone
glasses adjusted by the young,
my husband barely knows. I
rather nice-looking man behind
stared at Avi for a moment, try-
the counter at the glasses
Rochel Burstyn store. He fiddled a little while
ing to work out when Avi had
met him and in which context.
I squinted around unseeingly
Finally, I asked, “Wait a second. How do
until he handed them back to me. I slid
you know Jeremy?”
the glasses on my nose and stared at
His answer was slow and deliberate:
him expectantly while he looked at me
“By his face.” (Duh, Mom! How do you
carefully this way and that before he
know anyone?)
shook his head and stuck out his hand. I
So, OK, with kids you’ve got to be
handed my glasses back for a little more
really specific.
adjusting. A few moments later, he again
Another example: It was that calm,
handed them back. I slid the glasses on,
serene and loving time that is homework and this time, as the young chickadee
hour, and my fantastic daughter Raizel
gazed deeply into my eyes, a smile spread
approached me, stuck out a sheaf of
over his face and he declared with con-
stapled papers and a pen and asked me
viction, “Perfect!”
to sign her test. I took the pen and said,
It was a shining moment; after my
“I don’t think you realize, Raizel, but I
rather heartfelt thanks, I left that store

with quite the spring in my step. (Did I
mention he was young? Did I mention
he was good-looking? And he’s evidently
extremely clever and perceptive, too!)
I figured there are benefits to seeing
the world in such a clear-cut way some-
times. Out with the cynical shades, out
with the rose-tints — long live black and
white!
Funny how it all seems to stem down
to seeing and glasses. (After all, if you
can’t see, you probably need glasses …)
Are you seeing the world in a rose-
tinted way? Is the glass half-full or
half-empty? Is the indecision (“Half-full
… half-empty … no, half-full …”) mak-
ing you glassy-eyed?
I figure everything has its place —
there are clear-as-glass benefits to view-
ing the world through those rose-tints,
but then even cynicism might have its
place, and interpreting things as simply
black and white can have its benefits, too.
Speaking of glasses, if your house has
been constructed out of it, as the say-
ing goes — don’t throw stones. And the
black-and-white, clear-cut understanding
that goes along with it is please, change
your clothes in the basement.

*

letters

EDITOR’S NOTE
The Jewish News erred when it pub-
lished the letter “Misleading ‘Non-
Partisan’ Panel” on Oct. 26. The letter
was submitted to us before the Oct.
23 event occurred and accused two
of the co-sponsoring organizations
of political bias without assessing the
program’s actual content.

SYRIAN REFUGEES
I congratulate and thank Dr. Eugene
Greenstein for his detailed, factual Oct.
27 guest column “Trump Is Right On
Syrian Refugees.” We must strongly
consider that these “refugees” are in no
way similar to the European refugees
that were absorbed in the early 1900s.
Those refugees were escaping reli-
gious persecution and came to America
to assimilate and seek freedom.
The Middle Eastern “refugees,” as
proven by the European experience,
do not seek to assimilate. A significant
number seek to impose their beliefs
on their host country.

Ed Kohl
West Bloomfield

RABBI STARR WAS RIGHT
The essay “A Response To ‘Time
To Say Kaddish For Tikkun Olam,’”
(Oct. 27, page 8) proves Rabbi Starr’s
point. When they say, “We cannot
continue to participate in a Judaism
that forces us to compromise pro-
gressive and universal values …,”
that’s a challenge to — not a com-
mitment to — Judaism.
Their values are a redefinition
of Judaism disposing of all but two
words by ignoring the reasoning
behind them. Isaiah told us that we
would be a light unto the nations,
as in enlightenment, and this was
coupled with restoring the tribes
of Jacob. Making excuses for the
contempt returned by people taking
advantage of your mitzvot brings
disrespect for our ethics, not enlight-
enment. We already have a revised
Judaism preaching love thine enemy
and forgiveness without repentance;
it’s called Christianity.
Suicide is not a Jewish mitzvah,
and defending our community is an
obligation. We can support justice

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November 10 • 2016

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