Moments

Kozlowski 100th
O

n April 26, 2020, Marvin Kozlowski
celebrated his 100th birthday.
Given the circumstances, he was
surrounded by his family in a less conven-
tional way — via video conference. His
wife, Edith; children, Jay (the late Linda)
(Renee), Ruthie and Joe (Jill); grandchil-
dren, Rachel, Anna (Bryan), David, Julia,
Max and Ben; and great-grandchild, Elliot,
look forward to putting on a true party
for Marvin very soon. A resident of West
Bloomfield, Marvin has packed a ton of
life into his 100 years. After surviving the
Holocaust, he and Edith reconnected in the States and were married in
1950. Together, they created a beautiful family and instilled their values
in its members. The family looks forward to celebrating more simchahs
together.
Sevy-Mizrachi
D

uring these unusual times, we
have a mitzvah to announce.
Michael Sevy, son of Cathy and
Robert Beau Sevy of West Bloomfield,
and Estie Mizrachi, daughter of Caroline
and Simon Mizrachi of Boca Raton,
Fla., were married on March 22,
2020.
They were married on the terrace at
B’
nai Torah Congregation with social
distancing being observed. The ecstatic
couple reside and work in Miami, Fla.

Babyov-Safran
T

he intermediate days of
Passover were filled with
happiness as we celebrated
our freedom and redemption and
we commemorated our new lives
post slavery. Our beautiful tradition
teaches that one’
s “cup should
overflow.” So it is with immense
gratitude, excitement and pure
happiness that we share that our cup is indeed overflowing with joy and
extraordinary enthusiasm. Esther Babyov and Hy Safran are blessed to
announce that they are engaged to be married.
The kallah (bride) is the daughter of Rabbi Sander and Sarah Babayov.
The chattan (groom) is the son of Diane Steinman and Jim Safran.
The couple intend to celebrate their marriage this summer and will
then reside together in Greater Detroit as active members of our Jewish
community.

18 | APRIL 30 • 2020

I

n this week’
s story, we discern
two ideological positions.
Both were antithetical to
everything Moses stood for.
Keep these two things in
mind:. First, the command-
ment to wear ritual fringes on
four-cornered garments (tzitzit),
serves as an introduction to and
eventual rebuttal of the
movements that Korach,
and Datan and Aviram
represent.
Secondly, Moses’

announcement that the
entire generation, except
for Joshua and Caleb, was
condemned to die in the
desert made the Hebrews
ripe for rebellion.
Korach uses the argu-
ment of “equality in holi-
ness” against Moses and
Aaron: “Why must you set
yourselves up to be on a
higher plane than the congrega-
tion of the Lord?”
Korach rejects the unique
status of Aaron and his sons
as Kohanim. He would also
deny any distinction in holiness
between different lands, refusing
to recognize the special sanctity
of the Land of Israel.
Korach rejects the priesthood
and the idea that the entire “des-
ert-generation” must be pun-
ished for their refusal to conquer
the Land of Israel. Korach’
s view:
These are false claims instituted
by Moses rather than reflections
of the true will and word of God.
Korach justifies the Israelites’

desire to remain in the desert
precisely because of the desert’
s
holiness.
Moses is willing to call
Korach’
s bluff. He instructs him
to take 250 men the next day
and to provide each of them
with a firepan and incense for a

special “priestly” offering to see
whose offering would be accept-
able to God. The Divine decision
was not long in coming: “
A fire
came down from God and it
consumed the men who were
offering the incense,
” including
Korach himself.
God wants us to establish a
nation-state and to take
responsibility to perfect an
imperfect world, with all
the challenges that entails.
This is the message of the
ritual fringes. When we
gaze upon them, we must
remember our true mis-
sion: to enter history, to
risk impurity by taking up
the challenges of the real
world and to assume our
responsibility to become a
“sacred nation and king-
dom of priest-teachers” to
the world.
Datan and Aviram had a
different agenda. They never
wanted to leave Egypt in the first
place; but unlike Korach, the
last thing they want is to remain
behind in the desert. They
would love to assimilate. They
believe that this desert fiasco jus-
tifies their earlier opposition.
They, too, are punished by
God, who causes the earth for
which their materialistic spirits
yearned so mightily to swallow
them up alive. Because of their
passion for physical pleasures,
they never learn to look properly
upon the ritual fringes. They saw
neither the royal blue of their
majestic ancestry nor the sap-
phire blue of the Divine presence
in the world summoning us to
His service.

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is chancellor of Ohr
Torah Stone and chief rabbi of Efrat,
Israel.

Parshat

Acharey Mot/

Kedoshim:

Leviticus

16:1-20:27;

Amos 9:7-15.

Rabbi Shlomo
Riskin

Spirit
torah portion

What Is Holiness?