IMMIGRATION LAW FIRM ANTONE, CASAGRANDE & ADWERS, P.C. spirit torah portion Representation in all areas of family and business immigration law. N. PETER ANTONE JEFFREY S. PITT www.antone.com or email at law@antone.com 8.JMF3E 4UFt'BSNJOHUPO)JMMT .* Ph: 248-406-4100 Fax: 248-406-4101 MENTION THIS AD FOR SPECIAL PROMOTION. Call Today For A Free Hearing Screening! Plagues: Then and Now Kristin Hinderliter, Au.D. www.hinderliterhearing.com 751 CHESTNUT, SUITE 205 UÊ BIRMINGHAM U 248.430.8425 J ust imagine sitting on the ground with your children after a long day of work, sand between your toes, looking up at the sky and seeing a dark, ominous cloud heading your way. It’s moving fast ... so fast you can hear it buzzing louder and louder as it draws near. You wrap your arms around your kids, protect- land: hungry, overworked ing them from this terrifying and destitute. When the blackness overhead. It is a waters of the Nile turned swarm of locusts, four miles to blood and the livestock long and two miles high and died and darkness fell and it’s almost here. hail rained down from This feels biblical. And it the heavens, the Israelites has been in the past — as suffered alongside their Rabbi Jennifer locusts swarmed Egypt oppressors. They may have Lader in this week’s Torah por- felt the plagues even more tion. But the story above is keenly than their Egyptian a firsthand account from neighbors living in safe, Argentina in 2016 as the sturdy homes, not to men- worst infestation of locusts in tion palaces. more than 60 years destroyed mil- In our world today, it is often the lions of acres of farmland across the most vulnerable who feel the effects country. of the choices of others. When cor- We think of the plagues as things porations put financial gain over of the past — Divine punishment the health of our planet and govern- intended to persuade our enslavers ments fail to act, when food systems to free our ancestors as they began and use of land change the livability of our climate, the poorest among us an exhaustive journey toward the suffer the most. Promised Land. Yet today our world Let us learn from the Torah, using is wrought with natural phenomena our strength to stand up for others. that feel overwhelmingly Divine. Let us learn from the Torah and There are hurricanes, extreme cold consider how our actions affect the spells, tornadoes and wildfires. There are superbugs, droughts, crop lives of those around us. Let us learn from the Torah and protect God’s failures and species extinction. creation. • The plagues of the Torah did not just affect the Egyptians. Our people Jennifer Lader is a rabbi at Temple Israel in were the most vulnerable in the Parshat Bo: Exodus 10:1-13:16; Jeremiah 46:13-28. Certifications U Osteopathic Manipulation Exploring Alternatives for Pain By Appointment Only, all appointments are private Feature your business with our new way to advertise, on our website. Three sizes to choose from with affordable pricing options. www.thejewishnews.com 34 January 18 • 2018 jn West Bloomfield.