May 30 • 2019 5
jn

I 

recently went on a trip to my 
hometown (Melbourne, Australia) 
and got to spend a week with my 
folks, 90-year-old grandmother, some 
relatives I hadn’
t seen in years and 
childhood friends. It might sound 
super sappy and sen-
timental, but it’
s true: 
Every moment was a 
joy. You know how it 
is … there’
s nothing 
like reconnecting with 
loved ones in person. 
But here’
s the kicker: 
I didn’
t bring along a 
camera or phone. Yup, 
I didn’
t take a single photo on the entire 
trip.
Why? you might be wondering. 
Didn’
t I want to remember every fan-
tastic second?
Yes, of course I did. 
But I knew every other person I’
d 
come in contact with would have a 
phone or camera … So why waste my 
own time taking pictures when I could 
just say “Please email me a copy!” 
whenever someone whipped out their 
device? It enabled me to enjoy the 
moment, hands-free!
It was a great feeling. It was freeing. 
It was lovely. I felt more engaged, less 
distracted. 
(Of course, many thanks to my sis-
ters who took millions of pics and then 
sent them all on to me. So, I basically 
got my cake and a full album, too! If I 
ever print them, of course.)
It’
s a funny world we live in — just 

like with everything else, there are all 
these odd fads in the world of taking 
pictures. First there were selfies. Then 
came the kissy face, aka duck face, at 
the camera. The teenage habit of hold-
ing their fingers in a sideward V-sign 
next to their faces. The even stranger 
habit of taking pictures of your meal. 
There’
s also 
“Everyone look down, 
and then look up as the 
pic is taken so there’
s 
a cool element of sur-
prise!” and the “Let’
s 
put the camera on the 
ground, set it to take a 
pic in 10 seconds, hud-
dle together and look 
down at it!” 
In the old days, the 
most exciting we got 
was blinking exactly 
as the shutter went off. 
There are certain peo-
ple (you know who you 
are!) whose eyes are 
closed in nearly every 
old picture in an album.
Imagine if the tech-
nology we have today existed 3,000 
years ago. People would have been 
snapping closeups of Mount Sinai, 
taking selfies with Moses. Photos of the 
not-so-exciting-looking but tastes-like-
whatever-you-want manna would have 
appeared all over Instagram. Pictures 
of hearts etched in the desert sand. 
Memes of a GPS with captions like “40 
years and still wandering … I know 

men don’
t like to ask for directions, but 
maybe this thingamabob would help!” 
Folks doing Facebook Live. It would 
have been all over social media in a 
minute!
That’
s one of the amazing things 
about the entire story of the Exodus 
from Egypt and receiving the Torah. 

No cameras, no phones, no pics back 
then. It’
s been more than 3,300 years; 
it’
s many generations later and we’
re still 
talking about the events, still counting 
the days until Shavuot (which begins 
sundown on June 8) . Still commemo-
rating, still celebrating. 
Because whether there are pictures or 
not, some things are too important and 
special to ever forget! ■

continued on page 8

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letters

Rosh Chodesh Circles
I enjoyed reading Jen Lovy’
s cover story 
“Time for Renewal” (May 16, 2019), 
about some local Rosh Chodesh groups 
active in our community. Reading 
her piece made me very nostalgic. It 
reminded me of “Kedushat Hahodesh: 
Sanctifying the New Month,
” a learning 
series for women sponsored by Eilu v’
 
Eilu, the Conservative lifelong learning 
consortium here from 1996-2001. 
Each month on the Jewish calendar, 
Kedushat Hahodesh provided a Torah 
study opportunity for women, taught 
by outstanding female educators in our 
Jewish community. Among those who 
led sessions for Eilu v’
 Eilu were Ruth 

Bergman, Rabbi Lauren Berkun, Rabbi 
Michele Faudem, Nehama Glogower, 
Susan Krakoff and Rabbi Rachel Shere. 
Each month’
s study topic was 
designed to tie into the themes of that 
Jewish calendar month. In 1999, the 
group met for a number of monthly 
sessions at Borders Books & Music in 
Farmington Hills. I’
d like to think that 
this Eilu v’
 Eilu series may have played 
a role in laying the groundwork for 
today’
s array of Rosh Chodesh women’
s 
groups in our community. 
Note: Before Eilu v’
 Eilu, there was 
a Midrasha Women’
s Community 
Learning Retreat that took place at the 
Oak Park JCC on Rosh Hodesh Iyar 
in 1995. That was the precursor to 

Federation’
s Women’
s Day of Learning, 
offered in our community for a number 
of years a while back. 

Nancy F. Kaplan

West Bloomfield 

 A Call for Jewish Unity
As a people, we Jews are not unified. 
Politically, we are divided into two 
camps, with roughly 70 percent liberal 
and 30 percent conservative. In general, 
liberals detest President Trump and 
conservatives admire him. These dif-
ferences broadly follow along the lines 
of religious observance, with Reform or 
secular Jews more liberal and Orthodox 
Jews more conservative. Both sides 

Rochel Burstyn 
Contributing Writer